tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post3765397800362458145..comments2024-03-24T12:55:07.300-04:00Comments on grounded design by Thomas Rainer: The Most Ambitious Public Planting Ever?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-49576153097140478832013-04-19T22:41:07.290-04:002013-04-19T22:41:07.290-04:00Kerbing - Add beauty and value to your landscape b...<a href="http://www.brisbanekerbing.com.au" rel="nofollow">Kerbing</a> - Add beauty and value to your landscape by having continuous concrete garden edging. Numerous Kerbing Designs avaliable.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-73299253894802498432013-03-07T10:11:32.290-05:002013-03-07T10:11:32.290-05:00Brisbane Kerbing - Add beauty and value to your la...Brisbane Kerbing - Add beauty and value to your landscape by having continuous concrete garden edging. Numerous Kerbing Designs avaliable.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-20391415011017860712013-02-12T14:44:21.331-05:002013-02-12T14:44:21.331-05:00Wow! This garden is so amazing! The result is so s...Wow! This garden is so amazing! The result is so splendid; it gives me the impression that the people behind this are truly talented. I hope more of these gardens will be exposed to the public, not just for sight-seeing but also to promote the importance of having plants in the community. :)<br /><br />-- <a href="http://www.crenshawlandscapes.com/" rel="nofollow">Shona Martinez</a>Shona Martinezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00652206669288876458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-6566121524485515332012-10-11T23:39:16.491-04:002012-10-11T23:39:16.491-04:00I found your website the other day and after readi...I found your website the other day and after reading a handful of posts, thought I would say thank you for all the great content. Keep it coming! I will try to stop by here more often.http://www.linkedin.com/company/2718426http://www.linkedin.com/company/2718426noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-76071310017460193842012-08-23T12:03:27.625-04:002012-08-23T12:03:27.625-04:00I went over for the Olympics, and it all looked ve...I went over for the Olympics, and it all looked very nice having matured slightly. Some of it wasn't entirely to my taste, but it's a darn side better than what was there before!<br /><br />Simon @AmbiusAmbiushttp://www.ambius.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-42289523178953629172012-07-12T18:25:33.865-04:002012-07-12T18:25:33.865-04:00It'll be interesting to see how it turns out -...It'll be interesting to see how it turns out -- thanks for a insightful post!<br /><br />I've been interested in the ecological approaches of European plant/garden designers in England, The Netherlands, and Germany for awhile -- remarkably innovative, especially in the use of North American natives! And I'm looking forward to garden-visiting this fall in Germany and The Netherlands -- can't wait.Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06657232418012801175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-17761381627089013282012-07-05T12:12:21.143-04:002012-07-05T12:12:21.143-04:00Who knows,maybe in a few years they will call on B...Who knows,maybe in a few years they will call on Beth Chatto to transform the parking lot.Charlie Sheenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18178455986860531087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-30508525873804916932012-07-04T22:43:33.981-04:002012-07-04T22:43:33.981-04:00Brilliant post Thomas! Your insights are so spot ...Brilliant post Thomas! Your insights are so spot on, that I think you should have been selected to plant and design the London Olympic Park. When are we going to see more of your designs in the high profile venues that they deserve!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-58603581470610184052012-07-04T08:03:50.123-04:002012-07-04T08:03:50.123-04:00I like seeing the walkway through the annual meado...I like seeing the walkway through the annual meadow in the second picture above, since I think the aesthetic and emotional impact of a meadow would only be fully realized by moving/pushing/brushing through it. You wouldn't just want to look at it from the edge. (The romantic in me would like the walkway to be a close, single-file dirt path -- not practical in a park, I know.) I hope all of the pictorial meadows allow for at least a little tactile contact from the inside.<br /><br />The park sounds wonderful. I am going to start looking for more on the Sheffield School and Sarah Price.Cindy at enclos*urehttp://enclosuretakerefuge.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-78338883535834498982012-07-04T06:27:42.981-04:002012-07-04T06:27:42.981-04:00Good. Let us know when judgement can be officiall...Good. Let us know when judgement can be officially dispensed.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-40574428757226739842012-07-03T12:19:35.311-04:002012-07-03T12:19:35.311-04:00Absolutely agree with all your points. However, he...Absolutely agree with all your points. However, here, budgets are split into construction and ongoing maintenance; replanting invariably falls outside of these!<br />Massing, mixing strips and rivers, we need it all - setting is everything.<br />I hope to get over to see what Nigel has done in the Olympic Park later this summer. The photos so far published do not really allow any judgement to be made.Michael Kinghttp://www.perennialmeadows.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-31909833649686599372012-07-03T09:02:09.253-04:002012-07-03T09:02:09.253-04:00Michael,
The scale and context of perennial strip...Michael,<br /><br />The scale and context of perennial strips have to be right. Oudolf's massive river of salvia was 8m wide at some points and was a singular gesture that cut through and entire field of more intricate perennials. That had scale and power. And I also agree that there is a kind of agricultural beauty of production beds like tulips or even perennials where a rigid geometry creates bold patterning (similar to seeing the patterns of agriculture from a plane). What works in both Oudolf's strip or production beds is either the massive scale of the patterning or the contrast against a non-pattern. <br /><br />It's hard for me to make judgements about this park since I have not seen it in person (but here goes), but it appears to be a lot of thin strips of perennials (1-3m wide), stacked up one top of each other. Some of the strips are only 5-8 plants wide. I'm skeptical. Perhaps there are other areas where the strips contrast against a larger field of mixed perennials. I can imagine that could be more effective. But I see a lot of landscape architects who want to create some kind of graphic patterning with plants without really understanding how it reads on a site. And without understanding how a geometric pattern is maintained over time.<br /><br />I have no issue with massing perennials together in monocultural blocks for the sake of legibility and maintenance. In fact, I have found few other techniques that hold up over time. I just question the scale and context of these strips. <br /><br />A great comment, by the way. I always enjoy the exchange with you. It stretches me.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-66646640475899767142012-07-03T05:41:58.096-04:002012-07-03T05:41:58.096-04:00Thomas,
Don't be too quick to dismiss strip pl...Thomas,<br />Don't be too quick to dismiss strip planting. I use it often to bring structure to otherwise mixed perennial planting and I like the results. You, after all, recently praised Oudolf salvia rivers - when does a strip become a river? - all a mater of scale I suppose.<br />One of the most beautiful perennial gardens I ever saw was more than 25 years ago during my first visit to Ernst Pagels' nursery. What I was looking at was not a garden, but his production beds; perennials growing in rows, but arranged with an artist's eye.<br />Strips of one species are also easier to maintain than mixed plantings which contributes dramatically to the durability of perennial plantings in my experience.<br />Great post.<br />Thanks,<br />MichaelMichael Kinghttp://www.perennialmeadows.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-2608810288724742352012-07-02T12:53:49.032-04:002012-07-02T12:53:49.032-04:00Totally agree. I wish there would be more of a mo...Totally agree. I wish there would be more of a movement here in the States do do ecological planting that is drop-dead gorgeous. We have ecologists and horticulturists, but the two disciplines rarely talk to each other. It's one of my personal passions: showing how ecological plantings can be rich and beautiful as well. We CAN have it all. We just need the right designers.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-63239593223029045982012-07-02T12:49:03.946-04:002012-07-02T12:49:03.946-04:00Yeah, she's one of my favorites as well. Her ...Yeah, she's one of my favorites as well. Her style is actually not that over-the-top. Kinda subtle and delicate. But she uses these wonderfully wiry sculptural plants and layers them vertically to create these airy, moody palettes. Very sophisticated stuff.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-91144700106264306532012-07-02T12:46:42.315-04:002012-07-02T12:46:42.315-04:00Susan,
From what I understand, most of it was pl...Susan, <br /><br />From what I understand, most of it was planted last year (or at least earlier this year), so it should be a pretty good year for it. Year three always seems to be the glory year for perennials--at least in my bit of experience. Yeah, I've never been entirely satisfifed with geometric arrangements of loose plants like perennials or shrubs. Clipped hedges, I like, and of course architectural elements like walls and edgings make great geometric features. But plants don't seem to pattern that well. And the effect of patterning makes the space feel smaller to me instead of expansive. If a geometric pattern is done, it needs to use really wide, ample thickness for the pattern to read and have impact. Landscape architects do this striping thing all the time, and it rarely has the graphic effect that it has on paper.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-31798383869795970572012-07-02T09:10:32.897-04:002012-07-02T09:10:32.897-04:00Abso stunning! Nice to see the combination of prof...Abso stunning! Nice to see the combination of professionals/academics who have artistic and horticultral science smarts support and create beautfiully designed spaces that are more than just eye candy.<br />Bravo to their ingenuity and fearlessness to create spaces(ecologically) right and visually seductive!Cannot wait to see this post the Olympics.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-85554182724163153242012-07-02T08:30:58.258-04:002012-07-02T08:30:58.258-04:00I came to the realization a few months ago that ga...I came to the realization a few months ago that gardens I had been admiring in magazines were all Sarah Price. Love her! <br /><br />I had read about the Olympic Park, but hadn't seen photos until this post. I'm now calculating how soon I can make a trip to the UK to see it for myself...katynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-8117415792210071502012-07-02T08:13:47.662-04:002012-07-02T08:13:47.662-04:00Thomas, what a great post. I shared it on my FB pa...Thomas, what a great post. I shared it on my FB page and just noted that I agreed with much of your thoughts. For example...geometry and perennials as shown in the photo <br />Clipped hedges and rather unconvincing "strips". However, the information was very interesting and I would love to see the park when completed. (Or maybe since it has a lot of perennials, a year or two later.)Susan Schlengerhttp://www.landscape-design-advice.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-21984959305816064292012-07-02T06:25:21.471-04:002012-07-02T06:25:21.471-04:00Yes, all three of the landscape architects are wor...Yes, all three of the landscape architects are worthy of knowing. Hitchmough and Dunnett for their combination of ecological restoration and horticulture in urban sites; Price for her artistic and atmospheric plantings. Three people worth following.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-52896181105572211852012-07-02T06:10:04.987-04:002012-07-02T06:10:04.987-04:00Very interesting post. I did not know any of thes...Very interesting post. I did not know any of these designers, but it sounds like I should. Great that this park is not all lawn and trees!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com