tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post7926562606957215783..comments2024-03-24T12:55:07.300-04:00Comments on grounded design by Thomas Rainer: Nature in the Future Will Look More Like a GardenAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-32189190922500385782013-04-18T20:53:05.990-04:002013-04-18T20:53:05.990-04:00If this is going to happen in the future, well I c...If this is going to happen in the future, well I can't wait for it to come..Cindyhttp://cindyhelens.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-41431286268280107442013-04-11T17:53:05.570-04:002013-04-11T17:53:05.570-04:00I have an eye for these flowering plants and leave...I have an eye for these flowering plants and leaves; they seem to be the best choice for landscape and gardens. <br />masonry danville cahttp://www.riedelprecisionlandscaping.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-80333599755167471202013-02-17T05:14:25.142-05:002013-02-17T05:14:25.142-05:00we really enjoyed your article, thanks for sharing...we really enjoyed your article, thanks for sharing and more power!Pest Control Oregonhttp://www.columbiapestcontrol.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-71309634690038280682013-02-12T23:06:53.317-05:002013-02-12T23:06:53.317-05:00Beautiful gardens have for centuries been an impor...Beautiful gardens have for centuries been an important part of landscape design. For your own landscape, you can make a garden that will delight the senses and add value to your home.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.valleygardenlandscapes.com.au/design.php" rel="nofollow">Landscape Contractors</a>TheExpertVGLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01105359030923885100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-84281392647605470052013-02-04T12:16:38.566-05:002013-02-04T12:16:38.566-05:00One of the many challenges of living in an industr...One of the many challenges of living in an industrial and technologically biased world is that we, the ecological warriors, often go to battle in an army of one. In the same spirit as "He who saves one life, saves the world", those of us who plant and tend one garden, may save the planet. allanbecker-gardenguruhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00249183285802762125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-85455353555236475942013-01-30T13:16:21.339-05:002013-01-30T13:16:21.339-05:00I too touched on these ideas a while back when poi...I too touched on these ideas a while back when pointing out that what so many perceive as the wilderness of the West, the great national parks and national forests, are heavily managed and edited, and very expensively contrived and maintained as 'nature.' This was in response to my local government's direction that I maintain my property as 'natural,' with the warning that the City did not want to "see a landscape" in my backyard...it begs the question, how can I emulate nature, without creating a landscape? When visitors first look out onto what amounts to my backyard, most if not all have asked, 'so, do you have any plans for your yard?' This is at once comical and complimentary, as I have created a landscape that is difficult to see (at least to the non-gardener's eye). Those romantic painters conveniently left the railroads and mills of the Hudson Valley out of their art, Yellowstone is roads and vast parking lots on top of an attractively landscaped volcano, and the naturalists of the early 1800's catalogued the weeds and invasives left behind by their immediate predecessors here in the Pacific NW. Nature has looked like a garden for quite a while...but you are absolutely correct that if we want nature, we are going to have to continue to garden it. She can't fend for herself without the gardener's help.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-74662700159274392632013-01-29T07:33:05.156-05:002013-01-29T07:33:05.156-05:00Such a prescient post...all the more so by our cal...Such a prescient post...all the more so by our call to care. And a great follow-up to the New Romanticism post. Good design recognizes time and change, and gardening the design is all about the art of care. We are post Industrialism and our science has long since moved from Baconian division of man vs. nature, subduer vs. subdued, pristine wild vs. place for mankind. I'm not sure, though that our sentimentality has entirely made the transition. Interpreting and introducing nature to our urban, suburban, and rural gardening is the path toward caring for and interacting with the environment that is.Kristin (LandFieldSky)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14087595335599251060noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-85486522071818364462013-01-25T17:38:25.483-05:002013-01-25T17:38:25.483-05:00Thanks for this wonderful post. So many thought-po...Thanks for this wonderful post. So many thought-points to research further. Annahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02547423733305841662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-336998994630959032013-01-24T12:47:51.394-05:002013-01-24T12:47:51.394-05:00Hey Alex!
Over time, maintenance is design and de...Hey Alex!<br /><br />Over time, maintenance is design and design is maintenance, right? When you look at a garden or landscape and stretch it over a few decades, the line between maintenance and design only blurs. <br /><br />Your point of view on maintenance is a great one, and one that should be more a part of the conversation.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-27091791957099858862013-01-24T12:46:03.765-05:002013-01-24T12:46:03.765-05:00Yes! Great points.
I think the fact that the v...Yes! Great points. <br /><br />I think the fact that the very concept of "wilderness" or "baseline ecosystem" is slippery is not a bad thing; the complexity adds to the richness of this conversation. The dialogue should be elevated.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-63498287936020322582013-01-24T12:39:43.275-05:002013-01-24T12:39:43.275-05:00Great point. Here in the states, some of the most...Great point. Here in the states, some of the most revered and iconic ecosystems (American prairie, long-leaf pine savanna, piedmont prairie, grassy balds) were likely created by native Americans burning to improve navigation and hunting. <br /><br />Or here in the east coast, a relatively recent study concluded that our concept of a natural stream (a winding line of water moving in a channel) is actually a pretty anthropogenic concept, a remnant of hundreds of old mill dams built in the 17th century. Actual streams in the piedmont were more like swamps than streams--big muddy seeps that stretched over a forest floor. <br /><br />Wilderness is indeed a slippery concept.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-83228329713107927632013-01-24T08:04:11.424-05:002013-01-24T08:04:11.424-05:00Thank you for including the issue of garden mainte...Thank you for including the issue of garden maintenance. Whether the garden is made up of exotic ornamentals or naturally occurring species (or both!), the landscape must be managed so that the garden designer's vision is reveled.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08475048409204172730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-45512757895114020632013-01-24T05:12:20.206-05:002013-01-24T05:12:20.206-05:00How wonderful to have someone come out and say it ...How wonderful to have someone come out and say it - there are such myths about the "natural". Our "traditional British countryside" is a case in point - the lovely rolling hills and stone walls of the Dales or Wales are the product of Man interacting with and shaping the environment. I remember standing on the top of a mountain in Scotland some years ago and looking out over the wonderful rolling landscape, and pondering the fact that a couple of hundred years ago the sides of those mountains would have been covered in thick pine forest - all cleared, to allow sheep to graze. Now we campaign to keep the countryside the way it is - and while I am all in favour of re-introducing hedges and cutting down on the mowing of road verges to encourage more wildlife, and love the work that Nigel and others are doing because it might help the pollinators we so desperately need while not costing the councils that have to fund it more, we really need to be clearer about what we mean when we talk about "preserving our wild spaces". Which version of them? How many of the species that have made their way in to our landscape over the centuries have now earned the right to be thought of as natives, and how may should be destroyed as evil invaders?Janet/Plantaliscioushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15605580157193047780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-15291782392283915022013-01-23T20:00:35.684-05:002013-01-23T20:00:35.684-05:00I think we need also to be careful about what is r...I think we need also to be careful about what is really 'wilderness' and what is an illusion of wilderness. I remember marvelling at the thick forests of NE USA only to see an early photograph of the same countryside, completely cleared of trees by the mid 19th century. Is that regrowth really 'wilderness'?<br />We have similar issues here in Australia - we prize our huge eucalypt forests as wilderness & fight to preserve them, & yet many paintings from the colony's early days show a completely different open woodland landscape, cleared by regular Aboriginal burning. We tend to romanticise thick, impenetrable growth as wilderness, and think everything else is from human (mis)management.<br />So many soils have now been ploughed, 'improved' & generally made unsuitable for a lot of endemic vegetation & so many imported pests have decimated local species, that sensible combinations & compromises with indigenous, cultivar & exotics plants are the only truly sustainable conclusion. But I would mourn those great, dark, hemlocks too.Catherine Stewarthttp://gardendrum.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-11380074014342389162013-01-23T10:22:23.854-05:002013-01-23T10:22:23.854-05:00Yes, I agree. Your wording is more accurate to wh...Yes, I agree. Your wording is more accurate to what I meant. Not a war on nature, but the battle for. Thanks for that clarification.<br /><br />Great blog by the way. It's great to connect with another local advocate!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-21155326737517688122013-01-23T10:20:02.339-05:002013-01-23T10:20:02.339-05:00Deborah,
Nothing makes my blood boil like municip...Deborah,<br /><br />Nothing makes my blood boil like municipalities cracking down on gardens because they don't fit into some kind of community ordinance. It's the worst kind of bureaucratic narrow mindedness. Keep up the good fight!<br /><br />The work of Hitchmough and Dunnett tries to address the issue of public aesthetic sensibilities. They use 'pictorial meadows' that rely on thousands of annual wildflowers that make the more sustainable plantings they do more palatable to the general public. THAT to me is the future. Native plant advocates and nature-lovers need to return to ornamental horticulture to learn how to create hybrids between naturalistic and ornamental plantings. If we can do that, we can make a sensible alternative to these narrow minded bureaucratic restrictions. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-25641361494866874602013-01-23T10:14:37.445-05:002013-01-23T10:14:37.445-05:00Ooh, I don't know. Have you seen landscapes e...Ooh, I don't know. Have you seen landscapes emerge fresh in spring after a burn? Can be pretty fabulous. <br /><br />Burning only makes sense for very specific landscapes--not ornamental gardens. But if burning is a means that a budget-dry public agency can have a gorgeous meadow instead of lawn or invasive-riddled weed lots, then I'm not sure it's really a step backwards.<br /><br />What's more 'deviant' than fire?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-34462351620517903832013-01-23T10:09:18.605-05:002013-01-23T10:09:18.605-05:00That's interesting, Matt. 'Gardening'...That's interesting, Matt. 'Gardening' to me introduces the human, but perhaps it can also erase as well? It changes the way I've thought of gardening, but since we are talking about these hybrid nature/garden zones in human dominated landscapes, perhaps your point is more accurate.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-44589754190337150192013-01-23T10:07:10.899-05:002013-01-23T10:07:10.899-05:00Georgina,
Thanks for the kind comments. If you o...Georgina,<br /><br />Thanks for the kind comments. If you only knew the boring topics that were rolling around in my head . . . <br /><br />Your meditation is lovely. I completely agree. 'Respect' is a great word. It puts this topic into the context of a relationship. That's exactly where it needs to be.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-64829532123564117152013-01-23T10:06:21.569-05:002013-01-23T10:06:21.569-05:00Did you really mean a "war on nature" in...Did you really mean a "war on nature" in the last paragraph, or did you mean the battle FOR nature? <br /><br />I am not sure any gardener thinks of that they are in a war on nature -- although admittedly you do hear people say they are battling weeds all the time. And we argue among ourselves as gardeners all the time about the ecological impacts of various weed removal techniques (how organic is organic? how damaging is it to use chemicals to remove invasives, etc.) But war *on* nature? I think many environmental groups see themselves as being in a war *for* the good of nature. Not upon it. Maybe it was just a typo, but actually it really brings up something interesting to ponder. It is no different in tone, sometimes, than religious disagreements. I have been in meetings where it felt as if people were battling for the good of nature's soul, or the souls of our backyards. And a LOT of lectures sound like preaching. Which can be either inspiring or tiresome, depending on whether or not one agrees or disagrees with the speaker. But there's definitely a spiritual aspect to many parts of the whole gardening world right now for many participants/gardeners. <br /><br />This is the first time I've read a post by you. Thanks for the thought provoking words.Alison Gillespiehttp://whereyouareplanted.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-38434403596304252582013-01-23T02:31:13.737-05:002013-01-23T02:31:13.737-05:00Unfortunately, public aesthetic sensibilities do n...Unfortunately, public aesthetic sensibilities do not always allow for a great deal of biodiversity. Swaths of uniformity, as in the still-preferred turf patches, are more easily accepted than mixed meadows containing more than a few species...no matter how beautiful. In Toronto, Ontario, the local government has even segregated "natural gardens" in several bylaws from more acceptably uniform plantings with some departments (eg.Parks) encouraging them while others (bylaw enforcement) working hard to stamp out individual plots of subversive native plant gardens...mine included.Deborah Dhttp://www.verdigrow.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-55873128118790211032013-01-23T00:05:41.766-05:002013-01-23T00:05:41.766-05:00Control burning as a means of garden maintenance i...Control burning as a means of garden maintenance is a step backwards not forwards. <br /><br />Deviant Deziner, aka Michellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10469269749640113223noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-57238961555377644082013-01-22T23:23:42.949-05:002013-01-22T23:23:42.949-05:00One could argue that the very act of gardening is ...One could argue that the very act of gardening is removing the human induced changes of the landscape. Maybe it doesn't make it pristine but they very act of gardening out the negative changes that man is responsible for, we are creating a new kind of cohabitation with the land between "virgin and whore." Great article!! Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18215760551977917028noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-38268248653840563962013-01-22T21:16:43.060-05:002013-01-22T21:16:43.060-05:00Thomas - I love your blog. Insightful, interesting...Thomas - I love your blog. Insightful, interesting and often challenging. I especially enjoyed this post.<br /><br />I struggle with this topic in my head on a regular basis (boring, huh!). I used to be very much about protecting wild areas, restoring native bushland to how it 'used' to be but have since realised that doing this is the same, in a way, as not doing anything at all. It is still humans changing an environment, one way or the other. <br /><br />I am still fleshing out my ideas on this topic, and I suspect I will be for a long while yet! Recently, however, I have been thinking about the word 'respect' in relation to nature. I have a feeling that if we encourage people to respect plants, landscape and our surrounding environment, to see it not as something to be conquered but something of importance and value, we may be able to readjust the balance of power in the culture - nature marriage. I think sometimes we forget just how much we need Ms Nature, how we couldn't live without her, we need her yet we forget to love her...<br /><br />Anyway, enough rambling! Like you, I am filled with much optimism about the future of our relationship with nature. I feel like we are on the path to something akin to respect, and if so this could lead to a number of positive outcomes including the retention and protection of wilderness (I'm not ready to let go entirely yet!), a higher value given to public green spaces, and most importantly, more people growing plants, seeing their beauty and understanding their extremely important contribution to our existance. <br /><br />Georgina Reidhttp://www.reidandfriends.com.aunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8850578816787718159.post-23160355586147166422013-01-22T13:15:51.594-05:002013-01-22T13:15:51.594-05:00I mourn, too. And I certainly wasn't advocati...I mourn, too. And I certainly wasn't advocating for turning our backs on our last (semi) wild spaces. There's still a valuable role for conservation and preservation. In fact, we should probably double down on those efforts. <br /><br />I love your blog, by the way. I signed up and followed you on Twitter. Looking forward to reading more!<br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13805682623764800983noreply@blogger.com