Garden Chick's Design Tips

An artist, a neurosurgeon and a garden designer walk into a bar…

And probably grab a table and order a round of drinks. But the question is, why are they hanging out together in the first place?  It turns out they have more in common than you might think.

In their August issue, Psychology Today reports on the exotic field of neuroaesthetics, which is seeking to determine why we respond to art the way that we do.  According to the article, art makes use of certain visual tricks that engage our brains in a variety of specific ways.  So what we describe vaguely as beauty or creativity can in part be explained by how our brains process visual information.

The article shares 10 perceptual principles of great art, but I’ll just touch on a few.

The Peak Shift Effect occurs because our brain responds more eagerly to exaggerations and distortions than to real world people and objects. Why? Because this helps us recognize things, thereby hyper-stimulating our senses.  A Picasso that exaggerates distinctive elements is attractive to us in part because it makes it easier for us to recognize what it is. 

Picasso's self portrait may appeal because it makes it easier to recognize him.

And isn’t that the essence of a garden?  A garden is not a replica of the natural environment, but instead is an intentionally artificial construct that exaggerates many of the elements we enjoy in nature.  It may take its cues from the natural world, but its more orderly form and visually distinct spaces are exactly what makes it pleasing to us.

The Peekaboo Principle plays upon the fact that we enjoy a visual mystery and often respond to art that lets us fill in some of the blanks for ourselves. (The same principle applies to erotica, but that’s a post for another type of blog.)  An artistic example of this is  Cezanne's paintings of Mont Sainte-Victoire, where the mountain is implied, but it is up to us to fill in the missing space.

Garden designers employ this same principle when they reveal part of a view, or create the sense that something interesting is happening just around the corner, creating a little puzzle that engages us more deeply in the space.  In my designs, I like to give the impression that a garden exists beyond its actual borders. A simple means of accomplishing this is to extend the backyard a few feet around the edge of the house, encouraging the eye to believe there is more to be discovered, even if the reality is a utilitarian concrete slab home to to compost bins and garden rakes.

So if some of you are thinking all you need to do now is find out what the other eight principles are and Presto! you’re a great artist, or if like me your first thought was whether two years of design school was educational overkill, it’s probably a bit more complicated. By hooking up subjects to MRI machines and testing their response to great art vs. kitch, neuroscientists are currently conducting experiments to determine if our brains can perceive a difference between great art and schlock.

In the meantime, I’m getting back to my current design and focusing heavily on principle number eight, Repetition, Rhythm and Orderliness with a little Grouping and Generic Perspective thrown in for good measure.

If the 50 Foot Woman had a Garden...

It might look something like this:

I visited my friend Maureen over the weekend and took this photo of volunteer sunflowers next to her patio - with thanks to her husband Jean Michel for stepping in to provide some scale. 

Maureen believes a recent rash of disappearing plants is due to gophers.

Me? I think these 15' sunflowers are fueling their mutant growth by eating the rest of the garden.

Is Love Better the Second Time Around?

I’ve been making more of an effort lately to visit past gardens I’ve designed.    There’s a risk to this, as there is always the possibility that things haven’t gone well in the months or years since the install.  Disaster can strike in many forms – gophers, deer, overzealous gardeners, faulty irrigation or even (gasp!) a bad plant choice on my part.

Recently the Germinatrix and Interleafer had a Twitter exchange on how much fun it is to develop a crush on a new plant.  Of course it’s easy to fall for the latest flashy Monrovia intro, or swoon over a seed catalogue photo, or admire the lush blooms of a new Jackson Perkins rose.  But in visiting past gardens, I've had the delightful experience of rediscovering plants that for one reason or another, I’d forgotten about.  Here are some of my new (old) favorites:

 

Chondropetalum tectorum

 

Chondropetalum with penstemmon and achillea

This amazing restio is evergreen, can handle full sun and does well in bog conditions as well as low water gardens.  This particular speciment is three years old and probably won’t get much bigger as this is a moderate water garden.  With regular water, it can get 8’ around.  I love the rich green and dark russet blooms and think it would combine beautifully with a burgundy Phormium like Monrovia Red or Dark Delight.

 

Mexican Feather Grass and Chocolate Cosmos

I chose to mass Mexican Feather Frass in this planter, and on a whim suggested the client interplant Chocolate Cosmos to create the idea of something peaking through the straw colored foliage.  I love this!  And of course it will be much more dramatic later in the summer when the cosmos really take off.  This plant was so hard to get five years ago that I forgot all about it.  I’ll be using it regularly from now on.

 Salvia chamaedryoides - Mexican Blue Sage

Salvia chamaedryoides (almost done blooming) with Santolina and Salvia clevelandii

This last bit’s embarrassing.  I actually had to ask the client what several of the plants in the garden were.  They looked at me oddly, but obligingly went to get their original plans.  How could I have stopped using something as ordinary as Salvia chamaedryoides?  Long blooming, sweet smelling, lovely silver foliage, and doesn’t get too big (unlike the Salvia clevelandii behind it – beautiful but a bit of a thug).  I guess my well-documented love affair with catmint drove this worthy alternative out of my mind.

 

Calamagrostis Karl Forester - photo courtesy of Gardensoft

Finally, how, how HOW could I have stopped using Calamagrostis Karl Forester?  This tall, dramatic grass doesn’t get too wide and is am amazing backdrop for just about any flower color.

Amber carpet rose                 Salvia Wendy's Wish

So while I continue to spend time with my newest friends, like Amber Carpet Rose and Salvia ‘Wendy’s Wish’, now that I’ve rediscovered my past loves, they’re suddenly appearing in my garden designs again.  In fact, I recently introduced Karl Foerster to Wendy, and have every expectation they will be a match made in heaven.

 

Girlfriend, do yourself a favor and add rosemary to your garden

And other solid herbal advice, courtesy of Morningsun Herb Farm.

Tuesday night was my master gardener association meeting and the topic was herbs.  Not to dis our association meetings which always feature knowledgeable speakers, but let’s just say if not for the cookies and the fact that someone is always giving away some plant or other for free, I wouldn’t necessarily be a regular attendee. This past Tuesday there weren’t even any cookies, but thanks to the excellent presentation provided by  Rose Loveall of Morningsun Herb Farm in Vacaville, CA, the hour flew by.  A few of the highlights:

I had always thought that herbs became bitter once they flowered, but this is true of annual herbs only, such as basil or cilantro.  Perennial herbs like oregano, sage and thyme do not lose flavor or potency after flowering.

As anyone who has grown herbs knows, one of the frustrations of growing basil is its tendency to flower quickly, and it turns out that just pinching off the flower bud is not enough.  To keep basil from turning bitter, pinch back not only the bud but a few sets of leaves as well.  An even better option:  Rose introduced us to a new basil cultivar called Pesto Perpetuo, which acts almost like a perennial and does not flower.  Not only that, but it is slightly more slug and snail resistant, more cold tolerant and even more drought tolerant than Genovese basil. If  Daffodil Planter's pick an herb  contest wasn’t already over, I’d take back my disdainful words about basil coasting by on the coattails of summer tomatoes and vote for this.

 

Pesto Perpetuo Basil

If like me you are somewhat careless in looking after your herb garden, consider planting chives.  Chives behave like the canary in a coal mine, and are usually first to show stress due to lack of water or inadequately amended soil (nitrogen being the key nutrient for most herbs).  

 

Chives

And now for the fun stuff.

Poor circulation?  Try adding rosemary to your bath.  And if you are curious as to whether the prostrate forms of rosemary often used in drought tolerant landscapes work well as culinary herbs, turns out it’s better to stick to upright forms, as they have a higher oil content.

Looking for an excuse to indulge in an extra glass of wine?  Consider growing stinging nettles (carefully of course).  Distilled into a tea, they work to cleanse the liver.

Interested in upping your chef cred?  While thyme is a fairly mild herb, it can be a good alternative to salt if you are following a low sodium diet and also is effective at melding other herbs together.

And finally, the answer to the title of this post.  Herbal folklore states that if a home has rosemary growing in front of it, then the woman of the house is in charge. 

So what are you waiting for ladies?  Let’s get planting!

Photos courtesy of Morningsun Herb Farm

 

"It all starts with a pile of junk"

 replied Chad Glashoff, the wonderful creator of my new garden sculpture, when I asked him about his process.  Process. I feel so arty.

I’ve been a fan of his work and his father Philip’s for years, and after spending Saturday afternoon at their open house in Fairfield, CA, finally bought a sculpture of my own.  Here is my Peace Lady, who will be the centerpiece to the new garden makeover I still haven’t gotten to, due to my previously posted attempts to build my media empire.

Philip and Chad delivered the sculpture personally this afternoon, and Chad shared that this piece was inspired by a concept his mother came up with – so he brought her idea to life as a Mother’s Day present.  Now why does the cute card I gave my mom seem a little inadequate all of a sudden?  He went on to say that Peace Lady has become the first in a series of other pieces incorporating symbols,  but at this point I got distracted by the giant check I was writing him and did not catch what the symbols were.  Chad, if you’re reading, feel free to comment and enlighten us.

and a close up so you can see the crazy detail

Beautiful though she is, my Peace Lady is quite modest in scale compared to many of the larger than life sculptures on display at the open house.  I asked, and these do get sold, generally to shopping malls and places like that, but I get the impression it can take some time. 

 

well, this one probably won't get sold

 

One hip Santa

 

For you garden bloggers who post pictures of the birds at your feeders during the winter, one of these 10' tall babies will really up your game

 

Nick liked this one, but it was clearly too big for our garden. (Thank you, powers that be)