Art can be fun and whimsical in the garden

Richie Steffen, expert on integrating art in the landscape offered a lecture at the recent Pacific Horticulture Symposium in Pasadena, California that reminded all of us just how the garden can contain art or become a piece of art itself. In the desperate pursuit of fame and fortune encouraged by our consumer society so many of the finer aspects of our culture and life are falling by the wayside. The arts and those aspects of human creativity that are being displaced by the need for material acquisition are leaving people with a growing need for something more than physical comforts to nourish the heart and soul. You can create your own home retreat to lift your spirits and put back the missing creativity in your life by making your garden a place of art. Whether you add art to your garden with murals, statues, décor, ornamental surfaces or make your garden into art with creative structures or design with plants.  Steve encourages us all to look at the garden as not only a place to entertain or to use for practical applications like pets, growing edibles and play, but as a place to have fun, add healing, therapy and joy to daily life. Enjoying art in the garden and the garden as art can make your landscape into a very important part of your life.

Originally posted 2010-10-29 12:22:01. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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A new garden magazine with a mission?

There was a time when I used to listen to the old people reminiscing about the “good old days”. I never thought I would become one of those people – especially since I found myself wistfully brooding in that direction decades ago when I was still quite young. As the years have passed, the loss of so many of the old values have made me even sadder. Perhaps it is because I lived for a decade in Europe where culture was a basic part of life and it wasn’t all that rare to meet people who were connected to nature and the land. It simply seemed to me that the average American was far more interested in finding fame and riches and these things were lost with previous generations.

I was a writer, an artist, a landscape designer and a fanatic gardener – none of the respected skills that were admired by an American society that raised a population on acquisitiveness, competition and materialism. It seemed people in this country seemed so much more stressed yet technology has intensified the need for immediacy, instant gratification and the drive to be perpetually focused on what they didn’t have instead of what they had. I lived in a world where people, love, kindness, nature, our planet and even God was worshiped less than the Almighty buck. Of course, not every person is the same, but everywhere you look everything is covered with advertising that shouts dissatisfaction and consumption. It’s hard not to be conditioned by this constant input.

Imagine my surprise when I just learned there is a new magazine that is steeped in the appreciation of gardens, life, creativity, art and the earth. The first issue of Greenwoman Magazine has just entered into the floundering business of print publishing. For years magazines have contained less and less helpful information as the ads blared louder and louder. Even most of the information usually encourages people to buy more or better products or services. What happened to feel-good writing? Where did the poetry go? Why did so many environmentalists feel they had to go violent or extremist just to be heard? Where did our humanity go? The magazines of a half century ago shared new discoveries, laughter, creativity and individual views. Okay. I’m still lamenting the loss of these old values.

I write gardening articles for the Internet and my most helpful, sincere and informative article earn the least. I’ve learned to make money I need to write articles that sell, sell, sell. And it’s become the mantra of the world. Economics rule. Not only in America but everywhere now. You NEED to own the best, the latest and more than the next guy or you are inferior. The only thing I’ve seen from this value system is a small percentage of our population getting obscenely rich while product and service quality loses integrity, longevity and value. And huge numbers of our population become less healthy and sustained on fast foods, anti-depressants and Viagra. Where did the joy of living go? Why is it now rare for people to express passion, unconditional kindness, basic appreciation for the little blessings of life?

Apparently, I’m not the only one who feels like this and am thrilled to see the birth of a magazine like Greenwoman Magazine. I feel so encouraged. Logically, this quality magazine that celebrates those old values in the form of real, useful garden information from experts, insights from the heart in poetry and visual communications in the form of hand-made art – should have no hope of success when so many huge, massed magazines are failing with the competition from the Internet (despite its plethora of misinformation) and the financial depredation of the recession. Instead I am encouraged. Maybe there is a new rebellion going on here. Maybe it’s the 1960s revolution for the second decade of the 2000s. Maybe the subculture this time is a counter revolution where technology is not attacked, just circumvented. Could this be a sign that there are enough of us left to want to reinvent the world with new OLD values? A world with heart? A world where technology and profit can exist but aren’t EVERYTHING? Could this be the answer to all those exported jobs – new businesses that service people and the planet making enough money while generating huge profits for the heart and soul? We do have it in us. The human being has shown some marvelous capabilities beyond greed, entitlement, and self indulgence. We can be like our gardens, integrated, interdependent societies where individuals grow supported by all the other individuals in a common community.

I have great hopes for this little magazine. Perhaps it will reinstate the success of magazines. Of quality. Of responsible caring. If there are enough of us, we can make this a better world. One magazine, one article, one plant, one poem, one picture – one person at a time. Are you a part of the revolution? This might even be fun!

You can find Greenwoman Magazine at http://greenwomanmagazine.com.

Originally posted 2011-07-25 04:33:47. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Jane at the California Poppy Reserve

If you can, rush out to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve soon. Fields of bright orange are visible for miles away as the poppies paint the hills. Swatches of blue from millions of blooming purple-blue Lupins intersect the orange and contrast with huge spreads of glowing yellow from masses of tiny yellow Goldfields. If the day-glow colors aren’t enough to amaze you, you can go picking through miles of trails at the reserve discovering the glittering seed heads of Silver Puffs, the red-purple of Owl Clover or find yourself scurrying after a patterned lizard to check out its designs.

The Poppy Reserve is located in Lancaster (northern Los Angeles County),  just southeast of the Grapevine, 15 miles west of Lancaster center, and about 40 miles north of the Santa Clarita/Valencia area. You can find more information at http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=627.

Plan on brilliant color and blustering winds. The winds are typical of the high desert at this time of year. Wearing a hat is a good idea. Keeping it on your head may be a challenge. But it’s worth the effort to check out the wildflowers peaking at the California Poppy Reserve right now!

Originally posted 2010-04-18 11:44:12. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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For years I have been dismayed at the difficulty I’ve had with technical support online. After waiting for totally unreasonable periods of time on hold with canned music and dreary recorded messages, I’d usually end up with bored ‘technicians’ on the other side of the world who are reading from their written list of solutions that rarely even addressed my issues. It has been agonizingly frustrating. And it didn’t seem to matter if I called a software company, hosting service or anyone else, the problem seemed to be endemic everywhere.

I left my last web hosting service after they added some very disturbing policies to their bad service. At my sister’s recommendation I sought out LunarPages.com. From Day One I’ve been impressed. They helped me resolve complications when I made the switch, offered excellent pricing packages and had a comprehensive menu of services.

I have had good experiences with their knowledgeable support staff in the past year since I signed up with them. But what sent me desperately begging for help was the complicated mess I managed to create when I designed this gardening blog you’re reading and tried to change the domain name to match.

A series of my befuddled telephone calls had me connecting with helpful technicians known to me only as Mathew, Jonathan, Zack and Harold. Each one patiently handled my incoherent babbling and supplied vital pieces of the puzzle. And they worked knowledgeably, thinking through each issue from right here in California. This support team wrangled difficulties down to just a few more obscure quandaries. At that point I switched to LunarPage’s online help to allow support more time to do in-depth research.  And that they did. In the end, people like Flora Lui, Richard Ray, Onika Lewis, Zach Rogan, Michael Torrance and finally Customer Service supervisor Katrina Kane not only rescued a complicated panoply of corrupted and misplaced files, and redirected settings,  but they got this site up and running just when I believed it to be unsalvageable.

Although I may not be writing about either gardening or landscaping right now, this garden blog wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the remarkably patient and capable team of LunarPages. And since good service seems to be something I find so rarely these days, I simply had to post my thank you on the site they’ve made possible.

Originally posted 2010-02-14 10:29:46. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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The colorful leaf of Phormium 'Jester'

There are few plants that offer the bold vertical growth and wide range of colorful foliage for the garden as the New Zealand Flax.  The Phormium is a perfect plant to add year round color in gardens that don’t dip much below the low 20’s F.  With its long, strap leaves, this plant can be used as a sentry to welcome you through an entryway, as a backdrop for shorter, rounder plants, as a companion to a boulder, a water garden, a statue or as a focal point all alone.  Not only does the New Zealand Flax make a statement in the garden, you can find Phormium plants in a range of wonderful colors that will paint your garden even in the dreariest season.  This plant can handle water so long as the drainage is good and it is also drought tolerant.  The plain green and red varieties handle hot sun better than the colorful leaves. In hot, chaparral or desert locations, give Phormiums some shade.  In areas where the sun is not so strong they can handle full sun. Here is a partial list of some of the wonderfully colored varieties of New Zealand Flax you can grow in your landscape.

• Reds and maroons: P. (Phormium) ‘Dazzler’, P.’Dusky Chief’, P. ‘Firebird’, P.’Guardsman’, P.’Monrovia Red’, P.’Rubrum’, P.’Tom Thumb’, P. ‘Amazing red’
• Peaches: P.’Flamingo, P. ‘Jester’, P.’Sunset’, P.’Apricot queen’
• Pinks: P.’Pink Stripe’, P.’Sundowner’
• Yellows: P.’Yellow Wave’, P.’Golden Sword
• Blacks: P.’Dark Delight’, P.’Chocolate’, P.’Bronze baby’, P. ‘Platt’s Black’
• Green: Phormium tenax, P. cookianum, P. ‘Sea Jade’ (with bold dark maroon center stripe)
• White/Cream: P. ‘Variegata’, P. ‘Tricolor’
• Mixed colors: P. ‘Mauri maiden’, P. ‘Mauri queen’, P. ‘Mauri chief’, P ‘Mauri Sunset’

And this is just a sampling of all the wonderful varieties of New Zealand Flax or Phormium plants that can add color to your garden.

Originally posted 2010-04-24 12:13:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Burpee is now offering herbs and vegetables 'To Go' as plants. Photo by Jane Gates

At the Spring Trials 2010, Burpee announced a whole new line of products that will make growing vegetables a lot easier.

Known for their wide variety of high quality flower and vegetable seeds, Burpee has just introduced their new line of potted vegetables. Offering some of the more interesting varieties of fruits and vegetables, like heirloom tomatoes that grow in limited spaces, decorative pink-flowered strawberry plants and unusual varieties of parsley, Burpee is offering gardeners a chance to skip the seed growing process and get a jump on the growing season by planting healthy, potted plants already started and ready to grow on in the garden.

There are some other companies that do provide vegetables and fruits to buy already started in pots. But this is new for Burpee. And with the wide range of quality seeds for which Burpee is known, chances are the potted plants they are now offering for the vegetable garden will open up the choice of new and tempting edibles — already started — for the home gardener. This new product introduction, Burpee vegetable plants, will add a new dimension to the ease of designing and growing vegetables into the garden.

The newly introduced line is called Burpee’s “Home Gardens To Go”. It is likely to not only expand vegetable gardening choices for the home gardener, but make growing vegetables more available for professional landscaping. It will allow garden designers and landscapers access to buying these new edible plants for full landscape installations. Until now, finding material for planting vegetable gardens has been complicated for many professionals in the landscape industry, so too often edible gardens have been left out of the design.  The new product introduction of Burpee’s vegetable plants should make edibles in the garden more popular than ever before.

Originally posted 2010-05-03 06:08:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Originally posted 2010-01-31 12:59:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Outdoor lighting brings the garden to life at night

Lighting can transform your garden into a magical wonderland after dark. It not only keeps the area safe and well lit but you can create all kinds of effects. Lighting can pick out shapes and focal points that might look totally different during the day. You can create glows, spot-lit areas, spill light over a flat area or define steps or edges. Shadows can be manipulated to create patterns or designs, while individual lights can define a theme, outline a special area or produce mood lighting.

Not only are there better forms of light distribution for artistic effects, but there are more choices in ecologically friendly and money saving lighting than ever before. You can go solar, low voltage or use LED lighting. And check out the wealth of lighting fixtures that can become sculptures or part of the design of your garden itself.

I recently stopped by the booth at Light Club USA where I was able to chat with Bruce Dennis about some of the exciting fixtures he had on display in the Los Angeles Landscape Industry Show. I’d already marveled at the realistic candle lights when I worked with the designer, Nick Williams, on one of his awesome landscape designs in Ojai. You can see the candles he designed in the video below at the Light Club USA booth.  And there were other fascinating designs for light fixtures, too. Check out the little informal video I shot at the show and you can get some idea of how much fun you can have designing lighting in your garden.

Originally posted 2010-02-18 06:39:24. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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The pond in its youth

Here’s another video of the garden area of my pond to help cool you on hot days. It took months to dig the pond, but I wanted to learn first-hand about all the pond building issues before I had anyone else install ponds for my landscape design clients. The pond has given me years of relaxing meditation and creates music of its own. The song is from my first album many years ago. I wrote “Come on Out Now” with Peter Yellowstone in London. Steve Voice did the vocals. It seemed an appropriate lyric for the video of pond meditation and music.

Originally posted 2010-07-17 12:38:46. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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New plant pots made of barley fiber

Look what’s new in gardening eco-friendly gardening.  One of the good things that is coming out of the recession is a deeper awareness of ecological products and the development of new green products. As a result two new types of biodegradable pots are being introduced into the retail market this year. These plant containers make it easy to recycle. You can do it right in your own garden.

New styled pots with long vents are made of barley and are firm and solid. When you buy your plants in these ecologically friendly pots you can plant the whole plant in your garden – pot and all. These new easy-to-recycle plant containers are not flimsy like peat pots yet will dissolve into the soil leaving behind nothing but addend nourishment for the plant.

Oat pots are also new on the scene. These pots look like smooth green plastic yet are made from oat fibers. These pots cannot be planted directly in the ground, but will nevertheless break down completely when tossed into the compost pile. No need to seek out some outside source to recycle these plant containers.

Buying your plants in these new eco-friendly pots will help cut down on the air pollution created in the production of all the plastic and vinyl pots that have been used in the past. And instead of adding more refuse to our trash heaps, you can simply melt your pots back into the soil as a form of nutrition instead. So look for these new, easy-to-recycle plant containers when shopping this year and next. We should be seeing more and more of these eco-friendly pots in the future.

Originally posted 2010-04-30 12:05:23. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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