Modern Landscape Design

If all you do while watching AMC's Mad Men is lust after their homes, furniture and clothing then a modern landscape is for you. Modern garden design has its roots in the 1950s and '60s, a time that was all about bold geometry and linear designs.

Modern landscaping is known for its streamlined aesthetic and sleek sophisticated style. Overall the garden will feel controlled and organized. Typically, the focus is heavier on hardscape and structures than it is on plants. Modern plants are usually green and selected for shape and texture. Pops of color are then added with furniture cushions, planters or a painted wall.

Popular materials used in modern landscaping include concrete, metal and wood. Many designers opt for leaving concrete surfaces their natural grey, however it can be stained a variety of colors. Metal, especially weathered corten steel, is a common accent in modern gardens. It can be used as planters, as a privacy screen or even as small retaining walls. Wood decking is also common in modern yards. The wood of choice is usually Ipe, a Brazilian hardwood with a rich color.

One of the main goals of modern design is to create contrast. For example a large massing of ornamental grasses pops out against a grey concrete wall, orange cushions draw your eye when placed on otherwise simple patio furniture and a fire pit filled with colored glass demands attention when set amongst a bed of bluestone. It is important to be selective when creating contrast, too much can be overwhelming and make the space seem disjointed. Pick two or three spots in your yard and focus on one contrasting element for each.

A trademark of modern landscapes is a paved area planted with a grid of greenery. This can be paving stones with grass growing where the grout would traditionally be, or concrete poured in sections that allows thyme to grow in between. However, grid patterns are not the only way to achieve a modern look. Landscape designer and author Maureen Gilmer suggests using plants that are architectural and have interesting textures as well as using containers.

Doenças de inverno do relvado

No inverno, os dias encurtam, a chuva instala-se e o frio faz-se sentir, diminuindo naturalmente o tempo que passamos no jardim a desfrutar da relva e proporcionalmente a nossa disponibilidade habitual em alturas mais quentes.

Uma vez que as relvas ditas de verão estão inativas nesta altura do ano, vamos centrar este mês a nossa atenção nos relvados das chamadas relvas de inverno.

Não nos devermos descuidar com os cortes da relva, que devem ser entre 0,5 a 1 cm superiores ao realizado no período de primavera/verão, um período que obriga a trabalhos de corte e de manutenção diferenciados. A relva cresce (felizmente), menos neste período mas, como tem que ser cortada sem chuva nem sempre é possível cortar com a periodicidade necessária para remover só 1/3 da folha, no máximo. No caso de a sua relva estar demasiado alta, suba o corte da sua máquina para a altura máxima.

Dê um primeiro corte para aparar e, de seguida, baixe o corte para a altura recomendada e faça uma segunda passagem, cruzada a 45° ou 90° em relação à primeira. Execute a adubação, com o adubo que selecionou, na quantidade recomendada (consulte as recomendações no nosso artigo de outubro) e com a periodicidade que esse adubo exigir e mantenha-se atento aos sintomas e sinais das principais doenças de outono/inverno que atacam o seu relvado.

As doenças mais comuns

Embora existam, infelizmente, muitas mais, vamos abordar neste artigo aquelas que mais tenho enfrentado em relvados de jardins, ao longo da minha vida profissional. As doenças conhecidas vulgarmente como helminthosporoses (apesar dos fungos que a causa serem hoje classificados como Drechslera sp. e Bipolaris sp.) são favorecidas pelo excesso de humidade e temperaturas baixas.

A relva definha, parecendo que se derrete, o chamado melting out dos anglo-saxónicos. Aparecem manchas castanhas a castanho-avermelhado nas folhas e quando estas manchas são transversais a toda a largura da folha cortam a passagem dos nutrientes para a parte superior levando a que esta seque desde a ponta até à mancha.

Nos relvados, não formam manchas definidas, mas o relvado vai definhando por zonas que vão alastrando. Evite fazer herbicidas à base de 2,4 –D, MCPP e dicamba nos períodos húmidos de outono, já que estudos demonstram um efeito potenciador sobre o ataque destes fungos.

Os ataques de Rhizoctonia sp., causam nesta altura do ano (tempo frio e húmido) a chamada doença da mancha amarela (yellow patch). Os relvados ficam com manchas ou anéis amarelados (que podem ir de diâmetro de 15 cm a um metro) e as folhas individualmente ficam com manchas amarelo palha, com contorno castanho escuro ou avermelhado. Por ser uma doença favorecida por altos níveis de azoto, evite adubar excessivamente o relvado com adubos de libertação rápida em condições de tempo húmido.

Top Ten Show Gardens: RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2013

Top Ten Show Gardens: RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2013

The show gardens at Chelsea have come under some criticism this year for lacking ‘pizazz’ or show-stopping drama. At LAN we don’t believe this is true. While it could be said that many of the gardens portray a subtly that belies their depth and meaning, this year’s show gardens all demonstrate an attention to detail that marks them out as being stunning in their own right. Here we delve a little deeper to bring you the best of the best from the world’s greatest flower show.

10. Tokonoma (An Alcove) Garden

Tokonoma (An Alcove) Garden, credit: Bonnie Alter

Designer: Kazuyuki Ishihara

Construction: Ishihara Kazuyuki Design Laboratory

Awards: Gold Medal, Best Artisan Garden

This rendering of a traditional Japanese tatami room garden is a traditional aesthetic that is not easy to interpret from a western viewpoint, but the naturalistic aesthetic order of the composition and attention to detail speak loudly of a beautifully designed and built garden. We loved the delicate sound of the water adding a constant accompaniment to the garden.

9. Stoke-on-Trent’s Story of Regeneration

Stoke-on-Trent’s Story of Regeneration, credit: Ashley Penn

Designer: The Landscape Team, Stoke-on-Trent City Council

Construction: Bartholomew Landscaping

Awards: Silver Medal

In this garden the huge green wall forms a backdrop to the water feature of interlocking circular forms. The sinuous forms of the design lend the garden an easy relaxed fluidity, which is slightly marred by the stark cor-ten steel pottery bottle kiln structure, which overly dominates the garden.

8. The Laurent-Perrier Garden

The Laurent-Perrier Garden, credit: Lorenzo Belenguer

Designer: Ulf Nordfjell

Sponsor: Champagne Laurent Perrier

Construction: Crocus.co.uk

Awards: Gold Medal

Marrying the styles of two female landscape designers Nicole de Vesian and Ulla Molin, this garden is a striking combination of irregular clipped shrubs representing the topography of the native homes of Vesian (southern France), and Molin (Sweden).

7. The SeeAbility Garden

The SeeAbility Garden, credit: Ashley Penn

Designer: Darren Hawkes

Construction: The Garden Builders with Wheelbarrow

The SeeAbility garden focuses on sight loss as inspiration for the straight lines and strongly contrasting color palette. Perhaps the contrasting purples of the angelica (Angelica ‘Atropurpurea’) and yellows of the euphobia (Euphorbia characais ‘Wulfenii’ and Euphorbia ‘Martinii’) aren’t to everyone’s personal taste, but we simply love the attention to detail in hard landscape elements like the on-edge slate path and the wall of welded sections of pipe.

6. East Village Garden

East Village Garden, credit: Ashley Penn

Designer: Balston Agius Ltd (Michael Balston and Marie-Louise Agius)

Construction: Willerby Landscapes

Awards: Gold Medal

The design draws conceptually on the London 2012 Olympic Legacy and is reflected in the strong architecture and references to local landmarks. We like the simple clean lines of the forms, many of which echo the larger scale forms of the Queen Elizabeth Park.

5. The M&G Centenary Garden ‘Windows Through Time’

The M&G Centenary Garden ‘Windows Through Time’, credit: Ashley Penn

Designer:  Roger Platts

Construction: Roger Platts, NR Jupp

Awards: Gold Medal

The M&G Centenary Garden is, perhaps surprisingly, the only show garden to have run with the centenary theme. While this manifests in some slightly ‘predictable’ architectural elements, the planting design is of such high quality that this garden is easily warranted its place in our top ten! We particularly love the mix of textures in the neatly clipped spindle (Euonymus alatus ‘Compactus’) next to the soft vertical spires of the foxgloves (Digitalis) and feathery foliage of the grasses (Calamagrostis x arcutiflora ‘Karl Foster’ and C. x ‘Avalanche’).

4. The Wasteland Garden

The Wasteland Garden, credit: Ashley Penn

Designer Kate Gould

Construction: The Team Landscapers

Awards: Gold Medal

We love this show garden for many reasons. Not least of all the depth of thought that has gone into representing the conceptual theme. The didactic theme of the garden seeks to demonstrate how brownfield inner city wastelands have horticultural potential. All materials and elements within the garden can be found on a typical wasteland, and yet have been artfully crafted into a beautiful garden.

3. The RBC Blue Water Roof Garden

The RBC Blue Water Roof Garden, credit: Ashley Penn

Designer: Professor Nigel Dunnett and The Landscape Agency

Construction: Landform Consultants

Awards: Gold Medal

The contrasting circular and rectilinear form of this garden at first glance appear to be unreconciled. It isn’t until you have had time to take it all in that you can appreciate the repetition in form across differing elements of the garden, which bring the whole together as one composition. We particularly love the aesthetic circular hibernacula proving that sustainability can also be beautiful.

2. The Trailfinders Australian Garden 

The Trailfinders Australian Garden, credit: Ashley Penn

Designer: Phil Johnson

Construction: Phil Johnson Landscapes

Awards: Gold Medal, Best in Show

The Australian garden is, without a doubt, an amazing feat of design, engineering, and construction. The garden features a microcosm of Australian habitats centered around a naturalistic billabong, complete with waterfall. The sheer scale of the garden is impressive.

1. The Arthritis Research UK Garden

The Arthritis Research UK Garden, credit: Ashley Penn

Designer: Chris Beardshaw

Construction: Keith Chapman Landscapes

Sponsor: Arthritis Research UK

Awards: Gold Medal

Although this garden did not win ‘Best In Show’ we love it as it works so well on so many levels. Gardens as pieces of artwork can be allegorical and steeped in layers of conceptual meaning. We love this garden as the concept of exploring someone’s personal journey being diagnosed with arthritis. It translates beautifully into a garden that works spatially, conceptually, aesthetically and functionally.

Other articles of interest:

• 100 Years of the Chelsea Flower Show
• The RHS Flower Show 2013
• Chris Beardshaw Interview

While this year the show gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show do not display ostentatious gimmicks or make outlandish design statements, there is a subtle and understated intelligence to many of them. The Trailfinder’s Australian Garden demonstrates exuberant drama in its ecologically sustainable microcosm, while other gardens, like the Arthritis Research UK Garden and the Wasteland Garden, use British native plants to create more subtle effects. One thing you can always count on at Chelsea is that there is something for everyone!

Article written by Ashley Penn

Top 10 Documentaries For Landscape Architects

There is a certain persuasion in documentaries that is not often found in books.

Sometimes actually seeing, visually dissecting, a narrative can be more inspiring and engaging than words on a page.

The documentaries below can be quite different in their style and delivery – what is important however, is that they all seek to explore man’s relationship with his (natural or unnatural) environment. And as a Landscape Architect, it couldn’t hurt to see a few….

Here we take you through 10 of the best (in our opinion) documentaries out there, covering topics such as urban design, landscape architecture, sustainable design, biophilia, climate change and urban planning.

These are films that will make you think, generate discussion within your own mind and make you question your own design decisions.  Indeed, these are films to watch with colleagues, like minded friends and classmates.

Get the popcorn, its movie time!

Digital Aurora Borealis, The Place, Beijing, China

10. The Big Uneasy (2010)

Complete with New Orleans jazz and John Goodman, Harry Shearer looks at what happened when Hurricane Katrina hit the US city. Yet this is NOT a film about a natural disaster. What is revealed is that the flooding was caused by more than four decades of misguided construction and design. At a time where floods are causing trouble world over, and landscape architecture is driven towards WSUDS – this is gripping, damning stuff.

9. The Age of Stupid (2009)

This piece of docu-fiction weaves together six documentaries, which are presented by ‘the archivist’ in a tale of hubris and …stupidity. It highlights that climate change and global warming are not just real, but unless true change is made, further consequences will be felt in our lifetime with devastating effects.

8. The End of Suburbia (2004)

Cheap and abundant energy is coming to an end – a nation on wheels, a generation of sub-urbanites will have to change. Half of the American population lives in suburbia. Will peak oil reverse globalization? Will a more holistic, localized form of development be the future?

7. Urbanized (2011)

Not groundbreaking but this film is generally a good overview of the issues facing cities, and thus the world, as we see the planet become more urbanized. Travelling from Mumbai, to Brasilia, to New York and Germany, different levels of urbanity and urban design are looked at; ranging across large-scale infrastructure to low-level interventions with community involvement.

6. Edible City: Grow the Revolution (2012)

There is an ever-increasing need for food to become an intricate part of our landscape. This inspiring documentary not just examines the why, but mainly focuses on established examples of how it is possible to work with nature and our cities in order to produce food for local people.

5. Manufactured Landscapes (2006)

Through the photography of Edward Burtynsky, Manufactured Landscapes, provides us with a haunting, though often visually stunning, image of the ’landscapes of our time.’ Burtynsky examines the effect industrialization and manufacturing has on our world and asks if the landscapes of our time are the ones we disrupt in the pursuit of progress?

4. The Nature of Cities (2009)

As our world becomes ever more urbanized we must find a way to integrate ourselves within nature in order to maintain our survival. Professor Timothy Beatley travels across America and Europe talking to planners, landscape architects, ecologists and communities. There are some poignant insights offered by Richard Louv (he who coined the term ‘nature-deficit-disorder’) and Dr. Stephen Kellert from Yale (Biophillic Design).

3. Biophilic Design: The Architecture of Life (2011)

Dr. Stephen Kellert advocates that we designed ourselves in to many of the messes we are presented with today, and thus we can design ourselves out of them. This can be done by biophilic design. The documentary explores how nature and architecture have come together to create hospitals were patient recovery rates are greater and offices where employees are more productive due to a connection with nature and the environment.

2. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (1988)

In this short film, William H. Whyte examines why certain spaces are popular and others not. A seminal piece of work that changed the way our public spaces are designed and built; namely that places should be designed for people. Vitally, it is as relevant today as it was 30 years ago.

1. A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba (2006)

Sick of all the depressing why we should change documentaries? Want an uplifting how to/it is possible one? Then watch this. Curitiba, Brazil has been undergoing major changes since the 1970s in transportation, recycling, affordable housing and implementation of green space.Inspiring and hopeful, a true example of how a determined population and supportive governance can reverse or at least, negate the negative effects of urbanization.

These are a mere ten in a colossal range of documentaries currently depicting the problems society faces; peak oil, flooding, food crises and some that offer hopeful solutions.

What is their message? To galvanize us into making a change. What ones motivate you?

Article written by Sonia Jackett

Workshop Introduces Students to the Landscape Architecture of Dan Kiley

In May 2013 students from the Gads Hill Center’s Teen Connection program participated in a photography workshop led by artist and architectural photographer Kate Joyce. Gads Hill Center serves families in the Chicago neighborhoods of Pilsen, North Lawndale, Little Village, and Back of the Yards with programming that provides learning, support and educational enrichment, early childhood development, and out-of-school care for children. The Teen Connection program helps students living in high-risk neighborhoods achieve their academic goals by creating a community of mentor and tutor supported college-bound peers.

(upper) l to r, Alex Aguero 14, Diego Cazales 17, Eddie Merma (Teen Connection

program coordinator), Joel Rodriquez 13, Evelyn Zepeda 17, Mauro Cazales 13, Mark

Venancio 13; (lower) Joe Karr (left) with students from the program.

During the two-day workshop, Joyce introduced the students, who ranged in age from thirteen to seventeen, to landscape architecture by focusing on the Art Institute of Chicago’s South Garden, designed byDan Kiley. The students understood landscape as nature and architecture as buildings, but landscape architecture as a practice and profession was a new concept. Many of them had lived most of their lives in the presence of landscape architecture without recognizing its impact. Several students had visited the Art Institute of Chicago before. They knew there were gardens alongside the building, but never asked why or how. To provide a first-hand perspective, Joyce enlisted Joe Karr, who worked in Kiley’s studio in the 1960’s, to discuss the Art Institute’s South Garden and explain his career as a landscape architect.

For the students, landscape architecture proved a rich teaching tool. Along with their photography, the workshop included discussions about plant varieties, local and adopted ecological systems, beauty, weather and light, the integration of architecture and landscape, the emotional and social experience of the garden, engineering and infrastructure, stewardship and maintenance. Learning about Kiley's South Garden nurtured awareness in the students of landscape architecture and more broadly allowed them to identify, evaluate and relate to design decisions surrounding them on a daily basis. 

Garden Dialogues

How do garden owners and their landscape architects or designers work together to create a great garden?

Garden Dialogues brings together patrons and designers to reveal the creative process, the give and take, and the collaboration that yields a great garden. Garden Dialogues provides unique opportunities for small groups to experience some of today’s most beautiful gardens created by some of the most accomplished designers currently in practice.

Launched to critical acclaim in 2012, the program offered participants the chance to visit private gardens in Atlanta, the Hamptons, Sonoma, Connecticut, and much more (here's a video of the Garden Dialogue at Manatuck Farm in Stonington, CT). Garden Dialogues has become one of the most popular programs in the foundation’s 15-year history, with most Dialogues sold out weeks in advance – so we’re expanding the program in 2013.

Patronage and partnerships have historically yielded great gardens, from Vanderbilt and Olmsted, Sr. at Biltmore, Bliss and Farrand at Dumbarton Oaks, to the Millers and Dan Kiley in Columbus, Indiana. On weekends throughout the spring and summer at more than three dozen sites, landscape architects and their clients will provide insights into how they work together to create today’s masterworks.

Daily Dream Home: Sunset Plaza Residence

by Ada Teicu in House

The luxurious Sunset Strip in West Hollywood is the perfect place to own a dream home, especially if it looks like the one you’re about to discover. Designed by Santa Monica-based Belzberg Architects, today’s dream home is know as the “Sunset Plaza Residence” – a place for sophistication and elegance empowered by design and site-specific panoramas.

This luxury property spreads over 13,023 square feet on a hillside in Los Angeles, California. Combining privacy and views, architects used the sloping terrain to compose flat and terraced areas for an ultimate luxury living experience. Grabbing views from different vantage points and bringing them inside via an extensive use of glazing, Belzberg Architects planned a home where relaxation and entertainment take their roles seriously, switching back and forth according to the inhabitants’ needs and wishes. Listed for sale, the stunning residence is made up of three volumes – the main building, a wellness center and the guest house, providing everything one needs for a relaxed lifestyle.

Landscape and irrigation

Word “Home” is the second name of joy ,comfort and relaxation from bitter life outside. No matter how is your home…its big or small ….congested or wide .A home have all the comforts which is desired by every human after a hectic day of work. Like any other institution ,home also owns some departments.

Each “Department” of home performs any specific task to ease its residents. Kitchen supplies you food. Bedrooms give a warm lap to sleep in. TV lounge acts as an entertainment corner .In the same way we take Garden as the utmost source of observing nature .A Garden have trees ,plants ,pots and grass in common.

Some people who love plants company decorate their garden with numerous types of flowers and plants. These plants are the perfect designs of nature. A garden in a home makes its attractive and close to nature where you can walk naked feet and breath like the time you breath first. Gardens add beauty and life to the home. Its said by a philosopher that a Home with out garden is like a box with living dolls in it.

A garden in a home requires a little attention but give more benefit. If you are interested in having a garden in your home then you can use you own ideas but for more expertise its recommended to hire a gardener. you can plant everything from trees to vegetables in your garden.

You can renovate it by putting a carpet of green grass. With utilizing you artistic sense you can draw long strips of any plant over walls.

Your Garden can be more beautiful and lively if you place some water pots in Garden for the birds so that they can visit your garden and enhance the intense sign of life. Some pets like turtles ,pigeons can also be kept in Garden to give it a wild deep forest look.

For having a beautiful garden keep the following tips in mind:

1. Choose those plants which are according to your city’s weather like you can plant apple trees in Quetta with very ease but you cant plant mango plant in your garden since its suitable for sindh and any other warm place.
2. Make the arrangement of garden in such a way where you can walk ,see and look after every corner of it.
3. Dont forget to put chemical or natural fertilizers as needed .So,that they can enhance the plant growth.
4. Buy some beautiful painted pots to place it in your garden.
5. Supply sufficient water especially in summers so that all your efforts should not go in vein.

Gardens add life to your home…..Put Life ……Make Garden…!

Doenças em plantas

Gardening is one of the very possible and easy to carry way to eliminate stress and depression. Many people opt gardening as a hobby and many as a stress therapy. Making a garden is really a fun loving activity. But maintaining a garden is not an easy job.

Gardening is one of the old, possible and easy to carry way to eliminate stress. Many people opt gardening as their hobby and many do it for stress therapy. They feel it is the only way where they can spend time with nature and with the eternal greenery all around them. Because of all these reasons, many people now a day prefer to have their own garden at their homes whether big or small, or either a simple herbs and shrubs garden (which looks like a lawn), or a fruit or veggie garden.

Making a garden is really a fun loving activity. But maintaining a garden is not an easy job. It is really a time taking and hard working job which need your full attention, mental effort and time. Every garden lover wants to make his/her garden a divinely place where a wonderful feelings arise whenever he/she visits in the garden. To increase the scenic beauty of your garden, independence is the real time to put some special décor accents and accessories in your garden.

By going through this very unique and special gardening article, garden lovers make their garden a heavenly sight. Just follow these special and unique garden maintaining tips on this independence day and give your garden a beautiful, fantastic and green look.

• Green color fountains: To create a patriotic look in your garden, green color water fountain is the best décor you could give to your garden. You can get it in many different designs and sizes. Make sure that you buy a fountain that should fit the size of your garden; otherwise it would look out of place.
• Landscape ornaments: The wind chimes are the latest fashion. They are not only good for your garden as it will seem attractive, the soothing sound of it will give you a wonderful feeling too.
• Green color decorative lights: As this is the time to celebrate independence, green colored outdoor chandeliers look awesome and so patriotic. It is also a good economical ornament for your garden. It indeed takes care of insects and does not require much maintenance.
• Bird baths and Bird houses: If you already have bird baths and bird houses in your garden, change their color into green. If you don’t have them yet, then build them. As bird bath is ideally one that many put In their garden as it helps to attract butterflies and different kinds of small birds to your garden, making the garden ever so beautiful. Make sure that you clean the bird bath on a regular basis so that it looks clean and the prevents the water from contamination.
• Statue: If you’re looking for an enduring kind of look for your garden then copper statues is the right choice to purchase. There are also metal and concrete types of statues that will help your garden look spectacular. To create independence ambiance, drape it with white and green banners or hand mini flags around it.
• Stone tables and benches: If you have enough space in your garden, you can also place stone tables and benches in your garden for seating purposes.
• Chinese Lanterns: Chinese lanterns are very in now a day. A garden lover hardly ignores this item. It is the main thing to create ambiance and colors in your garden especially at night. All you do at this independence is, fix green colored bulbs and fancy lights in the lanterns and switch-on them at the independence night. Wow! It will really create a booming independence effects in your garden and definitely catches other’s attention too.

I hope, by using all these unique and very different gardening items, you will successfully change your garden into a real patriotic and divine place where everyone wishes to come, sit and enjoy.