Blue Planet Garden Blog

Calling all Super Heroes

 

My designer friend Maureen  was visiting today and mentioned that she has an uncanny ability to correctly estimate the number of plants a new installation will require, just by eyeballing the site.  While this isn’t a skill that has much relevance for the average gardener, it got us thinking – if we could choose a garden superpower, what would it be?

As I can be rather superficial, my first thought had nothing to do with sustainability or stopping villains in their tracks,  and everything to do with looks.  I’d like the ability to make a plant grow to exactly the size I specify.  Can you imagine?  Every garden a perfect show garden and no more client conversations with me backtracking along the lines of “Wow, I’ve never seen (fill in the blank) get so big before!”

Maureen decided she wanted the ability to break in half all noisy, gas guzzling garden tools with the wave of her hand, thus benefiting both the environment and eardrums everywhere.

Hmmm, so it must follow that if you choose a super power that actually fights evil and protects the innocent, you get to be a Super Hero. And you know what that means?

That’s right, you get a Super Hero name!

Here are some ideas I’m considering for my Super Hero alter ego: 

The Silent Soprano – Sings a note too high for humans to hear, instantly flattening all weeds in a one mile radius.

ReversaGirl – With a glare of her genetically modified eyeballs, can stop the spread of invasives in their tracks.

The Seasonator – Speeds up the seasons so that spring arrives a month early, bringing joy to impatient, snow-bound gardeners (this being more of a regional Super Hero option).

Haven't decided on my final choice yet.  How about you – what’s your super power?

2R + T = 24" - 27"

  Or, why I heart my calculator.

If you’re planning on sketching some new garden design ideas in anticipation of spring projects, it takes more than a fresh sheet of vellum, a circle template and sharp drafting pencil - better get ready to do a little math.

There’s a school of thought that ideal gardens should be carefree, plant driven spaces, but the truth is, if the hardscape elements – patios, stairs and pathways – aren’t thoughtfully planned,  you haven’t maximized your garden’s potential.  A common mistake people make is thinking that exterior space planning principles mimic interior ones, but that’s not the case.  

Movement and circulation are completely different outside.  Inside, the purpose of hallways, stairs and other open areas is to get easily and quickly from point A to point B to point C, as in, from the couch in front of the T.V. to the kitchen for a snack and up the stairs to the bedroom for a nap.  Having just described my perfect Sunday afternoon, I can assure you these are all important activities, and I would be very annoyed if naptime was delayed because of unnecessary detours.

The opposite is true in the garden, where moving through the space is an important part of the experience.  In honor of the front yard design plans VW has recently been sharing on her blog, I’m going to focus this post on outdoor stairs.  I’ll talk about patios and pathways a little later. 

You may not know it, but there is a specific formula for designing a staircase, which is 2R + T = 24” – 27”, where       R = rise and T = tread.

For example, if the risers are 6”, and the tread is 12” than your formula will yield 24”.   While this falls within the range and is fine for indoors, in the outdoors, the goal is to move people more slowly through the space – again, it’s about the experiencing the garden.  Smaller treads with steeper risers have a cramped, utilitarian feel, are less comfortable and encourage people to hurry up.  They also accommodate less of the walker’s feet, which means paying more attention, looking down at the steps, etc. instead of looking around at the garden. 

My favorite range for garden treads is 14” to 16”.  This is wide enough to create a gracious effect and encourage a slower pace, but not so wide as to break someone’s normal stride.  18” treads look beautiful, and also create enough width to sit on comfortably, but they are too wide to accommodate a typical stride, so I would generally use a tread this big if there are only one or two steps.   Grade permitting, I like a 5 ½” rise and a 15” tread.

Another outdoor stair mistake includes not marking the edge, inadvertently creating a tripping hazard.  People do not pay as much attention when using outdoor steps, so it’s important to mark the edge.  This can be done by adding a bullnose finish (creating a shadow) adding a border that is a different material or color or adding a border of the same material but in a different pattern.  This is particularly important if you have only one stair, as people tend not to notice them as well. 

 

Contrasting material + bullnose

   

Tile edge is a different pattern, + bullnose

What else?  If you have space, consider adding landings.  This signals the walker that s/he is supposed to slow down and enjoy the journey, not just hurry to a destination.  If you break up the stairs this way and you want to be super advanced in your design, stagger the number of steps in between landings and plan their size so that people are not always pushing off on the same foot.

 

staggered stairs with landing

 

Landing with contrasing border pattern

In the next garden, I used 12" treads because they already existed on the site and I wanted to maximize continuity and not confuse walkers by changing the pattern.  My strategy was to balance the narrower treads with broad landings to keep the experience gracious.  This dramatically sloped European inspired garden is designed for strolling (there's no grass or play area), so pulling a visitor comfortably through the space was a primary goal.

 

 

Here’s a drawing of a design I did when I was first starting out.  Visually, these three broad stairs came out beautifully, but they aren’t that comfortable to walk down.  If I were designing this today, I would have created a landing and reduced the tread size to 15”.

 

Finally, can you imagine a worse staircase?  It's certainly not to code.

 

No after photo, as the current state of the economy has meant postponing the installation on this "hang out with the dogs" garden, but here is the design.  The three awkward steps have been replaced with one broad step leading to a mini patio, then several broad steps down into the garden.

If all you plant lovers are still with me, I’ll end by saying that I meet a lot of people who think plants are the main thing I spend my time on.  The truth is, for a typical design I spend about 50% of my time on circulation and layout, 25% on communication, meeting and site time, and only 25% on plants.  Why?  Because plants are wonderfully forgiving, but hardscape is not. 

Just remember, Math + Creativity = A Beautiful Garden

Ninety-nine words or less - and the winner is...

  You like me, you really like me!

Two weeks ago I entered a fun contest held by gardenrant and ended up being one of the winners!  The contest was to write a short piece of horticultural fiction - and I mean really short, not to exceed ninety-nine words.  For those of you who Twitter, I'm sure this isn't much of a challenge, but for us average joes, you'd be amazed at how quickly ninety-nine words are gone.

Here's my story:

When heavy rains exposed Matthew Chambers’ cold, dead hand reaching out of the shallow grave in the backyard, it was only a matter of time before his wife Janet was fingered for the crime.

“Why,” her lawyer wondered, “Did you bury the body so close to the house where it was certain to be found, instead of in a remote corner of the property?”

She looked at him in surprise. “But that’s where my Daphnes are and I couldn’t risk disturbing their roots! They’re quite fussy about that sort of thing.”

Another winner was Kim Denise - this one was my favorite:

It was one of those shy spring days, mud-spattered, chill breeze whispering a thousand deep-green promises. He met me out back, stepping carefully in his treasured Italian loafers.

I knew what he wanted. I'd seen the receipts. I knew her glossy blonde name.

“I need someone who suits my lifestyle,” he said, “someone who maybe gets a manicure once in a while.”

I clasped my dirty fingers and sighed. This man had given me a vermicomposter for our anniversary. Returning to my shovel, I was comforted. Alimony buys a lot of perennials. Italian loafers make excellent compost.

You also might want to head over to Daffodil Planter and read her story.  It's sure to resonate with all you native plant purists.

And finally, if you haven't had your fill yet, read the original post.  There were over 100 entries and some of them are sure to bring a smile to your face.

So for any of you thinking - "she hasn't posted in over a week and now we're just getting her gardenrant leftovers?"  I promise something exciting (and original) for next week!

What I learned from 7 years of journals

Mostly that I can be pretty sloppy if I'm not being graded.

But wait, I'm skipping to the end.

Yesterday afternoon I spent some time cleaning and organizing my office.  In the process, I found myself paging through the seven years of design journals I've kept since my very first semester of Landscape Graphics I in design school.  Our instructor required us to keep a journal and we did regular sketching exercises - both on site and at home.  Here is some homework from my first graphics class:

 

The assignment was to illustrate how gardens invite people in.  I went to a local park and sketched different ways a park might welcome visitors (apparently I included not only adults and children in this assignment, but ducks as well - I've always been very PC).

 

Not homework, just killing time waiting for Plant ID class to start at Strybing Arboretum in San Francisco.  I was actually drawing for fun, not for any specific reason.  Boy, are those days gone!

Here was the class's final graphics assignment - make sketches of the Sunnyside Conservatory in San Francisco and then do a black and white 24x36 illustration. 

I sketched this standing on the sidewalk (30 minutes)

and then drafted and illustrated the design (something like a million hours).

Overal, not too shabby for a first year design student with no particular art training.

Next semester's Landscape Graphics II instructor was the opposite of LG I's, he despised pencils and only drafted in pen. So, being the suck-upy little teacher's pet that I am, I of course swtiched to ink. 

 

Here are plant vignettes I saw at a nursery.  Only one semester later and already I'm abandoning detail for speed.

Fast forward to my first year as a designer.  Still sketching, but you can see the technique is sloppier. 

I later did an illustrated sketch of this one. (Why did I make a dry creek bed blue?  At least it's pretty.)

and just for fun, here is how it actually turned out (we kept the dry creek bed , but nixed the upper patio).

Last year's journal was virtually sketch-free, mostly this type of quick birds eye views to show layout options. 

Here's just about the only sketch I could find from the last several months. 

I drew it, and I'm not even sure I understand it!  I think it's a fountain built into a hillside with a winding staircase and plants behind it.  I particularly like the well-drawn patio table you can barely make out in the front - an oval with two lines attached.

So am I the only one who finds herself chosing speed over precision, practicality over perfection?  Drawing and rendering don't apply to every profession, but don't we all have areas in our jobs and careers where we find ourselves relying on our experience at the expense of reaching out for new ideas?

In this economy, I'm more aware than ever that time is money, but I'm wondering if I should return to spending more time on the artistic expression of design.  I know these are drawings, not actual gardens, but I've always spent time rendering for myself as much as the client - unlike some designers and gardeners, my ideas flow best through my pen.

I think I'll head outside and do some sketching.