01/23/12

New Landscapes for 2008

I do quite a lot of Feng Shui as well as teach courses and do seminars and one of the primary tenants of Feng Shui is to reduce clutter so that good luck chi can flow easily. Well I am not so good at following my own advice. The clutter in my life just led to needless work this year and ended with the lose of all of my pictures. Computers crash this happens but I hadn't backed up my information. Lost everything. So although I did lots of work I don't have any pictures so this year's gallery is a little skimpy. Good news is I was able to load pictures from my staff and friends. I have since thrown out, recycled and given away a vast amount of stuff, fixed and repaired what I am keeping, and make regular backups. Guess sometimes you need a little Feng Shui wake up.

Condo Front Entrance

One of my big beefs with landscape architects in Edmonton (which usually design commercial properties) is that they only know 4 plants: juniper, potentilla, spirea, and sod - period. I understand cost saving is important but a 2 gallon plant costs the same as any other 2 gallon pot. This year I was asked to design a Condo. I started with the simple statement why can't Edmonton (the capital of the richest province in Canada) look like Vancouver, Kelowna, or even Cranbrook or Vernon. All the plants in this design, except one Hydrangea, are a zone 3 and many of them are a zone 2.

Condo1 Prepix When I first came for my interview I walked right by the entrance because I thought it was the side door	Condo3 3D mock up For many of my designs I will do a 3D to show the client what the design would look like. These are actual plant pix that I cut out on the computer and then apply to the actual photograph.	Condo4 Planted up The installation was in May and this shot was taken later in the summer. I think in the one year later pictures that I will take in 2009 it will look exactly like the 3D mockup.	Condo5 Mulch I like working with colour both with the plants and with mulch. Here is a fantastic opportunity to work with texture as well.
Condo6 Flow The design was meant to carry your eye down the entire length of the building rather than just look at a Starbucks sign.	Condo7 Timing Because there is a long length I was able to bring in enough plants so that there would be something in flower from May through October. Can't wait to see the garden come together next year.	Condo 1yr Later A Wow, all the residence just pulled together. That place was spotless, watered, and fertilized to perfection through out the year.	Condo 1yr later B The plants tripled in size in one season. And even the zone 4 plants made it through the winter beautifully.

A Touch of Asian

Asian1 PrePix This landscape was done well but has a strange devotional aspect that the client didn't like and therefore she never used the garden.	Asian2 finished I had always considered an alpine garden I did a few years ago as one of my most creative pieces. This yard just makes me stop in awe. (I actually am fairly humble and I am generally fairly surprised when everything just comes together and works)	Asian3 Lights Because we live in complete darkness for 7 months of the year why spend all that money to look at nothing during the winter. I firmly believe you can not have a garden with out lights. Lights create drama, movement and energy during the depths of winter.	Asian4 Materials Very cool materials, and Indian sandstone patio, rocky mountain brown cut stone retaining walls, tumbled granite stepping stones, and an iron based basalt split to be a birdbath stone (not in the shot).
Asian 1yr later A Still my favourite.	Asian 1yr Later B For those who are lucky enough to live in the inner core of the city you are blessed with unbelievable growth because in general the core is always warmer. The blue hydrangeas came back and flowered abundantly	Asian 1yr Later C I was surprised at how tall the Karl Forester grass and Russian Blue sage grew in its first year.	Asian 1 yr Later D Not my work, the homeowner just has phenomenal taste. But I drool over this deck everytime I walked by it.

Borrowed Landscaping

Now that I look back I spent most of the summer just redoing other peoples landscapes. In this case the neighbour had done a very nice job on her redo. Because the yards are so small I mirrored her lines to create a completely different negative space and thus unify both yards. 

Borrowed1 PrePix Again a good example how to create plain and boring.	Borrowed2 Prepix I wasn't quite sure what the original landscapers were trying to achieve.	Borrowed3 Creating Negative space By creating one bed and then mirroring some of the lines with another bed you create interesting shapes with the sod	Borrowed4 Addition of texture A garden should look as interesting during the off season as during the summer
Borrowed5 Here you can see the neighbour to the right and how that design was incorporated into mine. Once the plants grow out a little there should I hope be a seemless integration.	Borrowed6 Ok, you are saying to yourself how is this different? I added extra trees, and large shrubs that will give quite a lot of fill and huge fall colour. Just wait it'll come	Borrowed 1yr A Although an irrigation system is very expensive it really can completely turn a garden around.	Borrowed 1yr B Over the years I have experimented with many different combinations and this is one of my favourites. These two will flower together for almost a month
Borrowed 1yr C This detail really helped in accentuating the front entrance and made it more inviting	Borrowed 1yr D Here, you can already see how the two sides are starting to come together even this early on.

Large Landscape

I know I complain too much because another beef I have is when landscape architects don't interview a client and ask them what they want in their own gardens. This design was finished and we were just bidding on the construction. I asked the client what do you like in a garden both of them talked none stop about colour. When I looked at their design they had rows and rows of juniper, pine and Swedish aspen poplar. Unfortunately, this is fairly common.

Large2 prepix Dianne Pilling and I worked together to tear down part of the half finished landscaping because the design was too patchy and incongruent	Large2 planting The design was redone to include colour and continuous flower blooms from April to October, and then become an interesting winter garden	Large3 Balance Landscaping is a great way to balance the look of the house in the yard	Large4 Synthetic Lawn For deep shade areas or areas that are bone dry I highly suggest the use of the Synthetic lawns. The quality is unbelievable now a days.
Large5 stream Here the synthetic lawn fits superbly against a gurgling stream	Large6 waterfall This waterfall I am fairly proud of as it splits into a male and female stream as well as having 3 burblers. Integrated within the stream are rose coloured quartz, glacial green limestone, and rare purple granite. Sounds crazy crazy but in person its jaw dropping.	Large7 example of poor foundation Not my work, but a good example that foundation is absolutely imperative. In less than a year this pillar is starting to lean. By next year I suspect this will lean over another couple of inches.