Comments on: Episode 4 – Alot Of Heart In San Francisco

By: Best of the Web: Focal Points, Garden Tours, and Zombies, naturally | North Coast Gardening

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:09:28 +0000

[...] contrast, here’s Ivette’s take on the San Francisco Garden Show. You can see it caught her imagination and gave her a lot to think and talk about, as a garden show [...]

By: germinatrix

germinatrix — Sun, 02 May 2010 22:01:51 +0000

Hey there Summer! Yes – IF you are going to use “art” in the garden – please let it be good. I know people love what they love, and they want decorative non-plant elements in their gardens… but just like Interior Designers are charged to educate their clients about taste and discernment, we Garden Designers HAVE to at LEAST advocate for good taste and good design outside. Of course, that being said, if a huge clusterf**k of garden kitsch makes one happy, do it! My clients WON’T be joining in!
I take your point about the Post Apocalyptic Garden – I was basically responding to the clean, simple hardscape elements and that beautiful rusted corten steel lean-to with a grass roof , which I thought was beautiful and could easily transfer to a home garden, no problem. And those breezy grasses (but of course, I’d put succulents in there!) were sexy! Yes, the designer is taking a reality and romanticizing it by projecting it into the future (a little simplistic and unnecessary, when, as you point out, garden “ruins” are all over the place – here and now), but I’ll forgive him that. At least he was following through with an idea that went beyond making a pretty, decorative space – and I applaud that.
I think a garden full of female genitalia could be enthralling! Or strange – but WHO CARES!!! DO IT!!!

By: Summer

Summer — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:17:53 +0000

Ooh that looks like it was fun.

With you on the art garden. My mom has something of an art garden, but she has better art.

I’m really conflicted about the post-apocalyptic garden, not least because mine looks like that a lot of times too! Maybe it’s just that I’m always visually drawn to the beauty of the derelict that I notice it so much: the majority of the world is not, in fact, all that well-kept. There’s decay both in the inner city slum and in aging ghost towns that put different versions of this ‘garden’ all over the world, here and now. There’s something about this high designer claiming it as a ‘vision’ that I find highly offensive. I imagine this person has lived his whole life among manicured lawns and thinks what he’s doing is groundbreaking. The other half of me says, it’s like Lichenstein framing giant comic panels – intellectually challenging, controversial, brilliant. Especially in this fantasy world of completely unrealistic gardens (it’s like the high-fashion of the gardening world, I suppose).

But I totally want a garden full of female genetalia. In fact, I sort of already have that garden: it’s a balcony, an enclosure, a leafy womb. But the square sliding door is just disappointingly inorganic.

By: germinatrix

germinatrix — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:45:04 +0000

Michelle I WISH I could’ve met you, but I have no doubt you and I are destined for a meet-up in the near future…
Thanks for the props to William! He is great – I’m so lucky to have him on my team! He’s a video/installation/multi-media artist and is going to get his Master’s at UCLA this fall … a REALLY hard program to get into. His sensibility with video is such a great match for what I like to do in gardens. I love that you recognize that!
Yeah, the K. Meadows garden was rife with issues that I strive to help people to overcome, which is why I felt it had to be called out on some level. You work with art in gardens, and do it in a very focused, balanced way. It’s a complicated thing to take on – I’m excited to write more about the subject in the future.
Floral Barf Up! HAhahahaha!!! YES. Agreed!
I would have added a little more complexity to the planting of the Post Apocalyptic garden, but as an idea, I was on board. And of course – the Organic Mechanics Cube was just out of this world.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Michelle – always so great to dialog with you!

Adriana! OF COURSE you’d also have a running list of band names! We have to compare ours one day … One of my favorite lectures at art school was when Jello Biafra gave a talk, and he ended with a huge list of band names that fans had sent him. Hilarious!
I’m glad you like the video! I love William’s role in it – the camera man shaking everyone’s hand and being referred to as “Minion”! He thought it was so funny. When he interviewed to work with me, I told him that one of the peculiarities about the job was that he would be called “Minion” online by me, but I never expected it to catch on with the Blog Brigade! HAHAHAhaha!
Hey- I’ll see you this Friday!XOXO!

Loree my dear! We are such brain twins, of course we’d think the same way about art in gardens – especially when you consider the kinds of plants we love, which ARE sculpture! Who needs art when you have AGAVES? I love simple hardscaping and dramatic plantings … any “art” has to be SUPER purposeful and clean, IMO.
Yeah, I didn’t think I was THAT snarky, but Jan said some people might think I was bitchy, since I laugh alot. One man on the San Francisco Garden Show Facebook page had a REAL problem with me, and I was super excited that I got to engage in some controversy! But you’re right – I could’ve been WAY snarkier. I’ll have to send you the stuff we edited out!
Oh, and speaking of sending – I haven’t forgotten about the spiky care package of plants I promised you! As soon as I have time for a garden clean-up/cutback, you’ll get a BIG present!

By: Loree / danger garden

Loree / danger garden — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:55:30 +0000

Thank you for doing this…it was wonderful to see a bit of the show, especially through your eyes. I couldn’t agree more about art and the garden. Sometimes I feel that I am the only one who thinks that way! The popular opinion seems to be the more art you can cram in there the better…but what about the plants!? Aren’t they already enough?

And you really weren’t that snarky…I read the post before watching the video and I was a little let down. I wanted MORE snarkiness!!!

By: Adriana @ Anarchy in the Garden

Adriana @ Anarchy in the Garden — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:52:30 +0000

West Coast Blog Brigade, sounds like another one of my fictitious punk bands. I love it!

Great video Ivette! Poor William, always referred to as minion. HA!

By: Michelle D.

Michelle D. — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:13:36 +0000

Looks like a whole lotta fun.
Sorry to have missed meeting you while you were at the show.
Your cameraman did a wonderful job and I enjoyed your commentary.
And I’m in agreement over the K.Meadows garden. Not only was it a ‘miss’ as you stated but I thought it was also a mess.
It was in the same category as the Floral Barf Up exhibit.
Loved Organic Mechanics piece as well as the New Orleans Jazz Garden.
Luke warm on the Post-Apocalyptic garden.

Thanks for the re-visit.
Michelle in Marin