a greenhouse in the Antarctic - notice how they painted vegetables on the side of the building!

In the last post, we looked at the work of an artist who is creating spaces to grow food in a very difficult place – a cubicle in an office building. In THIS post, we are taking a trip to possibly the most difficult, inhospitable space to grow food in the entire world – McMurdo Ice Station in ANTARCTICA!

You might be asking yourself how your Germinatrix managed to get these super top-secret shots of growing food in this extremely remote, unforgiving place? I will not divulge my sources. Let me just say that I had a clandestine meeting with a young denizen of the ice station, and he regaled me with stories of hydroponic food growing at McMurdo. It was all so Sci-Fi and enthralling!

McMurdo Station is a science and support facility that services all of  the research going on in Antarctica – everything that has to get to the South Pole station (the remotest place on earth) has to come through McMurdo. There are a little over a 1500 people there during the prime season, but when the skies go dark, the numbers dwindle to a tiny crew of support staff and engineers who keep the station up and running until it the conditions are right for the scientists to return. Science and research is the main aim of the station – it is a remarkable “control”, because there is little pollution, and because it is very very quiet – some of the most interesting discoveries about sound have been made down there, in the silence. Isn’t that FREAKY???

what a humble home for such a wonderful thing

Anyway – the people who live at the station subsist mostly on canned and frozen food. But one day, several years ago (my source whispered this as if it were a legend or a well kept secret), one man decided he needed some fresh tomatoes. He commandeered a shed and set about building a hydroponic system to allow for the growing of vegetables and herbs and had a pilot bring him seeds. That was the beginnings of fresh food for the station. I asked if there was any other “plant” being grown in the hydroponics in the shed, but my source just raised an eyebrow- I was left to wonder.

where the magic happens - an obvious labor of love

My source recently returned from his 9 month sojourn way way down there, and he was very serious when he looked into my eyes and said that it is unbelievable the difference fresh herbs made to a meal prepared exclusively of canned or frozen food. I gently patted his hand – I could imagine. He was there at the station doing support work – important maintenance and upkeep of the facilities, but he spent most of his spare time in the growing hut. Not only was the act of cultivating fresh food immensely centering in the strange, dark environment where he found himself , but the growlights helped him keep the intense gloom that a lack of sunlight causes at bay. The air in Antarctica is very dry, but in the food chamber there were humidifiers, so it was comfortable – he would read, listen to music, and nap. I had no idea how necessary a growing environment could be down there – it was obviously something more than just a place to grow food. The way my source described it, it was a GARDEN – a place to get away, to enjoy nature, to revel in the magic of what living plants (and the place they grow in) can do for a person. I was dazzled, but not surprised.

notice the chair in the corner - for relaxation and contemplation in the "garden"

What WAS surprising was the jerry-rigged nature of the greenhouse. I’d imagined it would be sleek and scientific – but no, of course it wasn’t. It was built by food lovers with things that were cast off from the station, because asking for things to be flown in by plane was often a problem. See, EVERYTHING down there has to be flown in or brought in by boat, and the climate makes these trips infrequent. Most of the cargo is limited to necessary science and building equipment, so the fact that they got humidifiers (obviously from Home Depot or OSH), rockwool (the substrate used for hydroponic growing) and growlights was a luxury. Everything else was gleaned and salvaged from things cast off from the station – old ventilation tubing was used to warm the space, drain pipes were cut in half to be used as containers, reflective thermal insulation sheets – all recycled. McMurdo HAS to be a sustainable environment – they have no choice. Instead of everything being Sci-Fi in a sleek, space age way, it was a post-apocalyptic “Mad Max” sensibility that was evident. And that made it better. It shows that we can grow food anywhere, under any conditions, without having to erect an expensive greenhouse. We can find and old shed and go from there, finding what we need in what others throw out and making odd, unwanted things work to our purposes.

this small space provides every bit of fresh food for 1500 people

When I first met my source, and artist Stephen Wong from the previous post, I had science fiction visions of hydroponics bays from Star Trek Voyager, the garden ship tended to by Bruce Dern in Silent Running, and the doomed oxygen garden in Danny Boyle’s Sunshine (Watch Sunshine! Brilliant!!!). Growing food isn’t quaint or cottage-y, it is crucial to our survival, welfare, and general well-being. And it will only become more of an issue in the future. The isolation of the people living in McMurdo made taking control of their fresh food not only an issue of taste and nutrition, but one of emotional and physical well-being. Considering that McMurdo is a science station, might we take the results of the growing of food here and the effect of it on the residents as a type of experiment? I might be getting a little metaphorical and simplistic here, but in dark times, getting close to the means of your food production makes you feel better. Imagine yourself in the darkness of space (or Antarctica!), in a place you can’t leave, eating rations day in day out. I would be like the legend of McMurdo who wanted that fresh tomato – I’d find a way to get something fresh, green, and alive around me. Or I’d scream. And in space, nobody can hear you scream…

I want to thank my source, who is getting ready for a new adventure, this time on the high seas. I am hoping the next time we meet, he has another story to tell, maybe of seaweed farm in the middle of the Sargasso Sea, or of a tribe of vegetarian mermaids who live near the Galapagos.

So there are no excuses – GROW FOOD, wherever you are!

XOXO Your Germinatrix

the run of the mill office cubicle, BUT - Space Cube has come to the rescue!

While enjoying the afternoon, I was introduced to an artist, Stephen Wong (who works also works under the name of Dai Toyofuku), and we got to talking about his project called “Space Cube”. (It has to do with plants, and something about me gets people talking about plants. I wonder what that’s about) Wong creates modular “planting pods” that are specifically made to be used in office buildings by people stuck in cubicles during the work day.

I’m pretty exclusive in my gardening practice – I am all about the glory of the world outside your back door (and front door!), and I tend to see indoor gardening as purely decorative and slightly limited. I mean OF COURSE I know that there are reasons beyond the ornamental for bringing certain plants indoors, but in my personal experience it has never been as satisfying or interesting to garden inside. I’ve made terrariums, coddled ficus trees (which all die miserable deaths for mysterious reasons that get me all riled up), and grown plants that with wicked names like “Mother-in-laws Tongue” that are so boring in their potted isolation that they put me to sleep. The results of my indoor gardening efforts have always looked like a TGI Fridays in San Antonio, Texas. Eeeewww.

shelving with grow lights and SNACKS !

Seeing the images of Wong’s project were exciting to me – here was a very simple, clear, and direct way to utilize the functional aspects of plants in a place where they can have an immediate impact. Most office buildings are “tight”, meaning they were built to minimize the infiltration of outside air to reduce the cost of heating and cooling. As a result, every bit of air in these energy efficient building is recirculated – including the dangerous volatile compounds off-gassed from carpets, office equipment, and chemical cleaning products. There is no way for anyone to stroll over and open a window to let in a breeze – the workers have to sit and suffer the assault of molds, formaldehyde and all matter of noxious ickiness.

Wong’s project sites small plant growing units within an office cubicle. He uses plants that have been tested and proven to help clear the air of chemical compounds, then he directs the air flow to where it is most needed. There are shelving units with grow lights mounted, and here you’ll find lettuces, herbs, and even strawberries. The worker in the “sick” building can grow their own healthy, organic snacks to avoid the dangerous pull of the candy machine.

munch munch munch

The containers where the plants grow are pleasantly hand made out of see through materials. All of the layers of drainage, the soil, and roots are visible. One planter is a closed box – a system which gathers the fresh oxygen released from a boston fern and emits it to the spot where the worker is seated at his/her workstation via a silver ventilation tube with a small fan attached.

the oxygen machine, for your breathing pleasure

Like I said before, indoor planting is dominated by aesthetics. The straightforward, jerry-rigged way Wong builds his “machines” strips down the idea that plants are used to decorate and deals exclusively with the use value of the living material. It has a no nonsense approach that brings an edge of the post-apocalyptic into play – the grow lights are eerie, the bins and buckets used to plant in seem trash-picked, and the crinkly shine of what looks like recycled aluminum foil lines some of the food containers. Who has time to think of “pretty” when the air in your office building is polluted and the food you buy is suspect as well? The movement towards sustainable living also carries with it a frisson of paranoia, which is nicely in evidence in Space Cube.

strawberries! in an office cubicle!

I revel in the place where art and issues of landscape collide. Artists like Fritz Haeg (Edible Estates, Animal Estates) and the Fallen Fruit collective open up their practices and create an inclusive, democratic place between critical thought and our practical, essential, day-to-day concerns with food and planted spaces. It is great to see another art practice moving forward and taking up these issues in a way that welcomes both art viewer and the lay person to join in.

Today I have a special guest star weighing in on Stephen Wong’s Space Cube – ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to my husband, art writer Jan Tumlir:
“There’s a relation to Minimalism – to the shelving units of Donald Judd as well as the plexiglass cubes of Larry Bell and others – in particular, I think of Hans Haacke’s Condensation Cube, but here it is given an environmentally functional role rather than one that is hands off phenomenological. This makes sense in the world, and thereby also complicates its sense as art. Bravo!”

YAY ART!
XOXO Your Germinatrix

goldflame spirea, a grass - leymus, maybe? lover-ly, and doing their part for the environment

My new favorite city is Portland, Oregon. I was there talking up my book (have you heard of it? ahem. I digress…) and was constantly taken aback by the beauty of the city – surely they ordered the sunshine and flowering trees especially for my visit! (Oh, a girl can dream!) I think the thing that swept my heart away was how environmentally and civically  minded the city as a whole is. The citizens are proud of the intense conservation practiced in their city- there are no strip malls in the central city and outlying neighborhoods- no Targets, nothing but lovely little neighborhoods anchored by shopping streets. On these streets you’ll find coffee shops, restaurants with some of the best chefs in the country happily cooking away, wonderful unique shops offering a world of artisanal wonders … Portland, where have you BEEN all my life?

So I was wandering through one of the neighborhoods and I saw an amazing thing – a beautiful little series of bioswales, built on the parkways. Not every  parkway planting strip had a bioswale on it, but there were enough of them that they formed a wonderful visual throughline on the block, as well as performing a valuable function.

looks so good, and is so good FOR you!

A bioswale is a stormwater conveyance system. The idea is to direct the water runoff from impermeable areas, like parking walks, sidewalks, and streets, into the bioswale (or as it was formerly known in the “olden days” – the ditch) and keep it there, moving between stones of different sizes and vegetation so that impurities are filtered out before the water hits the storm drain. The swale needs a gentle slope, rocks, and plants. Easy! They can meander, they can be straight – they just have to keep the water percolating through the swale- the job of the rocks and the plant is to slow the flow of the water so the filtering process can happen. In a rainy climate like the one they have in the Pacific Northwest, the benefits of a bioswale are obvious –  the polluted run-off  from streets and parking lots can be filtered before it is dumped into the storm drains and subsequently into the Wilamette river, and they are wonderful ornamental features that turn what could be a waste of space into something beautiful.

slope, rocks, and plants - a recipe for a good, active ditch!

Portland has a huge bioswale situation going on – you see them all over the city, and I hear they are planning more. The parkway strips (okay -HELLSTRIPS) of our fair land are sorely in need of attention, and Portland is leading the charge to turn them into productive rain-gardens. While I like planting food in MY hellstrip, I think this is a fantastic use of that no-man’s-land. Many of the bioswales in Portland were done by the city and industrial planners, but this one seems to have been done by the citizens of this little street. I was so enchanted. Every bioswale was slightly different, which added to the experience – the design throughline was carried out, but slightly shifted every time you saw it. Fantastic.

this super cute girl lived on the street - she wasn't making a bioswale, but I'll forgive her!

one of the swales have a tiny footbridge! adorable!!!

Everywhere I went in Portland, I saw things that attest to the fact that people there care about their communities, their city, and their world. People are crazy about gardening, they bike everywhere, they are protective of their open space and are justifiably suspicious of developers who would take the character of the city and change it. Don’t go changin’ Portland! I love you JUST the way you are!

Do you live in a rainy climate? Why not consider creating your own bioswale/rain garden?

XOXO Your Germinatrix

those of you who can't use Agave attenuate, I am truly sorry

Agave attenuata – An agave that is often used by pools. It is incredibly sculptural and has no sharp points. It pups easily, and develops a stem so underplanting this beauty is a must for me. And when it blooms – watch out! It will send up a swan’s neck shaped spike that will make you SWOON!

fresh, white, casual, easy - 'Iceberg' is my kind of rose!

Rosa ‘Iceberg’ – What, you say? The Germinatrix is a fan of a simple white rose? YES! R. ‘Iceberg’ is one of the toughest roses around. She does well in drought, doesn’t need much more than a layer of compost for fertilizer, and she blooms her ass off . I love pairing Iceberg with agaves – the soft rose set off against the tough succulent just sends me over the moon every time!

ah, anigozanthus - I love you!

Anigozanthus ‘Orange Cross’ – or ‘Red Cross’, or ‘Harmony’, or ‘Bush Ranger’, or ‘Tango’ – or just the beautiful green flowered A. viridis. I love them all. For much of the year they are a collection of strappy, upright, unassuming leaves – but come summer they burst forth like a cheerleading squad, yelling for attention. I love their stridency, their unabashed attention seeking behavior. And so do hummingbirds!

Euphorbia x martinii, I have always been faithful to you

even though Euphorbia wulfenii gets put into my gardens a little more often

Euphorbias – I love love love them. I use lots of euphorbs in design – trigona, tirucalli, ingens, rigida, polychroma, lambii – but it is Euphorbia characias wulfenii that I go back to again and again. I love its 3′x3′ size ( taller with its super cool Martian blooms), those super cool Martian blooms, and the way they lend their je ne sais quoi to whatever plant is sitting next to them (like a chic French girl). In fact, I don’t think I have ever NOT used E. wulfenii  in a design!

i don't even have to say anything, do I?

Artichoke – Be it ‘Green Globe’ or ‘Imperial Star’, I will go to the mat for this plant. If clients don’t want edibles, I will STILL make them plant artichokes – and they always LOVE them! There aren’t very many edibles that are also dramatic, scene-stealing, stand-alone garden plants, and this is one of them. When a plant looks THIS good and is also delicious, why the hell not? Plant it everywhere, I say! (it looks especially stunning associated with Iceberg roses, bronze fennel, marjoram, and sage – an edible combination to knock you on your BUTT!)

two of my favorites - marjoram and sage

Marjoram and Sage – culinary herbs that do double duty in the landscape. They look fantastic while creating a tough groundcover layer, and they help out in the kitchen! Can you say that about all of your good-looking plants? Marjoram flowers attract bees like nothing else, and sage comes in so many fantastic colors that NOT planting it seems like a serious mistake to me, even if you aren’t thinking about eating the leaves!

I ADORE the agave, but it is the pelargonium that I'm talking about...

Pelargonium ‘Chocolate Mint’ – We all know that I will plant as many agaves as I can in a garden, and this A. weberi is no exception – but right now I am focused on the underplanting of Pelargonium ‘Chocolate Mint’, otherwise known as Chocolate Mint Scented Geranium. This just LOOKS like chocolate mint, don’t try and make tea or flavored sugar with it! It smells pungent, like a resin of some sort. But all it needs to do for me is be lush and gorgeous, and create a low carpet to pull my plantings together, and I will love it forever.

if it is an aeonium, I am going to use it and be pleased with myself!

Aeoniums – I used to plant more A. ‘Zwartkopf’ (the black rose succulent) than any other aeonium, but now it is A.urbicum that has my heart. Just look at the huge dinner plate form! Here in Southern California, it grows beautifully in dry shade – I often combine it with Euphorbia martinii and Huechera maxima. I just love easy drama!

I could seriously go on and on – but I might start taking up some crazy bandwidth! Let me just say that these plants are very specific to my climate, which is hot, dry, and  Mediterranean. I like to push zones and mix in other types of plantings, but my backbone is always the tough palette that Southern California affords us. I consider myself lucky! The only reason I DON’T feel lucky right now is that I have so many MORE plants to talk about – I didn’t even TOUCH on GRASSES! ANATHEMA!

XOXO Your Germinatrix!

Now follow the links across the country to see what my fabulous colleagues are planting!

I’d like to thank our very Special Guest Star, the Magnificent Nan Ondra – who wrote us a huge, luscious post! What a delicious treat to read!!!

Nan Ondra : Hayefield : Bucks County, PA

Andrew Keys : Garden Smackdown : Boston, MA

Christina Salwitz : Personal Garden Coach : Renton, WA

Genevieve Schmidt : North Coast Gardening : Arcata, CA

Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO

Laura Livengood Schaub : Interleafings : San Jose, CA

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In the Garden : Los Altos, CA

Rochelle Greayer : Studio G : Boston, MA

Susan Morrison : Blue Planet Garden Blog : East Bay, CA

JoAnn is a fabulous mama bear to her hundreds and hundreds of seedlings

Meet JoAnn Trigo, owner of Two Dogs Nursery, in the Mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles.

She provides a very very valuable service to gardeners (like me) who want to grow the best, coolest edibles around – but just don’t have the time or patience or wherewithall to do the whole “planting in seed trays then pot those up to tiny pots then pot THOSE up to slightly bigger pots then put them out in the garden” thing. If I can’t sow it directly into my garden, I am probably not going to sow it at all. But I don’t want to go buy my starts at any old nursery, either – how can I guarantee that they are organic? JoAnn to the rescue! She is grower of 100% certified organic edible starts – and that is all she does. I love a focused objective!

her nursery is run out of her home - check out the edible containers spilling out into the front yard!

JoAnn started this from love and passion – she saw a hole in the market and went for it. Thank goodness! I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to be assured of the organic status of your starts. She is so ecologically responsible she doesn’t use peat in her seed starting mix – she uses coconut fiber. (the harvesting of ancient peat marshes for peat moss to use in planting mixes is just as bad as strip mining, in my opinion. Go Peat Free!!!)

munch munch munch... how good does this look?

pretty!

I’m going to confess to a dream – I TOTALLY want to have my own nursery one day. It would be different than JoAnn’s, because I am so mad for succulents and ornamentals as well – AND I want the nursery to convert to a bar at night! But when I saw what she did, how she had an idea and went for it at the right time, and made it work – well, it inspires me.

food glorious food!

tomato row - I want some! (actually, I got some!)

little babies, growing strong...

Thank you, JoAnn, for opening up your appointment-only nursery at such short notice to me! And an extra thanks to my friend Nick Kersulis, who found JoAnn and her amazing enterprise while taking a walk in his neighborhood. Way to spy a good thing!

So all of you don’t live in Los Angeles, but Two Dogs has a website! And I encourage all of you to visit your local Farmers Markets, because many growers of organic seedlings sell their wares alongside the vegetables and flowers. If all else fails, ask questions at your nursery – are these edible starts organic? Is the grower certified? Are they local? It is important to let the powers that be in the nursery industry know that being organic is what we DEMAND – it may not be easy, but it is the only way to go!

XOXO Your Germinatrix!

the one picture I managed to take- not your conventional garden!

Sorry, everybody.

Last year, I did SUCH a fantastic post about the San Francisco Garden Show – yes, the pictures were blurry, but I had a VIDEO and everything!

This year, I got bupkiss. I was doing a lecture on The Edible Front Yard, and I get SO nervous that all I can do is sit around and gossip. If I even LOOK at anything horticultural, my brain begins to spin – “Who do I think I am?” and “Clearly I suck” or “I am going to open my mouth and all that will come out will be a big embarrassing burp”. So I have no pictures of any value. Clearly, your Germinatrix kinda sucks. But my lecture was pretty good!

So instead of pretty pictures, I’d like to take you on a verbal journey of highlights, via this list of my favorite memories of SFGS 2011, in no particular order:

***  Walking through the show with Jenny Nybro Peterson, fab garden designer from my beloved Austin, Tx. But she is more than that – she is an amazing source of bright, loving white light! REALLY!!! Ask anybody who knows her. While we were walking around, I would be going on about stuff in a critical manner – but Jenny illuminated the show! She looked at every display for “take-aways”, things she could learn and glean even if the display wasn’t totally on point. I was stunned. Who IS this positive, open creature and how did she walk into my dark realm? I started looking for take-aways, too – and by the end of the show I was wearing pastel pink. Yes. Her power is THAT strong! (and I look GREAT in pink!)

***   Rich Radford. Swoon. Last year, this designer won the gold medal with his post-apocalyptic garden (which I loved). He also won the hearts of every woman (and many men) who gazed into his deeply warm, chocolatey brown eyes. And he has a South African accent. Last year, I shamelessly trotted after him like a puppy dog. This year, I was more composed; adult – I played it cool. As a result, he stopped to talk to me in the press room and winked when he left. I almost swallowed my tongue.

***  A sprited conversation with Amy Stewart (awesome authoress who writes the books I wish I could write) and Steve Aitken (EOC of Fine Gardening, who has a super dry sense of humor and made me laugh way too loudly) at the writer’s dinner . The topic was “Do garden shows do their public a disservice by being too fanciful?” I, of course, took both sides of the argument – which is my clever strategy for always coming out on top. Amy was on to me from the get go. We all got nice and animated and drank lots of sangria, and I forgot all the smart, witty things I’d WANTED to say and just ended up saying “YOU know… I mean, right? You know what I mean, right Steve?” I don’t think I’ll be getting any writing jobs from Fine Gardening anytime soon…

***  Sitting next to Laura Livengood Schaub the day of my talk. I was on my computer, trying to settle myself and remind myself of all of the pithy phrases I wanted to casually toss off, and Laura was sitting next to me, doing her important Laura things. There was such a feeling of warmth and comfort coming from her, I couldn’t help but be happy. That woman is like a snifter of really delicious brandy – tasty, soothing, lovely. One always wants more!

***  Rebecca Sweet‘s party – which I didn’t stay at long enough! It was a fabulous blend of fun garden folk, with special martinis made just for me by the wonderful Tom (Rebecca’s super great husband), who even made me an extra martini when the one I was drinking mysteriously went flying across the room and smashed on the floor. I SWEAR it wasn’t ME! I also won the door prize, and I NEVER win anything!!! I also decided that I was going to move to Richmond, CA to be closer to Annie’s Annuals and my new friend Maureen Decombe. AND Elayne Takemoto (the voice of Annie’s) and I decided we are related somehow.

*** Laughing my BUTT off any time Susan Morrison said anything. That woman is so witty and awesome and sly – she can literally just look at me and I will erupt into laughter. She also approved of my use of the term “Cock-blocked” (it happened to be the ONLY way to describe the situation in question!), which of course makes her my friend for life.

***  The poised, elegant Debra Lee Baldwin almost running over Steve Aitkin’s foot with her rental car. And she was STILL graceful while doing it! Amazing!

***  Farmer Ben (watch the video!). Sorry, Rich Radford – The Germinatrix is flighty; her heart can never belong to one man.

***  Standing at the podium, taking a breath before I started my talk, and seeing my beloved blogfriends sitting together in one big, supportive group. Those beautiful faces. You know who you are! I had to swallow a knot in my throat, took another breath, and then lectured away!

Thank you all for making SFGS a show to remember – even without pictures!
XOXO Your Germinatrix

ps – okay YES this is a very name-droppy post, but it sort of HAD to be! Don’t roll your eyes at me!!!

This month’s Garden Designers Roundtable was a big design throw-down, where everybody attacked a design of a garden in the Northeastern part of the country. How fun, right? Wellllll…

I didn’t take up the challenge – I didn’t throw down the gauntlet.
I COULDN’T.
Why you ask? You, Germinatrix, are a garden designer! You should be able to get a plan from across the country and be able to go to town on it – you should be able to DOMINATE!
But, there is something I need before I design a garden, something I absolutely must have before I approach the important work of creating a meaningful outdoor space for someone.
I need THEM.

the artists in their edible garden

I need to meet my clients. Actually, I need to MORE than meet my clients – I need to know them intimately. I know, I know – it sounds strange. It sounds invasive, maybe even vampirish! But I know from experience that my best work comes from the time I spend getting to know the people I am designing for. If I don’t really KNOW who they are and what they love, all I am doing is designing for myself.

Not that that is all bad, of course – I can address issues and challenges that always come with any site, I can enhance what is there and create something beautiful, of course. But it is the creating of spaces in collaboration with clients that makes me happy. I spend time with my clients – we have coffee, we have lunches, they come over to my house and we talk about desires and peeves. I want to know what makes them laugh and what they love. When I have infused a garden with the essence of the client is when I know I’ve done my job. I want all of my gardens to look different – I don’t want to see myself in my gardens, I want to see my clients. This is something that I’ll be working on forever, I’m sure – how to disappear in my work – how to make each garden I create as idiosyncratic and personal as each client. I want it to look like THEY made it. To do that, I need them.

they are extremely intelligent, funny, active, up for anything, expressive, iconoclastic, sharp, motivated, open-minded, well read, and let's face it - really foxy!

Case in point – The Young Artists. They were my partners in creating their garden – they allowed me to ask crazy questions and poke and prod, to figure out not only the “them” they present to the world, but who they really ARE. Their tastes are different (not unusual – designers often have to marry two extremely different aesthetic styles into a landscape. It’s FUN!) He is clean, modern, sharp – he loves lines and angles, he is meticulous and has a tremendous personal power. He is also very funny and sweet and open to experimentation. She is sensual and free, theatrical and lush, she loves the unusual, the strange, the thing “under” the real thing. The opportunity to create for them was an incredible treat – something I feel so lucky to have experienced.

For me, knowing these two was so much more important than the contingencies of the site. The clients are the biggest variables of any design project. It may be indulgent of me, but it really is something I can’t design without. To do my best work, I need to fall in love with my clients. Some clients make it more difficult than others, but there is something in every client that I can find to grab ahold of, that I can attach myself to, that I can swoon over. It makes me a better designer.

what do they love? look at them! obviously, each other. I have a big client crush on them!

So I apologize to my Roundtable peers for not taking up the sword with them this week – but PLEASE take a trip around the country and see what they did to the mystery site in the Northeast US – I guarantee it is going to be an eye-opening event!

XOXO Your Germinatrix

Carolyn Gail Choi : Sweet Home and Garden Chicago : Chicago, IL

Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT

Douglas Owens-Pike : Energyscapes : Minneapolis, MN

Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Susan Cohan : Miss Rumphius’ Rules : Chatham, NJ

the entry gate to the White/Marble estate - pretty sexy, yes?

In the last post, you met Jorge – in this post, I want to introduce you to artist Pae White, who has been another incredibly important source of inspiration to me. She and her husband, Tom Marble, have created the most enigmatic, eclectic, mouth-wateringly fantastic home that still manages to be warm and inviting. I was lucky enough to be there recently, and snapped some shots that will give you an idea of why knowing these two has helped to shape my ideas about design and using space.

this is Pae - if I were a better photographer, I could introduce you to Tom, too - but every picture of him was blurrier than blurry, so he'll have to stay a mystery

and this is wonderful KeeBee, the softest dog in the world - to know her is to love her

Tom designed their home – a square within a square; a series of rooms that flow one into the next, and all open onto a central courtyard.

just look at the color of the courtyard walls! the bare trees are ginko biloba - a glorious sight when they are flaming with their yellow fall glory

Within the walls that Tom created, Pae deployed her massive collection of phenomenal objects d’art – every room is a swoon-inducing mix of estate sale finds, antique store gems, and art that has been acquired over the years. The result is totally, uniquely Pae.

the living room complete with an inviting fire- if you look closely you can see that the andirons are kitty-cats!

moving into the library/dining room - are you DYING over that Chinese screen?

the idea of combining a library and a dining room is BRILLIANT! and the black lacquered bookshelves - I die... AND the chandeliers were made by Pae - I'm TELLING you!

This is a home one could seriously write a book about, and I’m certain one will be in the works shortly. Pae’s work has been widely shown nationally and internationally – her installation at 2009′s Venice Biennal was astounding. In an ancient building she created low-slung ceiling of woven colored thread and hung chandeliers made of birdseed. She then invited a group of Italian “bird singers” to attend the show, to blend in and then do birdsongs and birdcalls while the viewers were strolling around. The effect was magical – watch the video of the Birdsingers here, and Pae talking about her work here. And that was just ONE piece! She is the real deal.

I love this gravel patio, full of amoeba-shaped puffy "benches" that can be pushed together or spread apart. (check out the striped facade! So cool!)

The outside of the house is being developed into a series of serene spaces (totally unintentional alliteration – SWEAR!) that embrace the Mediterranean climate and marries Tom’s sense of geometric lines and planes with Pae’s love of the lush and the dramatic.

the round pavers are seeded with different shades of tumbled glass. Here, the burnt orange upholstery stripe sings with the tangerine candy-like sprinkles

blue speckled pavers near the fountain

...multi-colored circles leading up to the cherry red Fermob dining table

The plantings are gorgeous mixes of phormiums, leucadendrons, aloes, and agaves , with other drought tolerant stand-bys in attendance. There is a super-chic front courtyard lined with Eureka lemons, but you’ll have to see it in my book! (Follow this shameless link to the Amazon.com pre-sale page!) Until then, you’ll have to be satisfied with this parade of gorgeousity:

outside of the kitchen, the potted herb garden peaks from behind some handy seating

stripes are a recurring theme in the White/Marble world - even in plants

J'adore Leucadendron 'Goldstrike'! and they are going mad right about now - one of the many joys of the year-round gardening world of LA

the view up the driveway

a jumble of sharp planted shapes marching in a row

don't you just want to sit down under the olive trees, smelling the lavender, and enjoy?

Like I said – this could (AND SHOULD) be a book! I hope this little taste of this remarkable home gives you tingles and lets you unleash your creative imagination. How about a New Year’s Resolution – or a New Year’s REVOLUTION – let’s PLAY! Let’s expand our thinking and make our spaces into places we love, spaces that reflect ourselves and our desires. Don’t let anyone tell you that they are the expert – be your OWN expert! Let people inspire you, not tell you what to do. Be bolstered and be bold! That is my wish for all of us in 2011 – let’s become more ourselves, and make it visible and evident so we we can in turn inspire others! It it too much to ask? I don’t think so! Let’s GO!!!

See you all in the New Year! Have fun and be safe!

XOXOXO Your Germinatrix

meet Jorge Pardo.

He’s an artist, and an old friend. We met when my husband was writing an essay about Jorge for a catalog for one of his many many MANY shows, and we hit it off like gangbusters. I think it’s cultural – we both have the hot blood of the Caribbean flowing through our veins, and we are both fire signs (he’s an Aries, I’m a Sagittarius – you really shouldn’t even TRY to get a word in edgewise when we’re around). Jorge’s work is pretty controversial. I’ll try not to over-simplify it – his work balances on a sharp edge between art and design, something that alot of people have a big problem with. Some people think it’s too easy. Well, check out his work.

the library of the old DIA in Chelsea, NYC

a pier in Germany

droolworthy art

Jorge is really well known for his lamps. What is it about a lamp that qualifies it as art? … Jorge Pardo made them and gave them a big dose of complexity.

I think there might have been 100 lamps in this room

check this one out

Jorge built a house when I first met him, and some of the money came from the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art – in return the house was an exhibit space before he officially moved in. (People in LA got their panties in SUCH a wad over this – the rumor is STILL that Jorge hoodwinked the museum into paying for his house. Not true, but whatever – it makes for a great legend). When I first toured the empty house, it was an enigmatic horseshoe with no streetside fenestration at all, but when you walked into the interior courtyard there were floor to ceiling windows surrounding what was obviously the perfect space for a jewel-box of a garden. I remember being totally jealous of whoever it was that was going to get to create that garden.

Hahaha – yes, Jorge asked ME to design the garden, and this is the garden that changed my life.

a sunken "conversation" pit matches the one Jorge designed in the living room

the view from the bedroom

monster garden

As Jorge and I talked about what the garden would be, as we discussed plants, architecture and abandoned places, as I walked the site, explored the house  and learned more about my new friend’s process I realized that I was feeling something very different than the regular old excitement of a fun project.  There was something else happening. Problems were something to embrace and exploit rather than something to “solve”. This project was about more than making a “pretty” landscape that could set the house off to its best advantage – it was about making something complicated and interesting. The old way of doing things clearly didn’t apply. This man was reckless (in the best sense of the word – in fact, he was possibly a little bit of a MANIAC!). His thinking was so expansive, and there was no fear to try things; I wanted this space to reflect that spirit. It couldn’t hold back – it had to throw itself at you in a big, all encompassing way. The garden had to be bad. It had to risk not working. It had to teeter on the edge of being a hodge-podge of epic proportions. Gardeners are supposed to follow rules, and here I was, chomping at the bit to make a completely rule breaking garden. We wanted too many plants for the space. AWESOME – let’s DO IT! We wanted plants that were too big for the space – WHATEVER – they’re PLANTS! Let’s PLAY! We wanted a prehistoric monster of a garden – agaves and Floss Silks trees and bananas with red splotches on the leaves! Yuccas and opunitas and roses! We wanted plants that made no sense together to mash up happily. I took a deep breath and jumped in with both feet. The result is a space that literally engulfs you with plant madness – it takes your breath away.

The architecture of the house was the template for the garden spaces. Every room has its corresponding outdoor doppelganger. But the plants carry the day; they practically assault you when you walk into the garden. (And I mean literally! Jorge ripped out an aloe when it attacked him one day as he got out of his car. Well, he ASKED for a monster garden!) They stop you in your tracks and demand attention. A branch of a Euphorbia ingens went rogue, crested, and decided to aggressively insert itself right in front of the kitchen door. You literally had to acknowledge it, check out the strange formation, and then step around it to get inside. Most clients would have chopped off such a demanding plant, but Jorge loved it, bragged about it, and made people bend and twist around it to enter his home. The complication of it was central to his enjoyment of it.

Not everybody can have a garden like this, and I do realize that. But since working on this project, my ideas about plants, design and designing with plants has changed. Every garden I do has a little bit of Jorge’s garden in it. I bring a bit of recklessness into my process, while trying to balance the needs of the space and the demands of the plants. I try and get my clients as eager to play garden design with me as Jorge was…

…and is! I’m currently working on a HUGE garden with him in the Yucatan – you can see some of the pre-planted site here and here. And yes, this artist and friend really IS a genius. Certified. Jorge was one of the recipients of the 2010 MacArthur Genius Grants.

I told him I’m going to start stitching everything he says on pillows. I think it’s a BRILLIANT idea. He’ll probably use it. So if you all see a big mountain of pillows at the next Pardo show with outrageous Jorge-isms embroidered on them, remember that you read about  it here first.

Inspiration ABOUNDS!!!

How do my colleagues get inspired? What have they to say about “Inspiration”? Whatever it is, you KNOW it’s good! Kick back and get ready to learn something as you follow the links that make up this month’s Garden Designers Roundtable.

XOXO Your Germinatrix

Now go get some MORE inspiration from my fellow Roundtablers! You can start your trip around the country by following these links:

Andrew Keys : Garden Smackdown : Boston, MA

Carolyn Gail Choi : Sweet Home and Garden Chicago : Chicago, IL

Douglas Owens-Pike : Energyscapes : Minneapolis, MN

Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Pam Penick : Digging : Austin, TX

Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In the Garden : Los Altos, CA

Rochelle Greayer : Studio G : Boston, MA

Susan Cohan : Miss Rumphius’ Rules : Chatham, NJ

Susan Morrison : Blue Planet Garden Blog : East Bay, CA

terraces and raised beds of lawn in Robert Irwin's Palm Garden, surrounding Renzo Piano's new pavilion at LACMA

Full disclosure: I am a HUGE fan of artist Robert Irwin. I was excited to see the new garden he created for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In direct proportion to my love for Robert Irwin is my disdain for lawn. And when I walked into the garden space – it was mostly … yes – lawn. I believe lawn is a crazy extravagance here in Southern California, and when my eye sees endless emerald swaths of grass, my nose turns up in disgust. But then I experienced this garden. And swooned.  …Eventually.

set off by rusted corten steel and bright red ventilation units, I don't think green has ever looked greener

When Robert Irwin designed the gardens at The Getty Center, there was an enormous outcry from the LA gardening community – HOW could this plum job be given to an ARTIST rather than a landscape designer? The garden was criticized for being spotty, poorly designed, and for being a “onesy” type of crazy quilt – but I loved it, and still do. It is a smart garden, in my opinion, and it has grown in beautifully.  Now there is another important Irwin garden intervention surrounding a museum space in Los Angeles, and I was expecting to love it at first sight. Then I saw all that LAWN. I literally couldn’t see anything else. My panties immediately got all bunched up with indignation. Doesn’t anyone KNOW or CARE that lawn is irresponsible, dangerous, and DULL?

But I had to admit – this lawn was not dull. Surrounded by rusted corten steel, the bright, fresh green color of the grass is amplified. In fact, ALL of the colors in the Palm garden seemed brighter. But STILL! I didn’t want to like this work – my reaction was strong and confused.  My husband Jan (Tumlir, who is an art writer and critic) had to talk me down and get me to adjust my attitude for the moment; to consider the context.  Even though one of my missions as a garden designer is to get people to re-think their need for lawn, I had to consider that there might be appropriate places for it. My argument is always that lawn needs to be used specifically, with purpose; it can’t just be the “default setting” of a landscape. As my raised hackles began to lower, I stated to be able to see the garden.

phoenix canariensis in corten steel boxes that mimic wooden plant crates - LOVE!!!

The turfgrass was definitely used with specific purpose – in most areas it was framed and raised, as if it were a precious specimen plant. The crisp lines that can be created by this “plant” were used to fantastic effect. The other plants in the palette are structural and strict, there are no mounds, no billowing, no softness – this is a precise, intense, spare garden without a “romantic” moment in it. The palms and cycads, ancient plants that Irwin chose for their “antediluvian” history, talk to the prehistoric LaBrea Tarpits, just a few yards away – but the result is clearly modern and fresh.

this made me laugh out loud - how often can you say that bout a garden?

Gardeners will appreciate a little inside joke, a wink Robert Irwin gives us by creating GORGEOUS raised planters out of rusted steel in the exact shape and size of the tree boxes that growers use to grow and transport their large specimens. I want one, BADLY!!! I started letting go and actually started loving what I was seeing. It is formal – you don’t want to get off the paths and walk on the grass here – it feels like it does inside the museum; roped off. You don’t want to get too close to the art. Very smart to see that kind of deliberate thought process used in the garden. Alot has been said of  Irwin’s choice of palms as a tree emblematic of Los Angeles – but I also see the choice as cartoonish and playful. This is echoed in the garden over and over – the steel tree “boxes”, the bold outlines of the Furcrea foetida ‘Mediopicta’ and the bromeliads, raised beds filled with rocks, and the bright red color “borrowed” from details of Renzo Piano’s pavillion. Even the lawn, which looks like it was colored in with a green crayon and outlined with Crayola ‘Burnt Sienna’.

it works.

You must think I am SO easy. WHAT a flip – flopper!!! All it takes is a big deal art star to throw down some Marathon 2 and she’s all “YAY LAWN!!! Go for it LAWN!!! WOOOOOOO!!!” Well, no. In the intro to my upcoming book, artist Fritz Haeg calls lawn …” a ceremonial space”. In our front yards, we want to re-capture that space. We want to get rid of the water guzzling carpet and make something that makes our lives better in some way. But Robert Irwin’s Palm Garden, cuddled up against the new pavilion at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, IS a ceremonial space if there ever was one! If not here, then where? There has to be a place where people (if they are going to do the right thing and either minimize or eliminate their lawns at home) can go and enjoy the sheer indulgence of lawn. The oddness of it. See it used with a clear purpose and a clever hand. I accept that there should be lawn in public parks and museums, where people can lay on the grass and relax, picnic, or roll over and look at the passing clouds.

Just Not In My Front Yard.

XOXOXO your Germinatrix!