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

just LOOK at this display garden! OMG - THIS is what I call "bringing it"!

Hey ALL!!!

I have returned from the Northwest Flower and Garden show, where I gave my first garden lecture ever!!! I was SOOO nervous I was basically a wreck before I spoke, (right Loree? Sweet Danger Garden was there to simultaneously psych me up and calm me down- thank GOD) so only took one good picture. But I must say – THIS is a GARDEN SHOW!!!

It was glorious – and the display gardens were dreams! AMAZING!!! Sigh – if only Los Angeles could muster this kind of support and commitment!

So I am lame, I got nothing for you as far as the show goes – but THANKFULLY my dear friend and colleague Susan Morrison of Blue Planet Garden Blog happens to have photographed all of my favorite moments, and speaks to them in a delightful manner that I support wholeheartedly! So to enjoy the Northwest Flower & Garden Show, here is WHAT SHE  SAID about it!

Oh, and you all MUST get Susan and Rebecca’s book Garden Up! – they are smart, funny, talented, and they are my very dear friends – all that and the book is great!

Speaking of book and lecture – I made it through without completely embarrassing myself! The lecture was actually fun, and the crowd seemed to be having a good time – what more could I want? One issue I identified – I really have to work on my signature, I kept feeling I was ruining peoples books with my big, sloppy, loopy, twelve-year-old-girl handwriting!

two hot author chicks - fabulous Andrea Bellamy and I glowing with pride!

I finally got to meet Heavy Petal’s Andrea Bellamy! We’ve been blogfriends forever, and so getting to spent time with her was an incredible treat. Good times were had, talks were given, seedballs were made, martinis were drunk, delicious food was eaten, all while Seattle was in the middle of a crazy cold snap – snow flurries are SO exotic to this hot zone girl!

So remember – for more info on the show – WHAT SHE SAID!!!

XOXO Your Germinatrix!

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

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

a bowl of ladybugs makes a fun afternoon for my favorite neighbors

not even the tough boys could resist the spotted little beetles

Ana was the Captain of the Ladybug Brigade

she kept stopping to feed the little ladies a flower...

one, two, three ... GO!!!

they tickle...

"the ... the... little things... ladies-bugs... they're on the FLOWER! they're EATING the FLOWER! ...they don't eat the flower? why? cuz... cuz... my grandpa says bugs EAT FLOWERS! not these ones? heeheehee! I LIKE THESE ONES!!!"

"... but... but ... where is the ladies-bugs GOING???"

"...did ...did one went in my ear?"

Ana's brother happily takes back the bowl, assuring her there is no ladybug in her ear, and if one goes in, he'll take it out for her

... and suddenly they were gone, scattered like little ladybugs themselves, scampering home to sound that only they could hear - one that had to mean dinner time. The Captain and her Troupes did well - the 2010 release of the ladybugs was a complete success. Bravo.

chopping up the tomato harvest- no big deal... but I assure you, THIS was an EVENT

For those of us who love to grow food, this is the time of year when we really reap the rewards of our hard work. In fact, sometimes we reap like crazy. This year, I am reaping buttloads of tomatoes. What to DO with them once you’ve had caprese salads daily, pasta every way imaginable, sun dried them, salsa’d them, given them to friends… is there anything new do be done with the emblem of the summer garden?

Well, why not make jam?

Fallen Fruit is a Los Angeles based art project that explores notions of urban spaces, neighborhoods, and ideas of community. It began by creating maps of fruit trees growing on and above public land and encouraging foraging. The ideas of foraging and gleaning food from our public and semi-public spaces is rife with social and political implications – a great way to familiarize yourself with these ideas is to see Agnes Varda‘s fantastic documentary  The Gleaners & I, made in 2000. Anyway, Fallen Fruit started as a collaboration between three artists, David Burns, Matias Viegener, and Austin Young, and has grown to be an exciting movement that has galvanized many to think about food  and our city in a different way. On Sunday, August 1st, they had one of their public Jam Sessions at the LA County Museum of Art, where they encourage people to bring home grown and foraged/gleaned fruit to be jammed – for free, all you needed to do is leave one jar behind.

awesome Matias greets us as we arrive - he taught at Cal/Arts when Jan and I were there (how does he manage to look younger than us?!)

Matias gives eager jammers pointers on flavor combinations and proportions

Well, it was a packed house! People brought fruit galore and were happily chopping and mashing and slicing – everyone was pretty sticky, but it was the right kind of sticky; gooey, messy, foody fun!

what better way to spend a sunday than to get messy playing with food?

everything was provided, all you had to bring was fruit and a sweet tooth

While most people brought fruit, Jan and I brought tomatoes – but a tomato IS a fruit, so I felt justified in my jamming endeavors. My jam was going to be yellow and red tomatoes, mint, basil, and jalapenos from my garden, and then some bitter orange and Oro Blanco grapefruit provided by Fallen Fruit. Doesn’t that sound … adventurous?

okay - Jan doesn't like tomatoes. But here he is anyway, bravely cutting up his least favorite fruit to make my jammy dreams come true

this face shows Jan's true feelings as he sprinkles bitter orange zest on the jam - to - be

It was a lively crowd – everybody was excited, talking, sharing recipes, making friends. I made some friends!

my new posse - the jam fiends

this young dude is the head fiend

we bonded. I gave him some extra mint - he said he's sending me a copy of "Yes Man", the Jim Carrey movie.

Unlike Jan, I love tomatoes and was very excited to see what we would come up with. The recipe was very loose – all we did was chop up our tomatoes and add as much basil, mint, and orange zest as we thought would work. I threw in a few segments of the Oro Blanco grapefruit and a squirt or five of bitter orange. It looked so pretty, I was very excited to find out how to turn this into something I could smear on toast.

could I BE more thrilled over a gloopy bowl of stuff?

Now came the cooking part. There were lots of  cooking stations, with adept jammers doing the actual cooking. All we had to do was go up and wait our turn in any one of the lines, and one of the Fallen Fruit volunteers would help us whip up our jams. I chose the line with the pretty girl in the yellow shirt – she seemed like she’d do my tomatoes justice.

I just KNEW she was the right one to jam with me!

While I was waiting my turn in line, I snuck away to have a taste of the other jams people had made – there were tables full of jars of the yummy sweet concoctions, along with bread, crackers, and peanut butter. People were sampling up a storm!

these were just a few of the many jars left behind so that we could all be inspired to greater heights

what a gorgeous smile! see what a spoonful of jam made from gleaned, fallen fruit can do?

even cool, pouty teenagers can find the good in the gooey sweet stuff

Finally it was my turn to pop my bowl of garden goodness into the communal cooker! My jam making muse, Diana (she of the sunny yellow shirt), wiped off the pot so no trace of apricot or strawberry would taint my tomatoes. I proceeded to dump my chopped up everything into the pot, followed by one half of a cup of pectin (Diana was giving me clear directions) and 3 cups of sugar (I wanted less sugar, but Matias said it would just be salsa if I didn’t make it sweet. So, sugar, LOTS of it!).

here goes - all of this plus pectin plus sugar and maybe we'll get something good

The cooking was easy – we stirred and covered it, then waited for it to boil, stirred some more, more boiling, then added the mint and basil right before the final boil. I ended up with four jars of  JAM! I was very honored that the lovely Diana asked me for one of my jars. I felt special. So I went home from the Jam Session with three jars of tomato mint basil jalapeno citrus gold – all homegrown or Los Angeles foraged. It was a good feeling.

all done! jam jarred, and Diana helped turn me into a fan of jamming

Thank you LACMA, thank you Fallen Fruit, Matias, and Diana – it was a wonderful afternoon and a great way to activate the community. In a city where the citizenry are as famously insular as Los Angeles, you managed to create a vibrant, exciting place to meet people, to celebrate our city and one of its most unique qualities – food dangling right before our eyes, at every corner, within easy reach. Thank you for encouraging us to reconsider the public and the private, and to use our resources. And thank you for doing this in such a fun, lighthearted way. I’m a fan. A fan of public jamming.

look at all the pretty flowers ... oh ... wait ...

There. I SAID it!
Okay, I kind of lied. I’m not a total flower hater. But I am ambivalent.

colorful tillandsias and bromeliads laugh at frilly flowers

I am a Leaf Lover. A Seedpod Admirer. A Disciple of Texture. When I am designing a garden I think of all of these things first. When I think of color, it’s not flower color that gets me crazy with desire, its the FOLIAGE.

I die

Flowers are the Varsity Cheerleaders of the garden. If the garden was highschool, flowers would be The Socials – the ones that get all the attention, all the glory, that are in all of the pictures in the yearbook. When I see a hybrid tea rose – let’s say ‘Double Delight’, I see Karynn K____, the blonde tanned varsity cheerleader/student council president/ most beautiful/ most likely to succeed. She was super sweet. I had nothing against her, personally! But it was that brightness, that in your face power of unquestionable beauty that made me look elsewhere to find a different standard. Something less obvious. In highschool, it was punk rockers and drama geeks. In gardens, it’s leaves.

flowers, tiny flowers, cower before the majesty of rubbery striped succulent leaves

Leaves take nothing for granted. They work it with color, texture, shape, and even fragrance in many cases! While these supporting players rarely get the attention even a small flower would get, when called upon to take center stage they do it in grand style. And they are rarely Divas about the whole thing … the minute a flower arrives on the scene, they do what they should – they step back and go about the business of making that flower look better. It almost breaks my heart!

not a flower in sight, and still - behold the power

The design process is a labor of love. It is a very personal relationship one develops with space and materials. I create gardens out of desire, and frankly, I can’t help that my heart swells for the leaf that is so gray it is almost white, then deeply cut, with serrated edges to boot. When a succulent decides to look like a black rose, that’s it – I belong to it forever.

a little great foliage goes a long way - but alot goes even further!

As if it isn’t enough for leaves to be fabulous, they are dependable. This is why I am so happy to make foliage, form, and texture the focus of my work. Flowers are ephemeral. I want them small and tough ( unless they are the flowers of succulents – then they can be as fabulous as they want to be. It’s a contradiction. Sue me! )

For the record – I don’t really hate flowers. Flowers are plant sex! Who am I to not LOVE that! I just think that flowers have a GREAT press agent, and it’s time that someone says “Hold up Lilium speciosum rubrum, you Varsity Cheerleader! Step back and clear a path for Agave weberi, or else you are going to get STABBED by this punk-ass masterpiece of foliage beauty!”

THIS is my kind of flower...

Check yourself, flower lovers – without leaves it would be a world of Naked Ladies. I could easily design a garden on the strength of foliage alone, but I couldn’t design with only flowers as my focus. In MY gardens, they are the supporting cast.

Foliage, take a bow!

texture, color, form - foliage is a gardener's best friend

Now take  trip around the country and read what my fellow Garden Designers Rountable bloggers have to say  on the fascinating topic of foliage! Prepare yourself for information and inspiration! ENJOY!!!

Andrew Keys – Garden Smackdown – Boston, MA

Christina Salwitz -Personal Garden Coach : Renton, WA

Debbie Roberts – Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT

Jocelyn Chilvers – The Art Garden : Denver, CO

Pam Penick – Digging : Austin, TX

Rebecca Sweet - Gossip in the Garden : Los Altos, CA

Shirley Bovshow - Edenmaker’s : Los Angeles, CA

philodendrons climb trees all over the tropics -beautiful parasites!

You all know about my big project in Mexico – a big chunky paradise-garden in the Yucatecan deciduous jungle. Well, I was recently organizing my photos (which I’ve done exactly once in my lifetime) when I came across some images that showed me that I’d been preparing for this garden for much longer than I thought! And I didn’t venture very far from home to do it – It happened during a trip to lovely San Diego, California, in the amazing Lathhouse in Balboa Park.

these are bismarkia nobilis - surprise! I'm using them in the yucatan in spades!

They call it the Botanical building, but I call it the “lathhouse” because that’s what it is – a classic (if very ornate) structure made of lath to create a microclimate favorable to tropical plants. The structure differs from a greenhouse or glasshouse because it isn’t totally enclosed – there is a constant flow of air between the slender boards (lath) that it is built out of. The boards, spaced closely together, create a dappled shade (similar to a jungle or forest canopy), and protect the large leaves inside from harsh winds and other weather calamities. There is more humidity in the lathhouse; it’s warm and lush and it smells very, very alive.

don't ask me why jan is wearing an enormous scarf in a humid garden!

The inside of the building is full of incredible tree ferns and lace ferns and mother ferns and every manner of fern you could ever want to see! Simple raised beds made of brick contain what must be very rich soil, and visitors wander around reverentially, taking photos and whispering about whatever specimen is before them. And then a mob of schoolchildren tear through, playing balance beam on the edge of the beds and trying to pick the orchids. Thank goodness for teachers and helper-Moms! I tried to give a stern look, but if I was a kid, I’d be doing the same thing! In fact, I think I actually WAS doing the same thing (with the exception of attempted orchid-picking)! It was all so jurassic and tempting!

wow. that's all I can say about this darling little grotto. wow.

look at the awesome tropical dynamic being worked out here!

I love working with contrasting textures in a garden. My favorite plantings play with big leaves and tiny leaves, rubbery agaves are  tickled by needle-y junipers, the grassy is cuddled up with the strong and spiky. I’d assumed that the overall look of a tropical garden was going to be big green leaves, with occasional splashes of crazy color. The examples in the lathhouse show a different story – there are so many textures in a tropical palette other than big and rubbery. There is feathery, spiky, airy – and then the COLORS!

I can hardly stand how cool this is! bromeliads are the succulents of the tropics.

these are pretty, hot, and tempting, don't you think?

One of the many garden spaces in the Yucatan project I am REALLY excited about is a tillandsia / bromeliad garden … we are using the existing trees in a space very close to the main house to create a hanging garden of bromeliads and tillandsias, leaving the space underneath available for outdoor entertaining. The idea of the parasitic is being explored in many ways in this project, and this is going to be a glorious representation of beautiful plants that use others as hosts. Lotusland has incredible bromeliads and tillandsias, but I am absolutely MESMERIZED by the way they are displayed here in the lathhouse at Balboa Park.

the moodiness of this design of air plants has got me ALL excited!

The moment above captures a real beauty, but the idea of decay is never far away. I LOVE THAT! These plants live on the carcasses of trees, they capture water and mist and nutrients from falling leaves, and they look FABULOUS doing it!

what a great sculpture made entirely of plants!

I was taken aback when I found these images in my files – I’ve been doing so much research so far afield, and here were many of the ideas that I was playing with, just a hop, skip, and a jump down the freeway!

If anybody is in the San Diego area, I encourage you to spend an afternoon in Balboa Park - it is beautiful and is home to some great old architecture and several interesting museums. And enjoy the Botanical Building (because if you look for ‘the lathhouse’ nobody will know what you’re talking about, that’s just MY name for it)!

Inspiration – sometimes it hides, and makes itself known exactly when you need it!

aaahhh ... if I wasn't already here, I'd want to be!

I’m back in Merida again, continuing the adventure that is designing a mini-paradise for a Jorge Pardo Sculpture studio project! Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while know how exciting this is for me, and what an amazing learning experience … I’ve been stretching parts of my hort-brain that have only been used to thinking one way – dry dry dry. Well, here in the Yucatan, there is ALOT of wet, and that has to be accounted for! What an opportunity! I love being able to responsibly plant the thirsty beauties!

I’m staying in a lovely little place – The Hotel Hacienda Merida – and the staff simply couldn’t be friendlier! It is very small, very peaceful, and they even greeted me with a yummy cocktail when I arrived after a long day of arduous travel! They made a lifelong friend with THAT move! (Just so that you all don’t think I’m cheesy, I am in NO WAY being compensated for this post by the little hotel … I am just so happy with it that I had to share the info, in case any of my blogfriends happen to be in these parts and are in need of a fab spot to rest their weary bones)

So I’ll be running around here for the next week, designing, sourcing plants, redesigning, sourcing more plants, finalizing plans, redesigning … I’ll try and post in a few days, and if I happen to see something utterly FANTASTIC, I might have to post even sooner!

Enjoy the beginning of fall, everyone!

this is here I sit for breakfast and blogging - charming, no?