Linkers, a moment please:

If you were kind enough to set up a link to this page from your Blog or page I would appreciate it if you would change that to my new Blog site over at Wordpress.

I appreciate the fact the you thought enough of what I am doing to link to my page and I hope that will continue over at my new site.

Again, thanks a lot in advance. I look forward to your readership, comments, and feedback.

Landscape Design, and Design is important to our lives, and good design makes our life more enjoyable, more pleasant, and more civilized. I will continue to write about what I see, hear, learn, and ponder about as I continue my life's work.

Pergola Design

Entertainment Entry
This pergola was designed with several thoughts in mind, several request asked, and the pergola needed to be substantial.

I had looked at the style and size of house and determined right away we needed something with some bulk, girth, and substance.

The homeowners are not fancy, quaint, do-dad type of people that need to look at lots of embellishment or intricate detail.

Finally the space itself is big, big house, big pool, tall trees, and large lawn. Including a long drive with a big parking area to go through before reaching this back yard space.

Instead of just designing the cliche' wrap around the house footprint style arbor I worked hard to design a arbor that would also work as a separator, This separator is to divide the public space and the pool/private space. The physical act of walking through and under such a structure accomplishes this. The mind changes over, the space is now looked at differently.

The cedar pergola was designed not with the intent of keeping out the shade but to act as the conduit of bring the house and landscape together. That's why I think pergolas are so powerful a design tool. Their ability to link elements, spaces, structures, and emotions together in a harmonious way.

The attachment to the house and the post rising from the Earth . . . the connection is made, and can be made more powerful with the addition of vines, climbers and bloomers working their way through the pergola. Where some space below the pergola is solid and safe for footing and other areas are made beds so that plants and people can thrive together and the garden is accessible to human contact.

The other big thought here is often neglected, not even thought of, and usually excites only as a afterthought . . . that thought is shadows. Shadows bring a sense of theater to the garden, The shadow lines magically move there way across the space as the day plays itself out. This continual movement adds dynamic style to the scene and alleviates boredom of looking at the same space in a very un-dynamic style the entire day. Light and shadow in the daylight much too often underlooked, under-appreciated, and very rarely designed for, but designing shadow can be a very powerful design tool.

Every pergola design/designer should keep this in mind when creating the overhead for the pergola. Where is the sun? What is the suns path? What is this path during the most busy time of year using the pergola? What is the pattern to be determined for? Is the overhead designed to block out a large percentage of sunlight? Do crosspieces run with or against the suns path? Does the pergola include 2 sections of crosspieces to create a even more intricate shadow pattern?

Enough questions? For now. We haven't even touched the post, and their embellishment or lack thereof. Or the finish work to the crosspieces . . . the detailing, or lack thereof. Nor vines, nor climbers, nor paint or stain . . . how about going a la natural?

Lots of questions, lots of possibilities, but no doubt one of the most under-utilized structures in residential landscape design.

Whats in a Word?

On 11/21/06 I posted a short blurb about books for the laymen in reference to a short list of books for (what I consider) folks who want to design/garden their property. So I was using laymen as a term for someone who is interested in horticulture/gardening but in no way, shape or form receives money for their interest.

On Nov. 27th over at a blog called A Lake County Point of View, the County Clerk was kind enough to refer to another post of mine 27 Books every Landscape Designer Should Read. In this post he also mentioned the 11/21 post; inside that post was a comment about my referring to laymen, and referencing the word layman was a little pretentious-on my part.

This starts a little back and forth, and a question from me about what term should I have used instead of laymen? So today the County clerk post a long discussion (quite interesting) starting with an apology to me-which I didn't think was necessary, but it is accepted.

Now the good stuff, this is a great post on the English language and the importance of words and how they are used, or should be used. It is a fantastic explanation of connotation vs. denotation with a little classical music thrown in.

My point in bringing all this to the forefront? What have I learned? Well one thing I have learned from this Blog was that I needed to craft my wording so that others would understand my way of speaking/talking/writing. I had previously been published over 35 times (mostly trade journals) but always had the other set of eyes look at my writing-the editor. I was lazy, editors made it too easy for me. It was, "just give me the how-to's of the installation, I'll clean it up for publication".

Well that's not the case here with this Blog . . it's me. What I write here is what makes it out to cyberspace and the public world. I gotta tell you, I like it. I like the challenge - a lot. So when I am called out on something, something like this (the use of word laymen), I really don't mind.

I have gotten lazy with some words, for me laymen/layman had become the great catch-all. Laymen was easy. So I ask you this . . . what is a better way to describe those that love to garden? those that like to be out in their private spaces, to dig in the dirt, to nurture those plants? With no thought of monetary reward. To separate Professional from the strict amateur.

By the way A Lake County Point of View is a terrific read all the time, so many interest, so much thought. Heck, just go back and read last weeks entries about Walnut, you'll understand. Great stuff.

*Small confession: my wife has been known to log on here and do a little editing, she is terrific at catching all the typo's and stuff that I am good at missing. Many thanks Mrs. A.

*The above picture was taken at 9,000 or 10,000 feet in the Wasatch Mountains, east of Salt Lake City, Utah. It's worth the visit.

Looking at the Urban Environment

A Blog that takes a unique look at the urban environment, the good and the bad, with the decay and the possibilities of all that entails.

The name: Walking Turcot Yards, it's worth a look.

27 Books Every landscape Designer should Read

Ta-da! a blog post with a list. I believe this is my second post with a list . . . the 1st was about Viburnums. Anyway as requested here you go. Happy reading.

 This is my partial book list that I think every Professional Landscape designer should have/read:

• Gardens are for People, by Thomas Church
  
• Natural Pattern Forms, by Richard Dube'
• The Zen of Seeing, by Frederick Franck
• The Tao of Architecture, by Amos Ih Tiao Chang
• Space and Illusion, by Teiji Itoh
• Secret Teachings in the Art of Japanese Gardens, by David Slawson
• Siftings, by Jans Jensen
• Isamu Noguchi "Space of Akari & Stone, Chronicle Books
• In the Company of Stone, by Dan Snow
• Drawing and Designing with Confidence, by Mike Lin
• The Inward Gardener, by Julie Messervy
• Designing with Plants, by Piet Oudolf
• The Landscape of Man, by Geoffery and Susan Jellicoe
• Creative Gardens, by James Rose
• Residential Landscape Architecture, by Booth and Hiss
• Architecture in the Garden, by James Van Sweden
• Gardens by Design, by Noel Kingsbury
• Planting the Natural Garden, by Piet Oudolf
• Introduction to the Study of Landscape Design, by hubbard and Kimball
• Noguchi "East and West, by Dore Ashton
• The Golden Bough, by Sir James George Frazier
• As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen
• Who moved my Cheese, by Spencer Johnson
• Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, by Mike Dirr
• The Native Plant Primer, by Carole Ottesen
• Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing, by Frederick Franck
• From Concept to From in Landscape Design, by Grant Reid

This is only part of what is in my library. I have suggested every one of these books because they have made a difference in my professional career. I know that I am missing a few from this list and when I figure out which ones, I will post those also.

Props to Victoria Scott at Mississipppi State for prompting me to write this list. I hope it will be as helpful to you and all other students who want to enter such a great field has they have (and will continue to be) for me.

Have something you think I should read, or a comment on the above list, let me know . . .