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Garden clocks: outdoor timing for my street and local community
My garden clock faces the street. And its all to do with the sheer frustration of designing public landscapes.
Public areas are political. And political spaces are a nightmare for any designer.There are so many stakeholders and so many opinions that often the most skilled design team will create yet another blah blah space. Perhaps the mayor intervenes and removes a crucial design element or the maintenance team don’t care that the garden beds are left to invasive weeds or maybe there is no maintenance budget.
Whatever designing for the public is hard.
As a result of political shenanigans my dear old streetscape lacks greatness. It could be so much better but alas my local council has spoken: upgrade 10 years time.
And who knows what the upgrade will really create?
With all this said I look at my front garden and wonder can I possibly upgrade the street NOW.
Can I create a design within my property boundary that contributes to the community space in some way. Am I able to ‘lift’ the streetscape? Will others respond?
The older generation of my street are first generation Greek, Italian and Macedonian. Gina and a few others spend a lot of time in the street. The new ‘yuppies’ are out and about as well – they have been having babies. We all seem to chat.
Can my front garden contribute to the social happenings?
Well lets see.
Over the next few posts I will talk about the various design features and how each will contribute to the community.
But really I am not that altruistic. I am having fun and am exploring ideas. And of course my design also meets some of my day-to-day issues. I will talk about that too.
How nice is it to be your own client? No need to please anyone but yourself.
Stage One: Garden Clock . Adding a clock to my garden is a cheap and sure way to get the community dependant on my space. Running late for work, no watch? No worries – check the streetscape clock. OO how good would it be to hear ‘Lets meet at the house with the clock’.
It’s also rather handy for me too – my car clock is always wrong.
Next post: Stage two.
Did someone forget to water? Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show 2011. Warning I was at Chelsea last year.
I so can not help comparing Chelsea 2010 with Melbs Garden Show 2011 . Here it goes.
Comparison one: there was a fab little idea for wall planters tucked in a corner of a Melbourne show garden and the plants (strawberries) were drooping with thirst. Its only Day 2 in Melbourne – Chelsea plants do not know the horror of ‘The End’ until the last gate shuts firmly.
Comparison Two: Designers in Melbourne took the podium with gusto and confidence (one chopped designer above). They explained what inspired them without a hint of embarrassment. Told us what life is all about. Hellaleuja brother. I felt the awaken earth mother spirit leap with joy. The quiet pause ridden modesty of the British designer perhaps aint very Australian.
Comparison Three: Children. None at Chelsea. Guess how many lost children announcements I heard today at Melbourne’s International Garden Show? Four in 3 hours.
Children exist. And its them who cause visual havoc in our gardens. Children was not a strong topic for Chelsea 2010. It was more about gardens for someone who has no kids in their life at all. Not even once a year.
So me was very happy to see the above cubby houses looking funky and somewhat under polished. Very suitable for my oh so terribly ordinary child centred life.
Comparison Four: Garden Design. Both Chelsea and Melbourne have great design and some rather less great. The main difference is Chelsea has way more budget to flaunt its design possibilities. In turn the finishes and detailing at Chelsea are often exquisite. Whilst there was some great finishes in Melbourne there is less of a high polished concrete satin glean.
The Flemings sponsored design was one of the few Australian designs at Chelsea 2010. Fleming’s Chelsea design was reproduced at Melbourne’s show but on a lesser scale. Does that says something about Australia? ….Would Kylie Minogue spend less money on her Aussie tour than Europe? I wonder?
By the way Flemings created a great design in both countries, nevertheless designing a spectacle complete with bikini clad chicks, and your oversized frontage, does little for raising the awareness of Australia’s design maturity.
Fake grass, granitic sand, earth, death, the full moon and friends
I think I have realised what is wrong with fake grass.
This morning at 7.15am on the banks of the Yarra River in the most beautiful eucalypt landscape ever my dear friend’s ashes were scattered. The moon was its fullest on the west and the sun was rising like always over there on the east. Oh and lets not forget the most larrikin call of the sulphur crested cockatoos.
Two months ago I was on the underground tube in London. On the train I was convinced I would use fake grass in my back garden upon my return to my home in Australia.
I got off the underground and headed home to Australia.
I arrived in time to hang out with Mirabai on her balcony prior to her passing.
Her balcony is amazing – it sits in Eucalyptus heaven.
The landscape has NOT a drip of formality. Its sun bleached, dry and visually wild. Sharp contrast to my past years in manicured grass-green London.
If Mirabai was a train station she would have been called Healing Central. As a result I have been very lucky to be involved in some beautiful ceremonies since her passing one month ago. I am not normally one for such tribal carry on – but I get it.
It’s great to feel the earth, play with the ground, swim in the rivers and get naked every once in a while.
Driving home in the car this morning I decided that fake grass has merit but it’s not right for my home.
When I launch myself out of the car and walk to the front door – i want crunch, an occasional puddle and gravel residue leading across my Italian terrazzo porch.
I think I need to enter the house and walk straight out again to my backyard where I can feel the earth. Fake grass has been scrapped .
So here I am now at the age of 40 giving major importance to the ground-foot connection. Jeez I think had forgotten about all that earth connection stuff –
I am sure in my early 20s I use to have that high on my design agenda?
Hey you …thanks for reminding me …amongst many many other things…
So you want something designed? always look at previous experience
Garden Beet has re-learnt a very very old lesson. If you are going to engage a designer or anyone for that matter- always always do your homework on the professional’s BUILT experience.
It is so god damn easy for people to say ‘YES’ i can do that. People do that don’t they?
You can do anything as long as the client is willing to pay.
But guess what sunshine? You just dont know what you dont know.
And if there are problems – when are the problems going to surface ? Well after the designer has hot footed away. Its hard pinpointing liability 6mnths down the track . And then try 5 years.
Yes there are insurances.
But jeeze major headaches and pains could be saved if people were willing to be less ‘ego’ and more thoughtful. Gosh its not hard to say I dont know.
Gardens [NOT] Illustrated. The 2011 Welsh Border Collection is Slightly Strange.
Veddw aint on the 2011 Gardens Illustrated Welsh Border Garden tour?
How odd – it’s on the border of Wales and England and it truly impressed me and several others including Stephen Anderton (The Times)
Only rarely does one come across a garden so ambitious and successful as the one at Veddw House.
In 2004 Germaine Greer gave Veddw a wrap of applause for its ‘expression to contemporary sensibility about conservation’.
It’s even weirder that the tour guide for this year’s Welsh Border Collection, Noel Kingsbury, has previously stated that this
.. is a garden that is very ambitious: it is intellectual and experimental, occasionally provocative, but for the most part beautiful and relaxing
For further weirdness please refer to the following link – Veddw Review (Noel’s detailed Veddw review, published in the November 2006 edition of Gardens Illustrated).
The designer Anne Wareham is a self claimed bad-tempered gardener. Wareham is known to insult the sensibilities of some garden designer circles.
Now I am taking a leap here but I am thinking perhaps her garden is not part of the Welsh Collection in 2011 for her outspoken comments?
Umm….. are cultural collections being edited on the grounds of an artist’s personality? Or perhaps something an artist has said?
Gardens Illustrated would you like to make comment?
Coming Soon: Anne Wareham becomes a pin up girl for Garden Beet
Water tanks, walls and water harvesting
Image : Landscape Tanks
Given that water is a valuable resource it seems sensible to incorporate water holding features into building projects wherever possible.
The retaining wall above incorporates a water tank plus accommodates a planting bed on top. The holding tank is constructed from concrete.
Whilst the image above is not terribly inspiring be aware that concrete is a versatile material. The finish could be any colour and have a variety of textures. Or could be clad with other materials such as timber or sheet metal.
Another water harvesting device that could also be used as a wall is a slimline water tank (Waterwall) made from polyethylene. Image below.
This product has been used in Australia since 2004 however the tank is no longer manufactured in Australia and is now only available in the USA.
Garden Beet is interested to know of any projects that incorporate water harvesting into various landscape elements such as retaining walls or boundary fences. Please add a comment if you are in the know.
Image: Patrick Franklyn
So Petersham is at Selfridges. Gardens and outdoor lifestyle on Oxford Street London.
Why aint there a flagship garden lifestyle centre in central London? Why has National Geographic got a spot on Regent Street and not a garden centre.
Its going to happen soon enough, me thinks, as I cruise around London to see how Selfridges, Anthroloplogie and Liberty address their visual merchandising this xmas season.
6th Jan 2011.
BINGO.
Perhsam Nurseries is opening up with Selfridges.
LOVE THAT.
Gardens have moved an inch or two.
Its all about context. Duchamp was carrying on about that.
Apply the most ordinary item into Selfridges and allure takes hold.
But remember place a very interesting item into the bowels of a garden centre and a functional monotony can take hold. Either or. I love it all.
2010 in review
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
Madison Square Garden can seat 20,000 people for a concert. This blog was viewed about 67,000 times in 2010. If it were a concert at Madison Square Garden, it would have performed about 3 times.
In 2010, there were 186 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 219 posts. There were 613 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 224mb. That’s about 2 pictures per day.
The busiest day of the year was April 20th with 366 views. The most popular post that day was Best in show and me.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were gardenbeet.com, blogcatalog.com, twitter.com, facebook.com, and en.wordpress.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for air plants, blue hydrangea, airplants, air plant, and green walls.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
1
Best in show and me April 2010
3 comments
2
Garden art with corten steel. Pierre Le Roux Designs are adding design to outdoor accessories. March 2010
1 comment
3
2010 is a Year for Turquoise Garden Accessories and Contrasting Cut Flowers January 2010
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Building green walls at Anthroplogy Regent Street London. I want one October 2009
2 comments
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Wall planters are green walls at Ecobuild. Various technologies minus Woolly Pockets March 2010
2 comments
Windows as living walls. Are farms in the window a good idea?
Image: Martha Stewart website.
Window Farms is a term used to describe hydroponic growing systems (made from recycled materials) that are sited within a buiding’s windows.
A type of living wall – except that its a living window.
The farms were developed as a technique to allow city folk who lived in small spaces the ability to grow and eat their own food.
An interesting idea but I would never give up views or prevent light streaming into my living room just so I could grow some veggies. Designing a vertical gardening system to sit in an apartment window seems odd to me .
If I can not afford a house with a garden I am highley unlikely to have a house with loads of windows. And if I only have a few windows I would be very very reluctant to loose any of those windows to vegetation – no matter how organic the vegetation may be.
Placing an object in front of a window needs very careful consideration. Evenmore so where space is limited.
Windows are about views and light. Windows can assist in creating an illusion of space – borrowing outdoor views is a great design trick if space is limited.
Surely the most depressing interior arrangement is to block windows?
Can these farms sit perpendicular to the window? If the vegetables need more light than the adjacent wall can provide perhaps just a row of plants on the windowsill may be a good compromise?
This enviornmental design solution seems to be solving one issue whilst creating a few other problems.
I support this type of thinking – its great. But the solution may need some design tweeks. Thankfully the designers are into crowd sourcing – For further details on this project check out http://www.windowfarms.org/
Garden Centres and Advertising. Girly shots, advertising and moulds
Oh its christmas and all I can think about are glorious garden images. Frolicking through the webimages available at istock and various other image stores around cyber world I stumbled across this image.
Girls are always used to sell stuff. But not gardening stuff.
Gardening corporates usually steer clear of the girly phenomna and go for an organic homely apple in a wooden bucket look. Or beautiful floral sweet gloves and matching digging set – simply gorgeous.
Now the almsot soft porn pink perfumery aesthetic with the latest gardening product – this is new .
Outdoor spaces could often do with a bit of ‘coco-channelling’. Its nice to think that garden designs and all things associated with gardens can be shaken up, stirred and reconfigured.
Dont get me wrong – I like the organic wommery look too-but its nice to jump out of one mould and into another – at least for a second? no?
Will there ever be a Flagship Garden Centre somewhere on Regent Street, London?
Easiwall living wall. Treebox and their new DIY living wall system.
When I met with designer Armando Raish from Treebox I began listening. He had tested his living wall systems for a couple of years. This guy has a horticultural and construction background and knows his stuff.
Treebox are releasing a new version of their Easiwall Green Wall. Garden Beet shall be discussing the product in the next weeks.
Armando tells me that the Easiwall Living Wall System is made from recycled plastics, is rigid and will allow a plant’s root system to breathe – thereby preventing the plants from becoming pot bound and eliminating the need for an extensive plant replacement program. Stay tuned.
Images and websites. I dont do code and I really like gardensmackdown.com
I am a shallow surface web maker.
I now have a whole new appreciation of what else makes a good website. Carts have to work and people need to be ushered quickly through checkout. There is all this usability and functional stuff that when I started playing with web design I did not really understand.
Finally I will admit defeat and surrounder to the coders .
I can’t talk in codes – I do not understand how anyone can design using code.
BUT big bloody deal if your product can jump off the screen, hit you in the face and then land in the basket – if it looks shite it is.
Good design has to consider function and form. Its the same with gardens, landscape and products.
As an aside I love the header for http://www.gardensmackdown.com – it challanges the images associated with gardens. Those types of images on a website make me happy. Now can that image give me change at the checkout? I would love that!!!!!!!
http://www.gardensmackdown.com/about/
A kick back lily pad approach to elevated picnics. By Jackie O’Shea.
This park bench aint narrow and upright.
Jackie O’Shea designed a series of benches that allowed for true relaxation on a spring sunny day. She understands the park users needs.
Located in Melbourne Australia these resting spots are dotted along a creek abutting a large road corridor. These photos were taken around 2003 so I guess the timber has grey off. I like the concept a lot.
Spread out and kick back or picnic on the ground?
I am lying on the floating timber lily pad bench.
Recycled Rice Bag Planters. Storage made in Cambodia. Jay Martin Reports Material from Vietnam
Just in the nick of time for xmas. Finally Garden Beet has these colourful funky rice bag planters in stock. Made in Cambodia through a Fair Trade Scheme.
Click the following link to buy these recycled rice bag planters
Great for hiding ugly pots or holding buttons, pens or anything else that needs an ethical home.
Garden Beet uses its pots to store reindeer moss, rocks and pebbles. We also use them as a vase for our air plants. All the ingrediants for one of our popular garden gifts – eco orbs.
I was proudly annoucing this new product line to a freelance journalist Jay Martin. Being a journalist who has travelled extensively throughout South East Asia she quickly recognised the writing on the planters to be Vietnamese.
Ahh she is right!
The Cambodians source their fabric from Vietnam!
The local toyshop in Sicily uses its wall planters to create living walls
The toy shop in Cefalu, Sicily knows how to use its wall planters to benefit its shop image and the public realm.
What fabulous product placement, streetscaping and use of walls. Perhaps this is living walls pre Patric blanc?
These photos illustrate a great technique to blur the private and public domain.
The photos also illustrate how urban greening can occur in narrow, concrete spaces. No need for the wide ‘nature’ strips found in the car culture countries of the US and Australia – just use the vertical concrete spaces created by the walls of almost every building.
Love it!!
London: Pocket Habitat. Advertising targets Recycled Fabric Planters as the uber urban greening approach
Woo – great images. Jeepers even the global engineers at ARUP are busy making the revegetation world look edgy and slick. Its about time. Scruffy habitat does not convert the unconverted.
Dusty Gedge, ARUP Engineers and Sky Garden have created a product called ‘Pocket Habitat’. A ready to install mini habitat suitable for instant urban greening on any roof top or ground level flat surface.
Each Pocket comes pre-seeded with a range of soil and other growing medium profiles. The pockets allow different substrate depths to be created on most flat surfaces thereby providing opportunites for greater biodiversity. The product is also said to have good water retention properties.
The contemporary planters are modular, come in various colours and can be arranged to allow aesthetic freedom – ooh landscape architects will love that.
Installing habitats on rooftops is no easy task. Apart from the logistics of moving various strata to the tops of buildings there is also a need to provide habitat diversity by creating various micro-climates and soil depths. The Pocket Habitats attempt to overcome these problems.
The concept of a free-standing soft sided recycled fabric planter is not new. Woolly Pocket Gardening Company launched a similar product onto the market in early 2009 with their Meadow Range. The Pocket Habitat however is different insofar as it is a ready made planting bed intended for the promotion of habitat.
Decking, Planter Pots and Europe. Controlling the Car with Parklets.
The Europeans know how to tame the impact of cars on their villages.
Above are photos of different urban squares in Sicily.
The first image shows a piazza being used as a car park. The second and third image illustrate the use of these public spaces as a place for the pedestrian rather than the car.
Timber decking is frequently used as a design technique to redefine the role of public spaces in many Euorpean cities. The decking is demarcating a ‘people space’ rather than a ‘car space’.
Changing ground materials and creating a slight ground level change is a nifty urban design trick that tells people that a space has a different use to its surrounds. Add a few planter pots (or bollards) to the mix and drivers soon get the idea to stay well clear of this area.
This design concept has recently been applied to car parking bays within the streets of San Francisco. These spaces are referred to as Parklets in the USA by the City Planners.
For further details on these Parklets please refer to this article kindly provided by Jordan of Metropolitan Gardens.
Wallpaper magazine claims parklet planters as newsworthy urban design. Oh dear.
Wallpaper Nov 2010 tells me that San Francisco is building parklets….turning car parks into planters…great…i am all for urban greening but please tell me this is not new?
I am 40. When I was 10 they turned a car parking space outside my grandmothers home into a parklet….probably called a planting area back in them olden days…jeppers that was 30 years ago..
..so either Wallpaper is asleep or San Francisco is truely gripped by the car…..really this is a bog standard urban design treatment in Australia…nothin wrong with that of course…but its rather odd to make it as something newsworthy? now i’d like to see Wallpaper herald some urban design solutions that really move beyond the ordinary …it claims to report on the contemporary….does it not?
Woolly Pockets. Indoor wall planters in a UK White Home – perfect.
Thank god I was playing around on twitter yeserday. One of my customers decided to share his lounge room. And now his lounge is on my blog. How fab-ba-lis-tic is this white white house with those green green lush plants? They are planted in a woolly pocket.
Very beautful.
And a very London look as well ( but it is in Lancashire ).
Light and bright is the way to go when the outdoor features a grey grey blanket cloud.
Ooh and love the fish tank in the corner as well. These guys just need an eco-orb.
Garden Beet Shop: click on image below
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