Exploring a bit of Atlanta - Day 1

We made it to Atlanta!

Is it just that I am old now that a flight across the US utterly knocks me out? It ends up being an entire day of travel, and then I am left feeling grubby and dehydrated.

Before traveling, I tend to do a lot of googling of the location, and I made a saved places list in Google Maps. After I figure out the hotel, I google to see if there are any gardens close by or any gardens/landscapes in the city that are noteworthy that I think I might want to see. In this case, I settled on the Hotel Clermont - a refurbished motel and apparently a local iconic establishment. There is a local neighborhood shared garden just around the block! Perfect! What else looks good? The Atlanta Botanical Gardens and some place called Fernbank. That is really all we'll have time to squeeze into this visit.

Anyhow, we made it here, and I LOVE our hotel. It is so freaking cute. Great details, lobby is super nice, a bar and a restaurant, and a rooftop bar as well. Did I steal a Clermont Hotel pen? Yes, yes I did.

two happy looking people relaxing in a hotel lobby holding plastic cups of champagne.

We arrived, checked in, dropped our stuff off, and headed to the bar where we had some delicious cocktails. Then we walked down to the Atlanta Goddess Garden - https://www.goddessgardenatlanta.com/about. The weather here is... sultry. It all feels sort of primally familiar even though I am no longer acclimated to this kind of humid heat. It's nice to have a warm evening walk though.

This garden has a wild and overgrown feeling. Walking along the paths, there are many small shrines, seating areas, and spaces for growing edibles. There are also a lot of rats scurrying in the undergrowth, so I'm unsure how they can sustain any veggies or herbs!

Here is the description from their website:

"Created by Shasta Zaring in 1990, the Goddess Garden Atlanta is an urban wilderness habitat and healing sanctuary nestled in the heart of the City of Atlanta. It is a sacred space dedicated to the Divine Feminine in all religions, paths and cultures. Altars to Goddesses from various world cultures adorn the paths and are tended by the Garden's keepers.

This one-acre private preserve, open to the public during daylight hours, is cultivated without the use of pesticides and herbicides and is a certified Audubon Society Wilderness Habitat. Located just off the Atlanta Beltline, the Garden is in walking distance to many city attractions, such as Ponce City Market, Historic 4th Ward Park, Carter Center and Little Five Points."

So it is privately owned but publicly available space. I wonder if they have to worry about insurance. Apparently, they have classes there, an attached AirB&B, and does seem like a nice place to go and chill in some lush green space! i can see that it is def. a labor of love for people in the neighborhood!

After our stroll we headed back to the hotel, drinks on the rooftop bar, and some dinner.

Project In-Progress

Oof, projects in-progress can look like a mess! There is some order to this chaos, I swear! Although, I will say that I prefer less chaos. In my ideal installation EVERYTHING gets done and then, like a week later, we come in with the plants, place them, ponder everything, and then plant. If contractors leave enough wire with their lighting fixtures we can then adjust those at that time. In this install we just din’t really have control of that. I can also see here that the sheet mulching is…. not great. I need several layers of OVERLAPPING cardboard. what happened here was that they literally planted the plants BEFORE they sheet mulched? It didn’t make a lot of sense.

This very small backyard was very boring. Why have a boring backyard when you can have color, and texture, and useable space?

Before picture. Photo is a long narrow lawn with a house on the left and a retaining wall on the right.

Currently, It looks like this. You can see we have added a new path and meanders through the middle of the landscape rather than crammed uncomfortable against the house. We’ve got some colorful plantings, a few small trees to help the absolutely scorching heat, and towards the far end there is a small patio with some raised beds, some really cute terracotta pots for herbs, and a self-contained ceramic water feature. We also bought a nice trellis from Terratrellis to help break up a very large and boring hot wall.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

Garden Design Styles

When I tell people I am a garden designer, they often ask me what style of garden I design. The answer is usually that I design (to the best of my ability given a million variables) the garden that my client desires. The garden needs to work for the client! I know many designers prefer to design in one style or another, and so their portfolio reflects that, and then people wanting that style seek out that designer. I have not really reached that point and I probably never will.

I did name my business Wild Things, in part, because I love a wild and unruly garden with lots going on and colors and wildlife and fun garden elements and nooks to explore. That kind of garden is great but not always practical. I ALSO love designing super modern gardens with clean lines and architectural plants just as well.

A lot of what I love about designing residential gardens is the space planning aspect of it. I spend an inordinate amount of time imagining what my clients might want to do in the garden, how they will move about in the garden, what will happen at different seasons, what they say they want/need vs. what I think they might actually want/need, etc. Of course, I'm just imagining all this, and what I really need is for the client to be as articulate as possible about THEIR OWN garden imaginings.

There is a business plan activity that I have encountered several times now that wants you to describe your perfect client. One of the items on my list is a client that is really engaged and curious about the possibilities. They will have a Pinterest or Houzz board with ideas, they will have memories of gardens from their childhood, and they will have some practical views on what they and their landscape can manage.

It's actually a tall order. If someone has never designed a landscape, it might be hard for them to come up with all of these ideas. That's why Pinterest and Houzz are actually such good resources for folks. Just diving in and getting a feel for what might be possible and what you find visually intriguing is a great start. I do often have to sit down with clients and dive into WHAT about a picture they are drawn to. Is it a specific plant, the style, a color combination, etc.

So the job of figuring all this out is really what draws me to this vocation. I do, of course, love plants, but plants come much later in the design process.

I was thinking the other day about how I played as a child. And I basically sat around in my room with my dollhouse decorating it and redecorating it. I had a million of those glass or ceramic animals you could buy at the Hallmark store (there was one just outside my neighborhood), and they were the inhabitants of my dollhouse. Mainly because I thought most human dolls were creepy. So, that's a lot like what I do now. LOL.


Pottery and Beyond

I live right near Pottery and Beyond in Emeryville so I like to stop by there now and then to see what they have in stock. Seeing containers and water features in person can be really useful. They do give a small industry discount, so that is nice. Most, if not all of their stock is from Pacific, Home, and Garden. You can just get their catalog or look online there to see the entire catalog. To order from Pacific, Home, and Garden you do need to have a wholesale account AND they are in Stockton (way, way… way out there). I don’t think they will deliver small orders.

So, for me, it’s worth it to go peek at items in person and determine if it is worth it to order from the wholesale company.

This visit I am looking at self contained water features for a small backyard client. These are nice because you don’t have to dig a giant pit like for the other types of pondless features. These contained fountains are easy to set up and really do have a nice water sound.

I thought this was a really nice one! It’s not a design I have seen before and I like the tall narrow design and the pattern.

The above video gives you a nice idea for how they sound. They are definitely less natural sounding because you can hear the ceramic echo. I don’t mind that and think they are just a great solution for small spaces, patios, and are just no-fuss kind of water features.

Pottery and Beyond also has a fair amount of hilarious ceramic or cement garden features. Please behold this hilarious sad fish. Why did I not buy this for myself?! I may have to go back.

Behold this sad fish. LOL.

Then and Now

I stumbled across this picture of our side yard the other day. Wow! It is highly cringeworthy. But such is the price and reality of construction.

Um. It looks you might have left some stuff in the side yard…

Um. It looks you might have left some stuff in the side yard…

About a year and a half later!!!

About a year and a half later!!!

Just came across these two photos of the space in 2014 just after the basement was done. You can see we still had the metal awning, no stairs, no porch, etc.

Landscape Sketchbook - Blobs of Color

I was just playing around with color in this sketch. I really love seeing a landscape where there is super bright color introduced. So far I have not really had a chance to get a client to do this. I have certainly suggested it and tried! I really have! I just love a bright contrast and pop of color!

Chicken Math

Our second to last chicken died in February of this year and, with just one chicken left, I decided that we would get a new batch of chickens. My timeline was dependent on Concord Feed and their schedule of chickens. I was hoping to get some specific breeds. I ended up just getting the ones they had available and I am very glad I did because the week after I picked ours up there was a global pandemic declared and people went nuts buying up all the chickens. It was all about sourdough starter and buying ‘pandemic chickens’ in those first few weeks. I mean, also it was about people being scared, dying, losing their jobs and a host of other horrible things.

We ended up getting six chickens, 2 cream legbars, and four cochins (black, blue, buff, speckled). Our older hen is an Easter Egger and she mostly hates us.

Even now I feel the inexplicable pull of chicken math. I really want to add some chocolate eggers or a Lavender Orpington… there are so many adorable chickens out there.

Meme showing a still of Boromir from The Lord of the Rings with the caption, “One does not simply get a few chickens”.

Meme showing a still of Boromir from The Lord of the Rings with the caption, “One does not simply get a few chickens”.

Baby chickens are just the cutest things! Check out these nerds as babies:

So the week after got these the SIP order was put in place. My sister and I organized a pet fashion show for the kids in our lives. It was a great success. I submitted several chicks wearing muffin papers.

Photo of a sketchbook page open to a watercolor and ink drawing of a ticket (front and back) saying ‘Pet Fashion Show March 2020”

Photo of a sketchbook page open to a watercolor and ink drawing of a ticket (front and back) saying ‘Pet Fashion Show March 2020”

Picture of a gray and white chick butt wearing a muffin paper as a skirt.

Picture of a gray and white chick butt wearing a muffin paper as a skirt.

Art in the garden

Came across this nice metal garden art a few weeks ago. Desert Steel.

Sometimes you really need a focal point and plants are great for this, so are water features. But art can be a great focal point as well. These all have a really nice level of detail and look amazing nestled among plants.

I really want to use one of these in a project!!

desertsteel-barrelcactus.png

Ruth Bancroft Outing

There are no camps I’m willing to send my kid to this year. So I have reduced my work schedule to have one more week day to hangout with him. While it’s okay to visit public spaces I’ll be whisking him away to visit various sites around town. I feel my privilege in being able to do A. work from home most of the time and B. have the ability to adjust my schedule. I’m feeling this privilege even more as I think about the coming school year. Are we really willing to risk the health of our teachers and students just to get childcare?

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So anyway, UPS in Oakland is having a covid-19 and crappy equipment related melt down and thusly the shoes I ordered kiddo are not arriving any time soon. He is wearing shoes 2 sizes too small so I MUST get him something. We head to Walnut Creek to get shoes and have our side trip to the Ruth Bancroft Garden. I haven’t been here in several years, in fact, since they have upgrade to have an event space and a nursery.

It looks amazing. The parking lot is even nice and have beautiful Palo Verde trees planted between spaces. At this time, there are strict guidelines in place to stop the spread of Covid-19. Kiddo and I wore masks and kept our hand sanitizer at the ready.

The garden was full of employees/volunteers working, there was a photoshoot/video interview happening, and there were a several other visitors. I was thrilled to find a plant in the nursery that I had been looking for since the beginning of the year, a Eucalyptus cinerea ‘Silver Dollar’. This plant was in a recent landscape design but I ended up having to find a sub and think I ended up using a Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Golden Mop'. This Eucalyptus is great for a cutting garden. You can keep the plants small and shrub formed if you prune it down in it’s second year encouraging multi-branching. Then prune at will to add to flower arrangements.

The Ruth Bancroft Garden has several pamphlets you can pick up at the kiosk. The especially useful ones are the Self Guided Tour and the What’s in Bloom. Oh! Looking at their website just now I see that they have a YouTube channel that gives you a tour of their blooming plants! no need to leave your living room and brave the sweltering heat anymore!

What is a Dolly Tub?

One of the interesting things about going on garden tours in other areas is that you get to see the local trends. One thing I noticed at the APLD 2019 National conference in Seattle, WA this year was that almost every garden had Dolly Tub planters, from fancy French vintage ones, to reproductions, to plain old galvanized tubs. This is a very french garden look to my mind and I just love the PNW twist all the local designers gave their pot designs.

This one is probably vintage and fancy but couldn’t you just use a trash can? LOL. Here the pic and then my trashy interpretation.

A dolly Tub is just an old fashioned wash tub and the ‘dolly’ part was the agitator stick women used to swish the washing around. The tubs are barrel shaped to keep splashing to a minimum. Some of the old authentic ones you can see the round marks on the bottom from the dolly. Pretty cool! Here are a couple of other examples from the tour.

You can find these by just searching ‘Dolly Tub’ or ‘galvanized planter’.

Once again I am writing this way after the fact and I don't have all the names of the designers, etc. It's hard to keep pictures and notes straight while out and about on a tour. There are people everywhere, there is no where to sit, the tours are actually pretty short. like how much time do we really spend in each garden. Not to mention that fact that these tours are OVERWHELMING. It is so hard to process all this info in the moment. After the tour of a specific garden you are then hustled on to a bus and I ALREADY am a bit queasy on a large bus so I absolutely do not want to be looking at and typing on my phone on the bus.

What would be ideal organizational method be going forward?

maybe,

1. create directory in Apple Photos for each garden when you get the tour itinerary. 2. then create heading in maybe the NOTES app so that I can write up any specific quick notes I have. 3. have a small notebook to take notes in while walking around?

Saxon Holt Photography Workshop

In October I took a Saxon Holt Landscape Photography class through the Sacramento APLD. We had some classroom time, during which I did take notes (which I now can’t find!?!), and we visited two gardens for some field experience.

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It is important to have some photography basics if you are a landscape designer. When I visit a new site for a potential project I have to take photographs to help me understand the site, to look at sun patterns, views, and practical locations of things in the landscape. These photos don’t have to be attractive necessarily but they do have to be informative. Sometimes a project won’t happen for months after I have initially visited the site and taken those photos, so they have to be good enough to help me remember all the details.

Having photography skills is also crucial for getting photos of in-progress gardens and completed and mature garden projects. You want o showcase your gardens in the best way and we can’t always afford a professional photographer.

I also love to go on garden tours. It’s a great way to see and learn from mature gardens designed by the best in the industry. It’s also great to visit the same gardens multiple times to see how they change over time. Having great photos to look back on for inspiration is so useful.

There’s this thing about garden photography during tours though… it is hard to not just end up with a camera roll full of pictures of

  • other people’s butts

  • other people taking pictures of other people’s butts.

The struggle is real and no amount of workshopping is going to help you.

Fortunately, in this workshop, we formed small groups to visit the garden and all felt pretty comfortable saying, “um, could you move your butt for a sec?”

Photograph of a garden with Salvia leucantha in the foreground and light shinning through Pennisetum seed heads in the background. There is also a staked tree with a bell hanging from it.

Photograph of a garden with Salvia leucantha in the foreground and light shinning through Pennisetum seed heads in the background. There is also a staked tree with a bell hanging from it.

The above photo has nice light but really would have been better without the tree stake and rubber. I suppose I could photoshop that out?

Some things to think about while photographing a garden:

  • Time of day - Harsh midday sun is no good for garden photography, early morning or early evening are best

  • Composition - The rule of thirds applies to photography as much as sketching

  • Focal Points - A big -’ole mess of green in a photograph is no good, find a focal point!

  • Long Shots and Vignettes - Photograph your subject from a variety of angles, distances, and lighting varieties.

  • Other Things - You can photograph the non-plant elements of a garden to help with the journy you are taking your viewers on.

Garden Tour - Keelya Meadows

I absolutely love the book Fearless Color Gardens by Keelya Meadows. I knew she was a local designer because she has a little exhibit at American Soil and Stone and I knew her home garden was open sometimes but I was not sure of the details. I joined the Garden Conservancy this year and lo! her garden was on the Open Days list! I made T. come with me.

I love all the quirky paving, concrete forms, and amazingly fun use of color. I wish my own garden was just like this. It was a bit over the top for T. though and I suspect he will object.

I’m desperately in love with that leopard-spotted Ligularia and must acquire one for myself immediately.

A Visit to Moose Metal in Concord

I stopped by Moose Metal to inquire about a metal project for a client. How cute is this metal moose logo?!

It was a wealth of fun metal detritus for me to snap pics of.

Many shapes and colors!! I really, really want to include colorful metal elements in my landscape designs. My pinnacle of silly landscape color you ask? I bright pink arbor. I want one myself so surely everyone else will, right?!

More cute moose themed items :)