thedesıgner ASSOCIATION OF
PROFESSIONAL LANDSCAPE DESIGNERS
Winter 2020
SECRETS FROM ARCHITECTURAL SALVAGE
Local SELLING SUSTAINABILITY
CREATING INCLUSIVE SPACE
editor’sletter Where Do I Even Begin?
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think most of us are asking that question on a daily basis these days. Recently I was listening to an episode of Brené Brown’s podcast, Unlocking Us, and her guest Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, said something that deeply resonated with me. She said that she asks herself, when trying to navigate life, especially right now, “What is it that I know how to do, where is the need, and how can I help?” In this issue, we’re exploring how to begin right where you are—at home.
As you enjoy this issue, I invite you to challenge yourself to think about how you can create more inclusive, healing spaces. Each of you is an immensely talented and creative person and your clients and your communities need you. I am confident you’ll continue to rise to the occasion in the new year.
KATIE ELZER-PETERS
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EDITOR@APLD.ORG
PHOTOG RA PH BY KIR ST EN B OEHM ER PHOTOGRA P HY
Leslie Bennett, of Pine House Edible Gardens, and the feature of my interview this month, answered that question by launching the Black Sanctuary Gardens project. Claire Jones used her know-how to create a healing space for one of her clients and inspires us to do the same. Irvin Etienne makes a point to create inspiring designs using tropicals, and he shows you how, no matter where you live. We’re also lucky to have a book excerpt from David Culp’s A Year at Brandywine Cottage: Six Seasons of Beauty, Bounty, and Blooms—the ultimate exploration of local design. Kathy Jentz provides ideas for shopping at architectural salvage stores, and Natasha Petroff takes us on a tour of Far Reaches Farm in Port Townsend, WA, which is a hop and a skip from her, proving there’s plenty of adventure to be had in your backyard. Finally, Cynthia Bee and John Palmer offer pointers for selling sustainability and creating sustainable designs.
thedesıgner Fieldstone steppers lead down to Claire Jones’s labyrinth. See more on page 26.
EDITOR IN CHIEF Katie Elzer-Peters ART DIRECTOR
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ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Jenny Peterson COPY EDITOR
Billie Brownell EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Denise Calabrese, CAE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
Michelle Keyser
EVENTS DIRECTOR
Lori Zelesko
ASSISTANT COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
Courtney Kuntz
CERTIFICATION & CHAPTER ASSOCIATE
Kelly Clark
FINANCE ADMINISTRATOR
Jennifer Swartz
DATABASE MANAGEMENT ADMINISTRATOR
Leona Wagner
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Labyrinths repeat the spiral designs found in nature. Read more in the featured article on page 26.
contents WI N T E R 202 0 8 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 12 DESIGN ROUNDUP Spec: Architectural Salvage Stores: Secret Sources for Designers BY KATHY J EN TZ
20 PLANT APPS Buy the Banana BY I RVI N ETI EN N E
26 IN THE FIELD Healing Labyrinth BY CLA I R E J ON ES
34 BUSINESS Selling Sustainability BY CYN THI A B EE
40 BOOK EXCERPT A Year at Brandywine Cottage: Six Seasons of Beauty, Bounty, and Blooms BY DAVI D L. CU LP, TI M B ER PRESS
48 DESIGN 101 Creating Sustainable Designs BY J OHN PA LMER
54 INTERVIEW Decolonizing Garden Design: Leslie Bennett, owner of Pine House Edible Gardens BY KATI E ELZER -PETERS
66 TRAVEL INSPIRATION Far Reaches Farm BY N ATASHA PETR OFF ON THE COVER : ATHERTON F RON T YA R D EDI B LE LA N DSCA PE, PHOTO BY DAVI D FEN TON
contributors Cynthia Bee
Business: Selling Sustainability
p. 34
Irvin Etienne
Plant Apps: Buy the Banana
p. 20
Kathy Jentz
Design Roundup Spec: Architectural Salvage Stores
p. 12
Claire Jones
In the Field: Healing Labyrinth
p. 26
PHOTO BY DA RL EN E WELLS
Cynthia Bee is a landscape communicator, tribe builder, and plant nerd. She holds a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from Utah State University and has spent the past twenty years developing regional solutions to landscape and development challenges. She currently serves as the outreach coordinator for the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District and works as part of the “sales reduction” team. You can learn more from her TEDx Salt Lake City talk, which she gave on this topic in 2019.
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Irvin Etienne is the curator of herbaceous plants and seasonal garden design for the Garden at Newfields. Working in the 152 acres of the garden and grounds requires knowledge and skill with all manner of plants. In his own garden, everything from cannas to eggplants to magnolias co-exist in a lush jungle fed by manure from his own rabbits and chickens. He’s received gold and silver awards in the category of Electronic Media Writing from GardenComm.
Kathy Jentz is editor and publisher of Washington Gardener magazine. She is currently the Green Media columnist for Mid-Atlantic Grower newspaper and also edits the quarterly Water Garden Journal, the official publication of The International Waterlily & Water Gardening Society. Kathy’s work has been featured in numerous area publications including the Washington Examiner newspaper, Pathways magazine, and Washington Women magazine. She has also appeared on numerous TV and radio programs.
Claire Jones is a licensed landscape contractor and owner of the boutique design firm Claire Jones Landscapes, LLC. Garden travel is her main joy in life, and she regularly leads garden tours around the world. When at home, she tends to her many gardens and beehives located on two acres in Maryland’s horse country. One fun fact about Claire is that she regularly decorates the White House for Christmas. She shares her experiences both at home and in different countries on her blog TheGardenDiaries.
>>Click bolded text for links apld.org
John Palmer
Design 101: Creating Sustainable Designs
p. 48
Natasha Petroff
Travel Inspiration: Far Reaches Farm
p. 66
PHOTO BY MAU REEN PA LMER
John Palmer is an ISA board-certified master arborist, lecturer, trainer, advanced tree risk assessor (ISA TRAQ), owner of PlanetCare Landscape and Arboricultural Services, and volunteer marketing chair of the Ohio chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture. His focus is on trees in urban and construction environments, soil deficiencies and the importance of soils for sustainable mature trees, increasing urban tree canopies by ensuring trees live to maturity, and unsustainable landscape designs.
Natasha Petroff is a writer and horticulturist with ATA degrees in landscape design and restoration from Edmonds College in Washington State. She runs a small design firm, The Salish Seed, and maintains a hodgepodge personal plant collection. Someday she hopes to chase down exotic specimens around the world, much like the subjects of her profile in this edition of The Designer.
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president’sletter Shop Local
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e are living in a time when so many things can be acquired from a great distance due to easier and less expensive shipping methods. Yet there is still an appeal to acquiring products and services that are locally available. Phrases such as “locally grown,” “local ingredients,” and “shop local” are just a few examples of how the emphasis of staying local permeates our culture’s marketing sense—and prompts questions about how we might consider the term “local” in our landscape practices. As designers, we are encouraged to embrace each site’s spirit of place, or its genius loci. This can often lead us to design with indigenous precedence, guiding the choices of material usage or construction approach. Of course, each design’s level of adherence to local is swayed by the clients, their jurisdiction, or other program objectives. One instance that comes to mind is when we promote sustainable practices. Whether following SITES, LEED, or other similar sustainability-based programs, we find that nearly every objective incorporates proximity into its expectations. It is important to source all materials within 500 miles of the project site, soil quality and biology should remain as close as possible to existing soils on a site or the neighboring sites, and, of course, our designs should strive to include locally native plant material, which typically proves to perform best without artificial support. As we can all agree, incorporating local benefits our clients, the environment, and each project’s community. I think you will enjoy this issue’s local theme, with an exciting line up of viewpoints from our contributors. I would love to hear about how you incorporate and promote local in your practice—feel free to reach out to me and share!
ERIC GILBEY, PLA
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SLATE HOUSE | COURTESY OF CAMPION HRUBY LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS AND DAVID BURROUGHS
thedesıgner wants you! The only magazine written by designers for designers, The Designer is looking for talented members like you to share your stories, teach new techniques, and inspire with your designs. All submissions from APLD members are considered, but The Designer is particularly interested in articles that fit the issue’s editorial theme or are appropriate for one of the magazine’s regular columns spotlighting technology or business strategies.
calling all writers
Seeking pitches for articles. We're always looking for writers for regular features including Wander.Lust., Travel Inspiration, Plant App(lication)s, Design 101, and Design Masterclass articles.
Not sure if your story is a good fit? As Editor in Chief for 2021 Katie Elzer-Peters is happy to discuss your idea with you. Reach her at editor@apld.org.
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designroundup SPEC
Architectural Salvage Stores Secret Sources for Designers BY KATHY JENTZ
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hey don’t make them like they used to, right? Vintage and antique garden tools and elements have a patina of years that cannot be duplicated by new pieces. Many landscape designers have “secret sources” that they go to when they are searching for just that right piece to add a mature and classic look to a garden. We have a gold mine local to the Washington, D.C., area called Community Forklift. It is an architectural reclamation store that also offers job training and other programs that give back to the community. It is a spot where several local designers spend their time off perusing the outdoor displays for inspiration.
➸ Community Forklift hosts an annual “Garden Party” each April where people will form a line going around the corner of their scrapyard waiting to come in and grab the vintage garden tools, old containers, metal outdoor furniture, and architectural salvage.
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY KATHY JENTZ EXCEPT WHERE NOTED
An old bed planted with New Guinea Impatiens in a garden in Takoma Park, MD apld.org | 13
An arbor has been made of old security doors from Community Forklift. PHOTO COURTESY OF COMMUNITY FORKLIFT
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designroundup
A clawfoot bathtub planting in downtown Frederick, MD.
Salvage yards such as Community Forklift are places of opportunity and discovery. You never know what you will find, and you can spend hours there looking for hidden treasures. Examples of pieces sourced from Community Forklift that have found their way into local gardens include architectural antiques such as furnace grates, security doors, Victorian-era fencing, and fireplace grates. Cast iron clawfoot bathtubs are in high demand to use as outdoor water features. Ruthie Mundell, formerly in charge of donor outreach and special projects at Community Forklift, said, “The best stuff here, the coolest things we get, go very quickly. My advice for any garden designer is to come often, all year long, because things go so quickly. If you walk in and you see something, don’t wait because it’ll be gone tomorrow.” ➸ apld.org
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designroundup “In terms of cool projects folks can do in the garden, we get a lot of granite donated to us,” Mundell shared. “The granite fabricators and installers love to donate because they are always cutting the end pieces and have leftover broken pieces and even little ovals when they cut out holes for sinks on a countertop. They have to pay to throw them all away. We don’t think about it as ordinary homeowners—we just put our trash on the curb, but the businesses have to pay $80 a ton to throw things out. They love the fact that we’ll pick up their granite scraps for free. You can use them for garden edgers or turn them upside down, so the rough side is up, and use them as patio pavers. I’ve seen people do beautiful mosaics using the granite counter pieces, and it’s super cheap here. It’s $5–$13 per square foot for granite scraps.” Shockingly, about 40 percent of our nation’s solid waste is made up of building materials. In this era of environmental awareness, it not only makes sense to reuse and recycle materials from other projects, but it can also be a bonus savings to your bottom-line budget as well. The reuse nonprofit Community Forklift, based in Edmonston, MD, turns this waste stream into a resource stream for local communities. David Marciniak of Revolutionary Gardens, based in Culpeper, VA, is a big fan of using salvaged materials in his design projects. “It makes a really neat added element,” said Marciniak. “It gives us something to set it off and make it different from the neighbor’s landscape.” His past projects include using marble from the U.S. Capitol building saved from a renovation done decades prior. In another example of adaptive re-use, Marciniak has ➸ Measure twice, cut once—especially when a piece is vintage and not easily replaced! This stone fireplace surround from a 19th-century home was re-used on an outdoor fireplace. PHOTO BY DAVID MARCINIAK
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CrusaderÂŽ performs beautifully, even in harsher roadside conditions.
A pile of architectural elements in a Georgetown garden, Washington, D.C.
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designroundup employed using cobblestones from a client’s family farm in Connecticut in a porch column design. “As a designer, I’m always looking and keeping an eye out for items that will play well with design that I am working on,” said Marciniak. “I go to local sources and lots of salvage places, but I have also stopped my truck and picked up roadside castoffs. I call it opportunist-upcycling.” Marciniak welcomes the opportunity when a design client gives him an element that they salvaged or saved to work into the landscape. Though, “. . . it has to be for a good reason,” he cautions. “Don’t do it just to be weird.” “Do not just throw in salvage for salvage’s sake,” agreed Jim Dronenburg. He describes himself as “fanatic gardener” and along with his partner, Dan Weil, who is a retired architect, they have several ongoing projects on their extensive property in Knoxville, MD, that involve reclaimed materials.
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The stained-glass windows they found are from an old church and add a unique and beautiful feature to the finished outbuilding.
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“You want to match what you are trying to do,” said Dronenburg. “If you have nonmatching elements, such as bricks of a different shade, they can be used in hidden places. For instance, when building a brick retaining wall, keep the matching bricks on the outer-facing side.”
Sometimes serendipity plays a part. Dronenburg and Weil went to Housewerks Salvage in Baltimore, MD, in search of materials for a greenhouse they were dreaming of creating. The stained-glass windows they found there are from an old church and add a unique and beautiful feature to the finished outbuilding.
Reclaimed stained-glass windows from a torndown church shed light in a greenhouse. PHOTO BY DAN WEIL
Whether looking for a client or for yourself, a visit to your local salvage yard or architectural reclamation store is well worth your time. Use your imagination and creativity to keep an eye open for ways to repurpose old materials in new, inventive, and unexpected ways.
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plantapps
Buy the Banana I BY IRVIN ETIENNE
would truly be lost without tropicals and annuals in my garden. I would also truly be lost without perennials, shrubs, and trees. Fortunately, there is nothing stopping me from having all these plants growing together in a jungle of love. A perennial border is improved by an addition of tropicals and annuals. That native pollinator bed will be a lot sexier with some Cannas, and hummingbirds will reward you with visits all summer. A shrub border can look quite nice on its own but becomes a dramatic focal point with the addition of a bold Banana plant. And while there’s no doubt that throwing all your vegetables into one area can make harvesting easier, try blending them into your ornamental beds instead—there is no need to restrict the plants or your imagination! As in any other garden design, you do have to respect plant needs. Ideally you should use plants with similar light, moisture, and soil needs—but be prepared to experiment, because some tropicals can be pushed a bit, while others, not so much. ➸
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ALL P H OTO GRAP HS BY I RVI N ETI EN N E
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A traditional border of perennials and woodies is lifted to a new level by the addition of Bananas (Musa ‘Ice Cream’).
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An Elephant Ear will do fine in soil with average moisture but it suffers in a dry spot. However, a Canna that usually is grown in full sun can be fabulous in a shade garden. The plants might be smaller and flower less, but they will still bring the ordinary Hosta-andFern shade garden up to a whole new level. If you’re introducing either yourself or your client to tropical plants, don’t make the mistake of buying expensive or fussy plants on your first attempt. Spending a hefty part of the landscaping budget on plants that are difficult to maintain—only to have them perish as a result of inexperience—creates a gloriously unhappy situation both for you and your client. Instead, stick to the easy basics at first: Cannas, Bananas, and Elephant Ears are great starter plants and create that much-needed drama that clients desire. Certain traditional indoor plants are also excellent for outdoor use—Crotons, Cordylines/ Dracaenas, and Sansevierias for example. All of these are forgiving of light, moisture, and soil conditions if you don’t push them to their limits. They also make amazing container plants, connecting the garden to the house, patio, or porch. Once you have a backdrop of leafy green tropicals in place, try tucking in some colorful annuals. While short-lived, annuals provide incredible opportunities to create virtually any color scheme you and your client desire. They make great bridges between flowering periods of perennials and shrubs, many are excellent as cut flowers, and they are great for pollinators and birds. Depending upon where you and your clients live, there are care considerations for tropicals that inevitably come up at the end of the ➸ 22
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The addition of a bit of orange brings this planting an excitement that would be missing if just yellow and green were present. An assortment of Kniphofia are accented by Elephant Ear (Alocasia ‘Dark Star’) and a Greenflowering Tobacco (Nicotiana langsdorfii).
plantapps
A single Canna can make a stunning statement. Here, Canna ‘Day Dreamer’ and ‘Limelight’ Panicle Hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’) present a soft yet bold floral show (far left).
Self-sowing ‘Lauren’s Grape’ Poppy (Papaver somniferum ‘Lauren’s Grape’) and INCREDIBALL Smooth Hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens ‘Abetwo’) make a dramatic display with their contrasting colors (left).
Tender Elephant Ears (Colocasia esculenta ‘Tea Party’ and ‘Teacup’) and Dahlia ‘David Howard’ are flanked by hardy Coneflowers (Echinacea KISMET Intense Orange) and Butterfly Bush (Buddliea ‘Grand Cascade’).
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plantapps
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Late-season Irises (Iris sibirica) and Korean Spice Viburnum (Viburnum carlesii) offer little visual appeal. Bromeliads, annuals, and a large specimen Elephant Ear (Alocasia macrorhiza ‘Lutea’) bring great color without harming the permanent plants. Those who live in cold regions can have a tropical effect without digging every plant. Hardy Banana (Musa basjoo) can survive to -15 degrees F with mulch. This planting is accented with tall Cannas (green ‘Tama Tulipa’ and an unnamed bronze), Butterfly Bush (Buddleia ‘Grand Cascade’), and a self-sown Petunia that happens to match the Butterfly Bush perfectly.
growing season. As noted, some make ideal houseplants, and these can be overwintered while they’re dormant and planted again the following year. Another objection I hear is, “I don’t want to have to dig them up.” Well, you don’t have to; any and all can be composted. That plant gave you six months of beauty and joy, feeding birds and butterflies the whole time. You’ve gotten your money’s worth. No $25 meal ever gave you six months of joy and yet most people will spend that amount of money without a thought. Let the plant go. You have to be constantly experimenting to advance your skills as a garden designer, and tropicals and annuals offer an enormous opportunity to experiment regardless of the type of gardens you are designing. So, go ahead. Buy the Banana.
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The labyrinth, modeled after a simplified version of Chartres Cathedral, is restful anytime of year, but, especially so in spring.
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inthefield BY CLAIRE JONES
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bout seven years ago, I was contracted to design an outdoor healing space for a couple who were mourning the sudden loss of their son. The clients were living on a large hilly lot in Roland Park in Baltimore. I was tasked with designing an area on the sloping site that would promote growth and rejuvenation—a place for reflection and meditation. After listening to the ideas of my clients, which ranged from a soothing water feature, interacting with nature using natural materials, creating a respite from daily stresses, and providing an inviting pollinator space, I started my research journey. Widely adapted by churches and hospitals, labyrinths are popping up more often in residential neighborhoods and are currently in demand—a byproduct of the pandemic’s stayat-home wellness trend. Settling upon the idea of a healing labyrinth that mimicked the spirals of nature, I presented a design to my clients of a labyrinth surrounded by native pollinatorfriendly plants. Thrilled that they were on board with making the most of a difficult sloping site, we settled on a contemporary medieval design modeled on a simplified version of Chartres Cathedral in Paris. Containing a single, nonbranching 439-foot-long path, it winds its way to a special meditative space in the center consisting of an 800-pound perching boulder.
YRINTH
To complement the space, a nearby resting bench provides a place to pause and reflect, and a small bubbling boulder located in a journey-starting “heart space” completes the labyrinth experience. When preparing for ➸
P H OTO G R AP H S BY BY C LAIRE JO NE S
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inthefield the journey, a walker is encouraged to dip a hand into the water or leave mementoes as an offering in the heart space to begin the healing experience.
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Labyrinths are popping up more often in residential neighborhoods and are currently in demand—a byproduct of the pandemic’s stay-at-home wellness trend.
Working for a landscape company prior to starting my own business, I had occasionally been involved in maintaining existing labyrinths, most of them made with stones set into grass. Often these required many hours of labor-intensive weeding and spraying of herbicides to keep them neat. Wanting to avoid that pitfall of many hours of expensive maintenance, I considered all choices for materials. Concrete pavers were an attractive option as they are less costly than stone and easily installed, so the accompanying labor costs would be considerably lower. But the terrain and natural setting steered me toward Pennsylvania bluestone set into a matching grey gravel base as a sustainable, locally abundant material.
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My contractor stonemason was familiar with working with this type of stone as it occurs naturally here in quarries. Bluestone has attributes of incredible strength, superior density, and fine grain. Its grey-blue colors were a perfect fit for an organic feature that would be located in a small secluded glade at the bottom of a grassy slope. A local electrician installed a nearby GFI outlet for the necessary electricity for the water pump, and another contractor skilled in water features installed the boulder I’d selected at a nearby quarry and drilled it for water flow. ➸ 28
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A workman installs the water feature boulder at the beginning of the labyrinth.
The grey-blue color of the exceptionally strong native bluestone contrasts with the grey gravel.
Using cardboard templates, the stonemason precisely cut the bluestone into its necessary pieces.
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The teak bench, set among blooming Mazus, allows visitors to rest on their contemplative journey.
Large fieldstone steppers allow safe passage down to the labyrinth.
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Many visitors dip a hand into the bubbling water feature in the heartspace of the labyrinth.
inthefield
The retaining wall of western Maryland fieldstone, bordered by Japanese Forest Grass, offers another seating option.
A retaining wall of western Maryland fieldstone was built in an arc, embracing the entire area, which also served to give the walker a sense of privacy and enclosure. After the wall was completed, the remaining slope was graded level and prepared by power tamping the soil and a 2-inch gravel base. Black landscape cloth was positioned and topped off with a precisely printed template for placement of the stone pathway. My stonemason, who had never created a labyrinth before, designed large cardboard templates so he could precisely cut the bluestone into interlocking pieces with a diamond-tipped saw. Many winter hours were spent cutting huge slabs of bluestone, which were then chipped to fit together like a giant puzzle. Space between the pathway was filled with grey gravel to give the labyrinth its dimension and depth. A sturdy steel edge surrounds the 24-foot-diameter labyrinth to keep everything stable. Finally, large Pennsylvania fieldstone stones were set into the hillside for easy access from the house and planted with a variety of shadeloving perennials such as Brunnera, Columbines, Hostas, Wild Ginger, and native Trilliums. Clethra ‘Ruby Spice’ was the shrub chosen to border the labyrinth on one side because of its beautiful spring flowers and its glorious yellow fall color. To brighten the shady location, variegated and gold-colored plants such as ‘Chardonnay Pearls’ Deutzia, ‘Frostkiss’ Hellebores, and Dicentra ‘Gold Heart’ were selected and planted on ➸
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inthefield A steel edge surrounds the labyrinth to keep the gravel in place.
Native Clethras turn a wonderful yellow in fall.
the hillside and around the water feature. In the spring when more sunlight enters the deciduous tree canopy, flowering bulbs, Phlox stolonifera ‘Home Fires’, and white-flowering Viburnums brighten the area. At least 80 percent of the plant palette is native to the area, which benefits the environment as well as the client. To complete this major 6-month-long project, local sources for selected materials and contractors were utilized to the max. Having installed many patios with bluestone, I looked at Pennsylvania bluestone and asked myself, “How can I use it in a more creative and distinctive way?” A labyrinth is simply a large circular patio that utilizes materials a little differently and solves many site issues. I still work for these clients and have maintained the labyrinth since it was installed. The only maintenance necessary is picking up fallen branches, blowing off leaves, and removing a few sprouted weeds by hand. The shrubs have grown up since being planted to create a lovely secret hideaway. This installation resulted in my company being awarded “Best of Houzz 2016” in the Design category. 32
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At least 80 percent of the plant palette is native to the area, which benefits the environment as well as the client.
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busine ss Selling Sustainability The key is to quit selling it BY CYNTHIA BEE
F
or more than a decade, I’ve been part of a team trying to “sell sustainability” to a resistant public. We’d tried everything to educate the public while demonstrating beautiful examples of sustainable landscapes. Despite our best efforts, results were mixed … or worse. In a situation such as this, a knee-jerk reaction is to blame people for being unenlightened, so imagine our surprise when we discovered that the weak link was not them—it was us. Completely frustrated and humbled, we finally quit touting the conventionally accepted “solution.” We started asking and listening instead of trying to sell people on our answers. Our “aha” moment that changed everything came as part of a focus group of average homeowners. One participant summed it up perfectly when he said, “We equate conservation with sacrifice. I’m giving up something of greater value for something of lesser value for the good of everyone else.” The heads around him nodded. But what was notable to me was the unquestioned belief that sustainable landscapes were of “lesser value.” It turns out that we were trying to solve the wrong challenges. Maybe you are too? Once we stopped viewing the problem though our expert lens and instead considered it through the eyes of the public, we learned that the key to selling sustainability is to quit selling it.
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■ INCORPORATE VALUES THEY
ALREADY HOLD
Our local style encompasses a range of options so those who are ready for complete sustainability can artistically achieve it while those who are on the fence can still make dramatic improvements. Offering a range of implementation options is critical for mass appeal.
One reason sustainability is often an unsuccessful first approach when prospecting for new clients is because it puts you in the uncomfortable position of trying to influence or outright change a client’s values. Opening a conversation with, “You’re wrong, and you DESI GN BY TER R A FI R MA need to change” is rarely going to yield the desired outcome. A smart local solution doesn’t seek to change what people value but rather, it solves for the values they hold in a way that produces sustainable outcomes. No preaching is required. ➸ P H OTO G R A P H Y BY CYNTH IA BE E
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■ SOLVE PROBLEMS YOU KNOW
CLIENTS HAVE
The challenges of climate change, water supply (too much or not enough, depending on your local climate), and pollution are big, shared problems that are overwhelming to most clients. When we approach design solutions with the idea that enacting our solution will decrease the larger societal problems as the key selling point, we risk running into the perception challenges described.
To create a successful solution, avoid all-or-nothing thinking. This yard still contains limited lawn but is close enough to a “normal” yard that others replicate it. It’s not just about how much water a single landscape saves but, also about the spread of local best practices among a broader number of landscapes. DESI GN BY CYN THI A B EE
Instead, we need to create local design styles that are built on a foundation of sustainability as the bedrock. If sustainable practices are woven into the design approach, no matter how the individual components of the design are pulled together, sustainable landscapes happen. We then promote this local design style, of which you are a practitioner or even creator, and “sell” that style as the 36
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best way to landscape “here.” Once clients see how the solution will solve their personal landscape goals, they are thrilled to discover that the design they already like is sustainable in your region. It turns out that even people who don’t find sustainability as the top reason to change their landscape are more than happy to take on the mantle once they know their key concerns are addressed.
There’s little that’s “new” in our regional style from a design perspective. The best designers already apply most of the elements of the style. However, it is the way the message is framed and communicated that has caused these proven best practices to finally catch on. DESI GN BY MA R I N DA COLEMA N , SOUL GA R DEN S
■ GATHER YOUR TRIBE OF EXPERTS
The best way to make an impactful, sustainable, local solution is to build it and share it collectively with your ever-enlarging tribe. This is counterintuitive. We’re taught that proprietary solutions are the smartest business solution but, as it turns out, multiple voices sharing the same core message have far greater ➸ impact for the messenger. apld.org
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busine ss
A stumbling block we uncovered through our own solution development process was that garden centers, contractors, and designers each has their own unique “language” for the same concepts. This created noise and confusion. If you want your industry to promote the local solution, invite them to participate in the creation of the design style. Multiple, respected voices speaking the same design language create verifiable local truth for your community. A regionalized approach starts with your tribe, solves communications disconnects, and amplifies all voices. We really are stronger together.
The Localscapes® design style has been championed by key local corporate entities. Intermountain Healthcare’s Healing Gardens demonstrates the bold shapes and local plants that are the core of its style. The company carries the concepts across their facilities and even sponsors classes for employees to learn the Localscapes method. Clients can become partners in your larger efforts. DESI GN BY LA N DCURVE LA N DSCA PE A R CHI TECTUR E
■ SYSTEMIZE IT INTO A WAY THAT IS
EASY TO UNDERSTAND
One of the most significant lessons we’ve learned is the public get lost in the details. As designer, your challenge is to build that detail automatically into the approach so 38
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Locals have been surprised to learn that the addition of multiple gathering areas offers not only the obvious social benefits but also reduces the total square footage of the landscape requiring water and active maintenance. DE S IG N BY L A N D C URVE LANDS CAP E A RC HI T E C T UR E
you won’t have to expend effort explaining it all in detail and risk their attention wandering. So what is the formula for a local solution? Start by taking the collective expertise of your tribe, boil it down to its simplest form, and filter it through the lens of sustainability. What is the least people need to know and understand in order to enact the solution? Simplification is the answer! We don’t need to change people to create a more sustainable future. We need to create solutions that incorporate values they already hold, solve problems they already know they have, and enlist our tribe to systemize it into localized solutions that are easy to understand and apply.
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Our Localscapes® regional style can be quickly explained and understood by any homeowner. The ultimate goal is to be able to explain your regional style visually in a single graphic or page. DESI GN BY SA R A H HA LTER MA N
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A classical stone planter picks up the seasonal theme with winter aconites, snowdrops, white-variegated ivy, and some Arum italicum.
bookexcerpt
A Year at Brandywine Cottage Six Seasons of Beauty, Bounty, and Blooms B Y D A V I D C U L P with Denise Cowie EXCERPT FROM A YEAR AT BRANDYWINE COTTAGE: SIX SEASONS OF BEAUTY, BOUNTY, AND BLOOMS BY DAVID CULP WITH DENISE COWIE (TIMBER PRESS 2020)
EARLY SPRING - FEBRUARY I cannot understand people who put their gardens to bed in October and don’t give them another thought until somewhere between St. Patrick’s Day and April Fools’. I would like to take them for a walk around my garden >>Get the book! Click here in February. At the beginning of the month I could not see a single Crocus tommasinianus. By month’s end the “tommies” are in full bloom, their lovely shades of lavender to lilac blanketing the hillside. I planted bulbs just once, about 20 years ago, and they did the rest. They are prolific seeders and come up all over the place. I think I bought a hundred bulbs originally—one of my better gardening investments. The deer, squirrels, and chipmunks don’t seem to bother them. And even if they wanted to, I think the tommies seed around so readily they could outrun them! Near the barn, the tommies have grown up through the moss, creating a charming scene around a bench. Some people complain that these little crocus get into places where they’re not wanted, but I think it’s a mark of success in gardening when plants start doing their own thing. It means you’ve created the right habitat. On a February day when the sun is shining, the tommies open their petals to reveal glowing orange stamens, heralding delights to come. But they don’t hang around. By May, the foliage is gone. ➸ PHOTO G R A P H S BY R OB CARD ILLO
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bookexcerpt The long-awaited and much-anticipated Galanthus (snowdrop) season gets into full swing in February. This is a cause of great celebration at the cottage, as snowdrops truly signal the beginning of spring, evoking the opening notes of a symphony that plays out over several months: crocus are the prelude, snowdrops recapitulate the theme, hellebores introduce a variation, and daffodils and tulips are a crescendo. Simplicity is one of the things I like best about snowdrops. They are not large-flowered or brightly colored, but snowdrops inspire passionate devotion and covetous tendencies. The subtlety and diversity of their flowers is a large part of their appeal—this is one plant that drives me to my knees, to Look closer! It’s also one of the plants that allows me to say I have something in flower at every season: The author David Culp they start blooming in fall and, depending on the species, go all the way through winter and spring. In February I tend to like plants that have such moxie that they take whatever nature throws at them and bloom anyway. Despite the continuing threat of frost and snow, they provide food for early pollinators and are in turn pollinated by them. You may think of this as genetic evolution; I think of it as gambling everything for love. Even though I love the bulbs and perennials that behave this way, you cannot build a garden on a genus or two. You need a variety of plants— including shrubs and trees—to complete the picture we call a garden. Nothing does this so well in late winter and early spring as Hamamelis×intermedia on the tree level and our native Leucothoe axillaris on the shrub layer. Witchhazels—the common name of Hamamelis species, because surely some magic must be involved in having them bloom when they do—can take more frost on their blooms than any other tree I know. Certainly the yellow-flowering H. ×intermedia ‘Arnold’s Promise’ is the best known, but thanks to the de Belders, Robert and especially his wife Jelena, who was internationally known for ➸ 42
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Crocus tommasinianus come in wonderful shades of lilac, pink, mauve, and variations thereof.
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Bright yellow of Hamamelis×intermedia ‘Angelly’. Witchhazels come in a variety of colors and bloom over several months. 44
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bookexcerpt her breeding work with the genus over many years at Kalmthout in Belgium, there are many new cultivars and colors from which to choose. I also have H. ×intermedia ‘Angelly’ and ‘Pallida’, both yellow-flowering. In early spring there’s an argument for using lots of yellow, because Mother Nature seems to be working with this color. It’s easy to underplant with yellowmarked snowdrops, winter aconites, and hellebores, as well as the yellowvariegated Carex elata ‘Aurea’, yellow-spotted ‘Gold Dust’ aucuba, and yellow acorus. A stroll around the garden late this month shows that the mahonias and Jasminum nudiflorum (winter jasmine) are also Over winter, the green blooming, along with foliage of Leucothoe axillaris gives way Iris reticulata, Eranthis to burgundy, which hyemalis (winter aconite), works beautifully with Chionodoxa (glory-ofthe purples of the the-snow), and a handful tommies. of hellebores. Not only flowers make a statement in the February garden. The bark of some trees is startlingly beautiful, including the exfoliating bark of Stewartia pseudocamellia, one of my favorite trees, and Acer griseum (paperbark maple). Even the spent flowerheads of hydrangeas, with their antique coloring, have a delicate, lacy quality at this time of year, and of course there are the ever-green trees and shrubs, testament to ongoing life ➸ apld.org
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bookexcerpt in the garden. Green is one of my favorite colors in any season. Near a path from the gravel garden down to the cottage, twin containers hewn from tree trunks are planted with Hamamelis vernalis ‘Quasimodo’, a dwarf witchhazel that gets no more than 4 feet tall, underplanted with primroses and Ophiopogon japonicus ‘Nanum’, a mondo grass that grows 6 to 8 inches. Another ‘Quasimodo’ may go in the rock garden, and mondo grass among the stones. One of my constant mantras: repetition, repetition, repetition. A classical stone planter in front near the barn stairs picks up the seasonal theme with winter aconites, snowdrops, white-variegated ivy, and some Arum italicum that has been seeding around the garden. I just dig it up and put it in the pot. Same thing with the aconites—in fact, the container is planted entirely with things from Snowdrops are the garden. I added a branch of curly featured on one of our willow to give it a bit of lift. When the taborets, the little stone aconites and snowdrops are done, we’ll dig them out, plant them back in tables scattered around the the garden, and put something else in garden on which we display the container. Parts of the garden are still-life vignettes as the constantly in motion—just like nature. fancy takes us. Snowdrops are also featured on one of our taborets, the little stone tables scattered around the garden on which we display still-life vignettes as the fancy takes us. After all, we bring flowers in, or create still-life arrangements in the house. Why not create them outside as well? That’s my aim in this book—to blur the lines between indoors and out. Besides, my taborets are another place to celebrate nature. And the wildlife becomes part of it, too. Once, there was a wood thrush eating berries off the stone, and behind that the snowdrops blooming. It was Audubon come to life. This month, a pewter vase shows off snowdrops, flowers of Hamamelis×intermedia ‘Pallida’, and a piece of Helleborus foetidus with just the beginnings of buds. And through the kitchen window, a flower box on the porch displays white-variegated ivy intertwined with the delicate apricot flowers of potted hellebores.
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”
But despite all the variety the February garden has to offer, this month really belongs to snowdrops. When I pull into the driveway late at night from a business trip, my headlights hit the sweep of snowdrops, my little galanthus theater, and I feel I’m home. After hundreds of miles of asphalt, it’s a welcoming sight.
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A classic combination for an arrangement is snowdrops and hamamelis. Both are very fragrant and perfume the air when you bring them into the house.
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design101
CREATING SUSTAINABLE
DESIGNS BY JOHN PALMER
A
t first glance, the title may seem a bit superfluous. I mean, who wants unsustainable designs, right? As a consulting arborist, I’m basically a professional noticer. I’m paid to see things others may not. And frankly, what I see concerns me.
As a landscape company owner for nearly 20 years, I’ve both designed landscapes and consulted with clients on failed landscape designs. During that time, I fear things have not been getting better. Oh, our technology is more impressive and our palette of amazing plants and trees is increasing, but our knowledge and practices seem to be regressing. That’s a bold statement, I know, but what I ➸ 48
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ANSI Z60 Nursery Stock Standards
PHOTOGR A PHS BY BY J O HN PA L MER
These defective structural roots have been caused by container growing.
continually see in landscapes is what leads me to that unmistakable conclusion. So let’s go back to the drawing board. Square one, it seems to me, should be basic plant and soil knowledge: we plant plants and we plant them in soil. In every nursery I visit, I see defective plant material at every turn. Poor branch structure, poor root systems, poor growing conditions. These problems (that take hours to explain in my lectures) are well known and detailed in national nursery stock standards (ANSI Z60). So question one is, do you know these standards, and question two is, do you reject material that doesn’t adhere to them? If not, start now. Girdling roots, branch overcrowding, co-dominant trunks and stems—the Z60 standards prohibit these defects, but since these standards are voluntary, do you know if your supplier follows them? Would you be willing to go elsewhere, or pay more, for better quality nursery stock? How influential is the bottom line?
A 3-inch-diameter girdling root began at the grower, was left unpruned, and caused the premature death of this otherwise healthy Japanese Maple.
For example, here in northeast Ohio, many—maybe even, most—trees are now container grown, not field grown. Trees grown in containers have horrible girdling roots, and thus, I will not purchase them. I reject any that show up at a jobsite. They are defective according to national standards, and I won’t give my clients substandard materials. Defective roots take time to discover and sometimes take decades to cause decline in trees, as they’re slowly strangled. It’s easy to “take the money and run,” and then 15 years later when the tree is in decline, blame it on bugs, disease, 50
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design101 This profile is of healthy, clay loam soil with an organic top layer and uncompacted clay.
the climate, or even the neighbor spraying his dandelions, when in reality it was doomed from the nursery. That is not sustainable. I have a phrase I believe describes this perfectly when I travel the country sharing what I call Deforestation by Design™. It’s so important to me that I now legally own that phrase and I define it this way: The design and installation of plant material in violation of known plant care standards, resulting in predictable, premature decline or death. When we knowingly buy shrubs and trees with defective root systems, poor branch arrangement, and suspect hardiness zone tolerances—and they fail—we have no one to blame but ourselves. When we plant them in poor soil and they struggle to thrive, again, that’s on us. Do we really understand a plant or tree’s soil requirements when we look to the soils we plant in? Often—even in our specs—designers use useless words such as “good” to describe soil but what exactly does that mean? Soil is far too complex to be summed up as “good” or “bad” and defaulting to apld.org
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design101 those terms lets us off the hook for really knowing what we’re talking about.—Jim Urban, FASLA What do you know about soil? Texture, nutrients, pH, organic matter? How about structure (the arrangement of soil particles) and bulk density (the measure of compaction and available pore space)? Of the things I just mentioned, nutrients and texture are the least important, but most landscape professionals believe just the opposite. Structure and bulk density are the most important because they’re the most easily destroyed and the most difficult to restore. Roots absorb oxygen between soil particles and the more compact the soil (higher bulk density), the less pore space, the less available oxygen, and the greater plant stress. How about planting standards. Do you know them? The ANSI A300 standards detail every element of This Dogwood is declining due to its root proper, peer-reviewed, scienceflare being buried at the grower, and then based installation. Though A300 it was planted too deep. standards are specifically written for trees and shrubs, I find most of them are applicable to anything you plant in a landscape. Planting depth, proper ways to dig planting holes, burlap and basket removal, root flare excavation, root pruning, proper mulching, and site inspection may seem basic, but they’re essential and often lacking. Understanding and implementing science-based knowledge and standards both in practice and specifications are the only ways to create truly sustainable designs, which is what I desperately want for you. Those of us who create designs need to lead the way.
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An example of proper tree planting with a visible root flare above the soil line—not buried by mulch.
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interview Decolonizing Garden Design:
On Creating Meaningful, Inclusive Spaces Leslie Bennett, owner of Pine House Edible Gardens BY KATIE ELZER-PETERS
L
eslie Bennett, owner and creative director of Pine House Edible Gardens, grew up in the same suburban landscapes that many of us did. She remembers thinking, “ … gardens were these pretty, orderly things, with lines on the grass, very tidy, with lots of roses. Gardens seemed to often be something other people came and took care of, clipping the hedges and mowing.”
Enclosed front yard veggie and cutting flower garden (top) PHOTO BY CA I TLI N ATK IN SON
Leslie Bennett with her daughter on the family's front porch (right) PHOTO BY R ACHEL WE IL L
A summer harvest (far right)
By age 30, once she’d switched to garden design after PHOTO BY J ESSI CA COMERFORD studying environmental justice and land use and practicing law, her views about what makes a beautiful garden had changed. She says that today she knows, “A garden is a transformative space with the potential for us to look at things, question things, grow new ways of interacting and being with each other, in nature and our communities. All of those things can happen if we ➸ 54
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Gardening Team PHOTO BY JESSICA COMER FOR D A N D LON N A LOPEZ
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interview design gardens that are aimed toward that.” She continues, “In a country where most white people don’t know Black people or have Black or Latino friends, and we live and work in highly segregated company, gardens can be an intentional space where people of different backgrounds can interact with each other. Gardens can also be spaces that subvert traditional white-dominant culture.” First, though, someone has to create that space—one that invites interaction and imagination rather than just observation. An inclusive space. Leslie says that she wants to, “Make the art, build it, then invite people to question and to connect the dots.” ■ DECOLONIZING
You can grow your own medicine. P H OTO BY PI N E HOUSE EDI B LE GA R DEN S TEA M
GARDEN DESIGN
“We value things that are beautiful,” Leslie says. “That’s a fact.” But, she adds, “beauty is highly subjective.” Overwhelmingly, especially in the United States, the standard of beauty is highly Eurocentric, or to be even more specific, built upon the foundation of the historical aesthetics of white males. Public spaces in the U.S. are filled with clipped hedges, lawns, mass plantings of annuals, or possibly monocultures of ornamental grasses. There could be a few small ornamental trees thrown in for height. This aesthetic is no different than other generally accepted predominant standards of beauty. “Thin and white” are still the overwhelming qualifications for fashion models. Movie projects (remember movies?) are still more easily greenlit with a predominately white cast. Shifting the universal standard of beauty, and thus what is valued in ➸ apld.org
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interview a culture, takes work across every industry and on many fronts, including design. Decolonizing beauty means, to Leslie, “Centering beauty on a Black/brown global majority framework. It’s a process of accepting that we’ve all been raised in these structures and looking at what can we do that is more true to the world around us.” Leslie acknowledges that doing the work, “. . . is a hard thing to do. We’ve been brought up to accept things the way they are, even if they are deeply problematic.” The success of Leslie and her design practice proves, though, that the work can be done. Her method: create beautiful, food-producing gardens. “That’s a first step toward decolonizing garden design. Colonized gardens are not geared toward food.” But food gardens can be beautiful. ■ BEAUTIFUL,
FUNCTIONAL FOODFORWARD GARDENS Leslie says she was initially inspired by Rosalind Creasy’s book Edible Landscaping, first published in 1982. “There wasn’t much more than that available as a resource when I started designing gardens and incorporating food. I figured out so much by trial and error.” In 2013, Leslie published her book, The Beautiful Edible Garden: Design A Stylish Outdoor Space Using Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs, in which she shares the wisdom she gained through designing and caring for beautiful, productive gardens. It’s a practical manual that marries design principles and gardening fundamentals, a cornerstone of her practice. She says that, over the years, “I had to learn which fruit trees work well in a front yard. But first, I had to ask, ‘What is a front yard? How does it impact how you feel when you come home? This space is something you’re going to see every day.’ ” Over the years, Leslie’s learned that, “Cherry trees, avocados, and figs are less great front-yard trees because they can be big, messy, and hard to maintain but trees such as apples, pears, persimmons, and olives are manageable in the front. It’s a ➸ 58
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Baby Summer Squash harvest (above) PHOTO BY J ESSICA COMER FORD
Summer flower harvest (left) PHOTO BY KIERA JA F F IN
The first BSG garden project was for community leader in East Oakland (far left). PHOTO BY RACHEL WEIL L
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interview process—figuring out how to meld beauty and production in spaces.” She says that one way to start thinking through it, is to design first with traditional ornamental plants such as evergreens for screening and deciduous trees for focal points and then to substitute edibles where possible. An easy swap she recommends is a low-growing blueberry such as ‘Sunshine Blue’ Alameda front yard edible and cut flower for a low-growing boxwood, landscape PHOTO BY CA I TLI N ATKI N SON Prunus, or holly hedge. Certain fruit trees can make great focal points, and in warmer climates, citrus trees can serve as evergreen anchors in the landscape. Leslie likes to include flowers for cutting and supporting pollinators, and she uses vegetables and herbs for foliage contrast. “I might use a big rhubarb somewhere for its broadleaf foliage.” She says, “You don’t have to reject beauty to claim sustainability.” (Or, productivity, for that matter.) ■ DESIGNING
RELATIONSHIPS
Beyond creating a new standard of beauty, a related benefit of decolonizing garden design by integrating food plants as part of everyday landscapes is that it helps Leslie achieve another goal, which is, “. . . to help my clients develop a relationship with the land and connect to the land within their gardens,” she says. As a lifelong environmentalist, Leslie wants to continue to share her “Save the Earth” message in a different way than she learned while in school. “Food is a very clear connector for most people. You are what you eat, and your plants are what they eat—what you feed the soil. That circle gets closed when people start growing their own food.” It’s also a natural community The beauty and builder. “You grow more than you can eat, and you can diversity of edible then share with your neighbors.” That’s one way to create gardens are that elusive, inclusive space. immense. TO P L E F T A N D BOTTO M R IG H T P H OTOS BY J E SS IC A CO MERFO RD AND LO N N A LO P EZ TO P R IG H T AND BOTTO M L E F T P H OTOS BY CAITLIN AT K IN S O N
To create spaces that her clients will cherish and actually use, Leslie gathers information beyond aesthetic preferences. “I ask my clients about their memories. ‘Do you have any favorite plants from childhood? ➸ apld.org
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interview Did your grandparent have a favorite flower? Are there any family stories about plants?’ ” The scents from plants such as Lilacs, Jasmine, and citrus are a frequent memory that comes up. “Everybody brings their different stories.” Sometimes she works with families that have a relatively recent immigrant history. “I ask them, ‘What was it like in Pakistan? What is the food that you can’t easily get here that you want your children to taste?’ ” “These are very personal questions,” she says. “Clients have to decide that they want to trust me with that information.” It’s imperative for Leslie to establish that trust because of the ultimate outcome of the designs. “Our gardens are not boxwood and lawns, or rhodies and lawns. They’re planted with plants that need care and interaction. We will design, build, and maintain the gardens, and every garden we build is intended to be a long-term relationship.” ■ CHANGE:
IF NOT ME, THEN WHO? The year 2020 has definitely been a year of reckoning for Leslie. She says, “I am as much a product of our society as everybody else. I’m a Black woman garden designer, but I’m swimming in the same waters of systemic racism as everyone else. And COVID-19 has made inequalities so much more apparent. For some people COVID-19 means you’re working from home with a beautiful landscape to enjoy, while others are working high-risk essential service jobs and stuck in a concrete jungle.” ➸ Winter harvest (left) PHOTO BY J ESSI CA COMERFORD
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Leslie Bennett's kids romp in the enclosed front yard veggie garden. PH OTO BY L E SL I E B ENNE TT
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Potted Culinary Bay
Hillsborough client edible garden (top)
Summer harvest
PHOTO BY LO N N A LO P E Z
P H OTO BY DAVID FEN TON
PHOTO BY CR I STA L A L EJA N DREZ
interview She didn’t like what she saw, and after years of building her practice, she seized the opportunity to do something about it. As of spring 2020, all standard Pine House Edible Gardens client fees include an equity tax that funds garden design and installation work through the Black Sanctuary Gardens project. Leslie’s equity pricing framework also includes optional discounted rates for Black and Indigenous clients as well as disabled people living on fixed incomes. Leslie’s marketing materials read, “When you choose to work with Pine House, you are supporting the Black Sanctuary Gardens Project—a series of garden spaces created for Black women and Black communities in and around Oakland, CA. A portion of your garden design and instalYou grow more than lation fees help fund the creation of at least one Black Sanctuary Garden space per year, you can eat, and you and as many more as we can grow! Creatcan then share with your ing places of respite and beauty that benefit neighbors. That’s one way Black communities is crucial. Feeding the to create that elusive, soul helps to feed the fight for justice.”
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inclusive space.
”
Taking this stand was an act of bravery. “It has been scary. I’m the breadwinner in my family. I have a lot of privilege in some ways, and I’m very not privileged in other ways. I love landscape design and care passionately about social justice. It took me 10 years to name the changes I wanted to make and figure out how to make them within the structures of my business.” The results have been unexpected. “What I have found is that as I have explicitly stated that what we do is for Black people as much as for white people, the potential clients reaching out to me have changed. There are clients of all races, with money to pay my regular rates, who want to work with a resonant service provider; they tell me ‘I’m excited to work with a Black-owned company with a social justice mission.’ ” Pine House is a multi-racial, queer-inclusive, and majority female team, but Leslie says there is plenty of room to do better. By taking a stand around racial justice, she is seeing a more diverse group of people approaching Pine House Edible Gardens to work with her. “We’re a very tight-knit team that’s highly collaborative and communicative. We include organic farmers to landscape architects and everything in between. It takes a lot of skills to design, build, and care for these integrated spaces.” Leslie ends by saying, “The way we do things challenges a lot about what gardens are. My hope is to keep pushing myself and all of us to expand our ideas of what is acceptable and what is possible – and what we really WANT for ourselves and our world—especially in terms of how we humans relate to each other and to the land we live with.”
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travelinspiration
Far Reaches Farm BY NATASHA PETROFF
Kelly Dodson & Sue Milliken “Polylepis was one of the primary plants we wanted to see in Argentina. To see and be in [the presence of] such a great specimen in the wild was one of our best moments in the field.” P H OTO BY C O DY H I N C H L I F F P H OTO BY J UDY N AUSEEF, FA PLD
travelinspiration FAR
RE AC HE S
FA R M
Still exploring, from headquarters to high places and beyond
D
uring these strangest of times, adventurers have to find ways to go further while staying close to home. The owners of Far Reaches Farm—a nursery and 501(c)3 botanical conservancy in Port Townsend, Washington—are no exception. Pre-COVID, Sue Milliken and Kelly Dodson regularly whisked away to far-off places to collect seeds of fascinating species, some endangered, to cultivate and share back at home. These days they are mostly active via online sales and midweek hikes. Here’s a conversation about their experiences.
■ HOW DID YOU START FAR REACHES FARM?
We met on a seed-collecting expedition in Yunnan, China, in 1997, and not long after, started Far Reaches Farm. Prior to that, we both owned small specialty nurseries focusing on uncommon plants propagated in-house. Kelly also did garden design and installation and was a propagator for a botanic garden back in the dawn of time. We opened Far Reaches in 2003. Our first plant sale ➸ Far Reaches Farm Shade Garden Shade plants are thriving in a large lath house, “… which had the dual advantages of no root competition from shade trees while creating a surprising intimacy in a literal garden room.” P H OTO G R A P H S BY S U E M I L L I K E N
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was on three picnic tables in front of our barn. We thought that the $200 we made was a clear indication that we were pointed in the right direction. I think the first few people were hoping for a yard sale. We currently have over 8,000 different plants in the collection. ■ TELL US ABOUT YOUR SPECIALTY—
INTERESTING PLANTS.
Uncommon, rare, and often unprofitable but interesting species. We find that an individual plant can offer a portal to wherever it calls home, be it Tasmania, Chile, the Alps, Vietnam, or Scotland. Delving into the plant lets you drill down into geography, history, climate, plant communities, ecosystems, ethnobotanical use, and so on, if you have the plant bug in a big way. ■ WHO’S BUYING INTERESTING PLANTS?
We appeal to plant collectors and gardeners who are looking for something different and with a more enduring appeal than the latest plant du jour. We have customers throughout the U.S., thanks to our mail-order platform, and have had open retail days here at the nursery. We also provide plants to quite a number of botanical and public gardens through our nonprofit, Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy. A lot of these plants that might have scientific value may not have tremendous market appeal but are often threatened in the wild. ■ WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PLANT? I KNOW;
IT’S AN UNFAIR QUESTION FOR PLANT GEEKS.
➸
One plant that we love is Polylepis lanata, an
Trillium Chloropetalum “We’re mad about Trillium,” say the owners of Far Reaches Farm. Trillium chloropetalum, from California, is usually darkly mottled, especially early in the season.
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evergreen tree in the rose family from high elevations in the Andes. We facilitated the introduction of this species to cultivation in 2010, and it has done fantastic for us. It’s a small tree of great character with irregular and gnarled growth whose trunk and limbs are covered in sheets of exfoliating bark that leaves Acer griseum jealous. The flowers are . . . unfortunate, having no petals but just dangling strings of calyces and naughty bits. ■ PEELING BARK—EXPLAIN THE FASCINATION.
It looks cool year-round. This tree (Polylepis lanata) is gorgeous 365 days a year. The bark glows different colors and adds movement in the landscape. The slightest breeze makes it move. ■ WHAT’S BUSINESS LIKE WITH COVID?
It’s been a strange year, with no onsite retail, no offsite sales, no conferences, [and none of ] the many lectures we give. We’ve focused our efforts on mail order and our propagation efforts solely on plants for mail order for next year, rather than including plants for onsite retail. The biggest upside is that we’ve been able to take a day off midweek to go hiking in the Olympics with our two dogs. ■ IMPORTANTLY, WHAT ARE YOUR DOGS’
NAMES?
The big dog is 13 years old, and she’s just trucking along. Her name is Calli, short for Calliandra. Our little one came out of Texas from a bad, bad shelter. She was traumatized. We’re pretty tight now. Her name is Senna, the genus of a plant in Texas, Senna lindheimeriana, or puppy dog ears. ■ FROM YOUR TREKS ACROSS THE HIMALAYAS
AND ASIA, EUROPE, AND NORTH AND
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Shennongding Mountain Atop Shennongding Mountain in China, in freezing temperatures, “… hoping to find the withered dormant remains of the rare Allium henryi.”
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travelinspiration SOUTH AMERICA, CAN YOU SHARE A MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE? In 2003 we were at 13,000 feet, trekking in the very remote mountains of eastern Bhutan, where scant few plant hunters or anyone had visited since Ludlow and Sherriff in the 1930s and ‘40s. We were many days from any habitation and came upon a small stone shack used by a yak herder for summer and fall grazing. Our guide said, “We will go in and make a fire and have some lunch. It will be okay.” The doorless doorway was the only light, and our guide, Wang-di, noticed a small, grubby transistor radio. He turned it on and it worked. The only station he got was playing Def Leppard. ■ IF YOU COULD VISIT ANY PLANT CENTER,
WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in South Africa for all of those plants we can’t grow in our climate. Gothenburg Botanical Garden in Sweden for all those plants we can grow with a good helping of alpines and bulbs. Ashwood Nursery in England, which is an extraordinary garden center and nursery and owned by a dear friend. ■ ONCE LOCKDOWN LOOSENS UP, WHAT’S
THE BEST TIME TO VISIT FAR REACHES FARM? Spring is nice. May is good.
■ OR VISIT VIRTUALLY?
Far Reaches Farm Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy
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2020 board of directors EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE PRESIDENT Eric Gilbey, PLA Vectorworks, Inc. 7150 Riverwood Drive Columbia, MD 21046 (443) 542-0658 PRESIDENT-ELECT Richard Rosiello Rosiello Designs & Meadowbrook Gardens 159 Grove Street New Milford, CT 06776 (860) 488-6507 TREASURER Wickie Rowland, APLD Design & Landscape (Div of Labrie Associates) PO Box 635 New Castle, NH 03854 (603) 828-8868 IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Danilo Maffei, FAPLD Maffei Landscape Design, LLC 202 N. Garfield Street Kennett Square, PA 19348 (610) 357-9700
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comingsoon
Preserve
The Art of Hand Drawing Garden Like the Earth Depends On It Rethinking the Lawn 2020 LA N DSCA PE DESI GN ER OF T HE YEA R , VI A HER M OSA : RESI DEN T I A L CATEGORY (OVER $1 00,000) BY COL I N MI LLER / EN VI SI ON L A N DSCA PE ST UDI O