I am so excited to introduce you to the first of a few guests I have lined up while I am away.  Rich Pomerantz garden imagess have been published in garden design, National Geographic the New York Times and many great publications in between.  I asked Rich to talk to us about how he thinks garden design and garden photography intersect.  I have this theory that to get better at one will guide getting better at the other….and after reading Rich’s wisdom, I think I might be right!  Rich……

Many gardeners enjoy photographing their garden designs. Doing so gives them the chance to record their work or that of the gardens they visit. It also preserves the memory of a garden at a point in time. But did you realize how improving your garden photography skills can help your design abilities?  There are many aspects to each discipline that overlap, but they are not always so obvious. I’ll discuss a few.

There are several things that are critical to good photography that are also important in garden design. Master photographers know that light is a primary consideration.

Light has color, direction and intensity. Every good designer takes into account the direction of the natural light when laying out a garden. If they do not the garden is likely to be either a terrific failure or just mediocre, as the plants will not receive the light they need to grow properly.  The best garden designers also think about the intensity of the light at different times of the seasons when planning their plantings. Knowledge of what can thrive in partial shade versus full sun and where the sun will hit in May, and then where it will hit in September will certainly inform the planting scheme.  As a photographer I always want to know where the light will be coming from at different times of the day and I plan my shooting accordingly.  If I want to photograph a backlit miscanthus in September,

then it ought to be planted to take advantage of the light hitting it across the garden from behind.

Perhaps the most obvious overlap is in composition.  Good photographic composition follows the same rules that we learn from art history like the rule of thirds, use of leading lines or curves to lead the eye into and around the frame, and the use of pattern, among others.  Smart garden design will use many of the same ideas, in three dimensional and living forms. So we see in formal gardens (and many not-so-formal ones) the use of axial lines leading to a focal point,

which give us leading lines and lead the viewer/visitor to the “prize” at the end, which becomes a primary subject in the artist’s composition. Most gardeners have been told about planting in odd numbers, which is a variant on the rule of thirds.

In photography, as in other art forms, once the rules are mastered then more complicated and interesting ideas can be explored, using the foundation already built. Successful idiosyncratic gardens work well because the designer has taken her own idea and imprinted them over a framework of the basics.   The famous “blue stairs” at Naumkeag is a variant on the axial line leading to a focal point, and has been photographed like this a million times.

But the genius of Fletcher Steele’s design is that it goes beyond the axis to be a fascinating abstraction placed on that landscape when viewed from any angle, so I made this image from a not-so-obvious angle to create a more idiosyncratic impression of the design.

Photographing gardens can certainly give you a stronger visual discipline and a better understanding of why certain photographs work and others do not, and where the problems may lie in the design of the garden.  So there is an additional benefit to photographing gardens! Not only will you take home your interpretations of beautiful locations and plant ideas, and not only will you retain the memories of the gardens you visit, but by working on your photography skills while snapping those lovely photos of the gardens you visit, you can also improve your design skills.

Rich has a great blog with more beautiful photography and great insight that is worth checking out.

Here is the thing. I cringed when I realized that I had inadvertently signed up to post about Healing Gardens. What do I know about “Healing gardens”? Little. Except that most I see make me wince. It’s the overworked themes, twee fiddily-ness, garden junk, and green nooks that are often tortuously carved out of places that weren’t meant to be, that bug me most.  I am ever surprised by a truly inspiring ‘official’  “Healing Garden”.

Last month, I met a man who once had a client who was the heiress to a plastic empire. He told me this story:

This client, in her later years, suffered a stroke. At around 80 years of age, she was not one to accept anything less than 100% recovery. While she had healed to be back to nearly 90% of her original function she simply was not satisfied and believed that two things would restore the final 10%. First she partook of treatments from the famed local Maharishi Ayurveda Center (famed because the likes of George Harrison, Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, Julia Roberts and  George Hamilton have been rumored to have made visits).  And second, she must sit with her dogs in the ‘Healing Garden’ of one Clara Endicott Sears.

Never mind that in the mid eighties (at the time of this story)  Clara Endicott Sears had been dead for over 20 years and only the faintest of remnants of her garden still existed.

Seems the Plastics Heiress and Clara were of subsequent generations.  Clara was friends with the Plastics Heiress’s parents.  Childhood visits to the ‘Healing Garden’ stuck and in later years a firm belief persisted that a visit to this place would provide health.

All of this has me wondering ever more about Healing Gardens.  What makes them truly healing?  Is it because they are sited near a hospital, or a recovery center?  Or because they have themes about the cycles of life or religious symbolism? That they are handicap accessible? I think not.

A true healing garden has an indescribable sense of place.   It holds enough magic, mysticism and memory to make an 80 year old stroke victim jump a stone wall and trespass in order to sit in its ruinous state.

Now, blessedly, I have on my hands, the restoration of this particular place.  I am still trying to understand its appeal and meaning.   Yes, it has twee statuary (and some less so), it has some sort of symbolism in the layout (though I am yet to fully understand it), it has extraordinary vistas, and even an auspicious location, but I am beginning to think that the secret of its spirit is most likely found in the original purpose of Ayurveda.

It is a garden that is  not just content to improve the health of one individual, but is also designed to help create a healthy society.  It is a belief that each truly healthy individual contributes to producing a disease-free and peaceful, well-adjusted community, society and world.  I think Clara believed this deeply.  I think that true health can be had in a garden.  Which has me thinking that perhaps every garden, if looked at the right way, is a healing garden.

Make sure your check out more Garden Designers Roundtable-ers and their posts about Healing Gardens.

Naomi Sachs : Therapeutic Landscapes Network : Beacon, NY

Genevieve Schmidt : North Coast Gardening : Arcata, CA

Ivette Soler : The Germinatrix : Los Angeles, CA

Jenny Petersen : J Petersen Garden Design : Austin TX

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Joseph over at Greensparrow Gardens has a keen eye for the quirks of gardeners and designers (which he incorporates into his cartoons).  Happily (or embarrassingly) I can relate to far too many of his weekly doodles.  I am so pleased that he took me up on my offer to guest here, and create a unique cartoon for us.   Does your garden look like the former or the later?….mine is the later for sure — I wish it were the former, but suspect that may never happen unless I give up my clients. How to get over this, I simply don’t know….

Good Morning (or now afternoon as the day has flown by out of control)!  I have another Favorite Things post for you.   I had planned for this series to be wrapping up last week, but I have a few people who are still getting me their additions, so I will post them as they arrive.   I am just back in Massachusetts from California (though still on vacation through next week).  I am all discombobulated and a little jet-lagged, and happy to have a few friends help me get back into the swing.  So I introduce to you Nanna Bylund of Sweden whose blog Fundera Gront is a treasure trove of beautiful and inspiring garden images.   Nanna is a Swedish writer that is studying to be a gardener/garden designer and will finish schooling in October. She lives in Gothenburg, and doesn’t have a garden on her own but does garden two small balcony and one allotment plot.

My Favorite Things: Nanna Bylund

I love my allotment plot.

I am fig tree-nerd. I just collect them, cant help it. Right know I don’t have so many of them, only 11, a lot died when I moved this winter. They are small, I have most of them in my kitchen window. I take cuttings when I am abroad and have them as holiday memories.

I also love watering cans and like to photograph them. And I am a cabbage-photographer…

My favorite book right now is Utypiske haver til et typehus, 39 haveplaner (C. Th. Sörensen).
One of my favorite gardens is Mandelmanns in Rörum, in the south of Sweden. A paradise.

What do you do to find inspiration?

I find inspiration in books, photographs, films… in the nature.

Best Garden or Design Advice Ever (Given or Received)?
Sow seeds and have fun!

I am wrapping up this series with James Alexander Sinclair of Blogging From Blackpitts. (though I may have one or two bonus features later today or next week when I will be returning from my brief hiatus).    I have James at the very end because I have been pondering his lesser known facts about himself for some time.   He says:

“I have a small collection of tastefully sited tattoos.”

“I once filled the ground floor of my house with sand for a beach party. ”

“I once ate forty two cucumber sandwiches in one sitting for a bet.”

Here is the caveat….One of these facts is a blatant lie. Which do you think it is? I am going with the tattoo’s, because as discussed earlier this week, I suspect that like me, James might be a little more talk than action on this subject — and because I believe it to be very possible that he filled his house with sand and ate 42 cucumber sandwiches.  I am hopeful that he will share the truth of the matter with us.

My Favorite things:

My favourite garden will always be my own garden: every morning, no matter what the weather, it is the first thing I see on waking and it never fails to make me happy.
I have a number of invaluable tools but among my more unusual favourites are a large plastic dustbin which is perfect for collecting general debris and prunings and a 6′ long steel crowbar. This is pleasantly heavy with a pointed end and will dig out anything from trees to lumps of stone.

As regards plants I would find it very difficult to live without Sanguisorbas.

What do you do to find inspiration?

Inspiration for gardens come mainly from the place itself: when designing a garden there are three vital points. The style of the building, the lifestyle of the client and the surrounding countryside. It is silly to try and impose a style that does not suit these three criteria: modernism outside an Elizabethan cottage or elaborate planting in a garden full of boisterous children does not work.

Aside from that I get inspiration from life: I have designed gardens inspired by lots of things ranging from paintings to paperclips.

Best Garden or Design Advice Ever (Given or Received)?

The piece of advice I always give young designers (says he coming over all Wise Old Man of the West) is never to work for people you do not like. It will always end badly. The best advice I received was from my father who told me not to join the army.

P.S. As an added bonus — you might want to check out the amusing 3 who men who went to mow series which features James, Cleve West and Joe Swift.

My dear Dana Frigerio lives in in one of my most favorite places – the Amalfi Coast of Italy – can you imagine designing gardens there?!?  So of course her blog is duly inspirational and beautiful.  Surprisingly Dana says that she  was never interested in gardening when she was young, but now cultivates a kitchen garden and enjoys that hard work as she gets older.

My Favorite things: Dana Frigerio

I love art books and garden design magazines

I love the old tin watering cans

Shabby chic flower shop in my town, where you can drink an espresso …enclose in antique vases, baskets wicker and many flowers

Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, Sicily

What do you do to find inspiration?

I find my inspiration looking to any object in my house or looking to images in my books, they can also be paintings but also from Internet, is an inexhaustible source of ideas . it all depends on your creativity and imagination. This work gives me the opportunity to create always an original project because the location and customer requirements are always different.

Best Garden or Design Advice Ever (Given or Received)?

by a quote from my professor of architecture during a lesson at school: semplice ma non povero / simple but not poor