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

Michelle Derviss is one of those people that I look up to in this industry.  She has simply been there and done that, longer and better than most.  So I am excited to share her and her site Garden Porn and have her participate in this series. Michelle:

I’m embarrassed to let  anyone in my pick up truck.  It smells like a cross between wet beach dog and an old bag of organic compost. That’s because there is usually a slightly damp dog and a odd bag of compost in the cab.  I’m immune to it, I don’t even smell it anymore much to my boyfriends disgust.

Exhibition garden at the S.F. Garden Show 2008 – Best in Show , APLD award, Gold medal.

What do you do to find inspiration?

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

From Roberto Burle Marx : “Make gardens works of Art”.

From Gary Koller, professor at The Arnold Arboretum and the GSD : “Garden maintenance can be your bread and butter within the horticulture industry”.

Visiting resort gardens in Bali with The Hortisexuals

From Unknown : “ If you are interested , you’ll do what is convenient, If you are committed you’ll do what ever it takes”.

My mantra : “ You cannot make a great garden without great clients”.

Colorado Rocky mountain High….The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullabye….
Rocky mountain high…(I can’t help myself with that one….)

I love hosting hometown friends.  Jocelyn Chilvers gardens and writes from Denver, land of ridiculous beauty and where I personally draw so much of my own design aesthetic.  Jocelyn’s site is The Art Garden and here is a little more about her:

I was born in Washington, DC, and named after a street there….I spent a year (54 weeks, to be exact!) living in Quito, Ecuador, as a high school exchange student….If it has anything to do with fiber, I’ve probably done it….As a college student, I couldn’t decide whether to major in biology or fine art; landscape design was the perfect fit—I’ve been at it for thirty years now!

My Favorite things: Jocelyn Chilvers
• My sunscreen: Neutrogena Ultra-Sheer Dry Touch Sunblock SPF #45. Every. Day.
• My reference library. Over the years I’ve acquired a wonderful selection of books on landscape design, plants, and construction how- to. Some of them were published early in the 20th century, others just recently. Some of them focus on European or Asian gardens, others are very regionally specific. They are my go-to source for information and inspiration.

• My own garden. Designing and maintaining my own landscape – a work in progress for 25 years – helps me “keep it real” when working with clients.

What do you do to find inspiration?
• I visit my local, independent garden centers. The Denver area is fortunate to have a number of stores that carry cutting-edge plant selections and all of the other accoutrements for gardening and outdoor living. A stroll through these stores always rejuvenates my
creativity. (All those raw materials on display—so much potential!) This also gives me a chance to see what my clients are seeing and may be influenced by, and how local retailers are interpreting national trends.

• I bring home an armful of books from my local library. Occasionally I’ll select a book on gardening, but mostly I go for books on art, architecture, fine crafts, or interior design. I look for new color palettes and how they are combined (i.e. proportions), the use of forms in creating spatial relationships, positive/negative space, and textures. Sometimes it’s a fast flip through, sometimes it’s a pouring over the details, but it’s always stimulating and thought
provoking for me. On my nightstand now? Henry Moore Textiles (Lund Humphries 2008) and Knitted Lace of Estonia (Interweave Press 2008)

• I travel. Different geography, different climate, different plants and hardscape materials, and different lifestyles all impact how landscapes look and how people use them. Inspiration comes when you’re surrounded by a fresh environment.

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

• There is so much more to landscape/garden design than knowing plants and how to grow them. If you want to become a good designer I advise that you “cross-train” in another medium. For me, it has always been fiber and textiles (although I love to take photos, I don’t consider myself a serious photographer). For you, it might be painting, pottery, or sculpture. The more practice you have manipulating the elements of art via the principles of art, the better designer you will be.