Friday, October 29, 2010

NYTimes & Anne Raver: Backwards Design

30 years with a beautiful flower garden, Page Dickey, finally creates a fabulous Landscape Design. "We need an overall plan: more green architecture & less plants.", she says. How? "The first step is to replace perennials with shrubs & ground covers."Page has arrived. ATONEMENT.
.
Anne Raver, yesterday's NYTimes, knew to lead her delicious garden column with these facts. It's human nature to garden backwards. Flowers are seductive.
.
Magazines & nurseries pimp flowers.
.
PUPPET BARBUDA is miffed her industry, Landscape Design, is tainted with the Flower Pimp industry.
.
How many flowers do you see, above, in my conservatory?
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Poppets, did you see the pic of Page Dickey? I want to look like her when I'm 70, sexy gorgeous !!

5 comments:

Desert Dweller said...

Ms Barbuda...you made me so happy with this flower pimping vs. green spatial definition post, that I could break dance! But I won't...

4-5 yrs ago, PA horticulturist Rick Darke gave a great talk including this topic to a stunned crowd in Fanta Se...perennial-obsessed and desert-phobic Fanta Se...or is it Santa Fake? He said, "design a garden to look great in black and white, without depending on flower color", and "work with your incredible light and shadows, which is surprisingly lacking."

Yowza!

RIGHT ON! I am passing this one, on big time.

Judy said...

I have to agree 100% with your blog today. Notice the wonderful Botanical gardens?? They are all about shrubs and ground covers..and hardscape. Flowers are icing..nice, but not needed when the cake is perfect already.

Lydia said...

The conservatory is MAGICAL!

the gardener's cottage said...

hi tara,

flower pimps! omg priceless. this one goes in the permanent file.

~janet

Anonymous said...

Tara, you are so right. STRUCTURE is everything in a garden. I just finished posting about using my camellias as evergreen 'walls'in my garden.
I'm with you on the annuals, except the ones that self seed. They are always welcome.
xsxs