One's Native Ground

"One's native ground is the place where, since before you had words for such knowledge, you have known the smells, the seasons, the birds and beasts, the human voices, the houses, the ways of working, the lay of the land, and the quality of the light.  It is the landscape you learn before you retreat inside the illusion of your skin.  You may love the place if you flourished there, or hate the place if you suffered there.  But love it or hate it, you cannot shake free."

-Scott Russell Sanders "Staying Put: Making a Home in a Restless World"

Greetings to October

I love October, despite the fact that it is the time that our gardens become sleepy and disheveled.  This time of autumn colors and slowing down to build up strength for renewal is beautiful to me.  The air is crisp after so many days of summer's swelter, and it is evident that a shift is on the horizon.

In The Echoing Green: The Garden in Myth and Memory, Jennifer Heath writes of her garden, inspired by the changes brought on in October:

Round and round.  I try never to think of the garden in terms of "success" or "failure." No gardener I know really does.  It seems inappropriate to bring the spirit of competition into this sacred place whose function is to mediate for the divine.

Gardens are completely personal, not up for judgment.  There's no right or wrong in Nature.  There are gardening flubs, miscalculations, and so on, but none of it matters much.  The garden is always in flux, forgiving, ready and able to teach, ready and able to change on its own, as well as with our interventions.  We bring our sorrows here to let our sorrows go; we bring our joy here to share our joy with birds and bees and flowers and trees.  Paradise is precisely here, in the oldest, strongest, most majestic oak and in the thinnest, weakest, most anemic window plant.  What counts is how we give ourselves to it.

 Success or failure, triumphs or troubles, whenever I look over the garden from my bedroom perch, I can see nothing but perfection, simply the Nature of it all.  Everything in the garden coexists in constant, active relation.  I am.

 Here, linear time ceases, so that history and myth blend seamlessly with this day, this moment, this breath.  In the garden we are entirely of the cycle: in summer we sense its retreat; in winter we hear the echoing green.

And soon, we will be hearing the echoing green.

The philosophy of Landscape Design

The philosophy of landscape design began as a belief in myth, merged into humanism based on the establishment of fact, and is now grappling with the realization that facts are no more than assumptions.  Humanism is passing into another, unknown, phase.  It is possible, for instance, that the present disruption of the environment can be traced beyond the manifest reasons to one basic cause: the subconscious disorientation now in man's mind concerning time and space and his relation to both.
-Geoffrey and Susan Jellicoe from The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day

Design, stripped to its essence

“Design, stripped to its essence, can be defined as the human nature to shape and make our environment in ways without precedent in nature, to serve our needs and give meaning to our lives.”
- as defined by John Heskett and quoted in Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind”

Greetings to fall, and the daughter departs...

The days and nights are beginning to cool.  Perhaps a rare day of rain will again come soon.  The flowers are drying on their stems, the grasses are beginning to yellow.  We are harvesting now, for soon there shall be no more.  The daughter is again departing...

We have, just last night, given our goodbyes to the fair maiden Persephone.  It is, alas, time for her to leave her mother Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest, to return to her husband, Hades, Ruler of Death, in his underground lair.  We lament, for in Persephone's youth, Demeter adored her little daughter. They played together in the fields nearly every day, and as Persephone smiled up at her mother, Demeter's heart swelled with happiness, and the crops grew high and healthy. Flowers tumbled everywhere.

This beautiful, fertile love begat life, yet of course Persephone must leave on this day of Autumnal Equinox in September.  There is no other choice.  Only corruption comes from eternal infancy.  The cycle must continue.  Mothers must loosen their tight grips on their beloved daughters, for Persephone's liberation from her mother creates the ground in which the seasons can flourish.  Life is, therefore, stimulated and made potent.  And, thus, death begets beautiful life which withers again to death only to resprout as life.  The joy in life and the hope in death is only possible in this eternal spinning of the wheel which yet manages to take us back into the wilderness.

Let us give these "essential gifts" to Demeter for the Greater Mysteries in spirit of celebration:

• Her sacred plants are wheat and barley as staples.
• Pomegranate fruit will signify sex and death.
• Poppy will bring poor Demeter, and indeed the Earth itself, peaceful sleep.

Demeter's fifth animal, the snake shall retreat underground, too, to protect the the grain from rodents.  And when it is again time, he will shed his skin and rise and life will be renewed in this time of Spring.

The tears will soon fall again, and we will watch the last of our gardens and crops wither.  There is, of course, always the hope borne in the knowledge that Spring will return; yet the missing and the longing prevail as the cold sets in and winter covers the land and our souls, compassionate in Demeter's great loss.  Let us shed our tears, for our particularly parched land needs this mourning to rejuvenate.  And let us rest through the winter.  Take up the Poppy, and may the slumber be peaceful.

The beautiful daughter is the promising bud, yearning to burst into her glorious flower; and her mother the fertile fruit which begets life.  The daughter must go for her bud to fully flower.  And so her mother must allow her to go in happiness to return to the fulness of her fertility.  Yet, so must the daughter return for the circle, the cycle, this wondrous wheel to remain spinning, and for the seasons to remain unbroken.

Botany's website has a new face

I have been working some months now, and I'm so happy to announce that the new Botany of Design website has officially been launched!  Please visit at www.botanyofdesign.com.  I'd love to receive all constructive input you have to offer.

The Last Child in the Woods

As a mother of two small children and as a beneficiary of a childhood spent on a large farm in the country, I realize the importance of fostering a close connection between my children and the natural environment.  Because of this strong belief in maintaining the connection with nature, I guide my children there and foster their love for natural places.  We regularly spend days at the beach, we go hiking, we have favorite picnic spots on rivers, we swim in alpine lakes, we camp often, we participate in a nature club with a group of friends where we regularly go to wild places, and we go backpacking in the wilderness.  Many of our friends enjoy similar experiences, but, alas, this is not the norm.

In his book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder," Richard Louv laments that:

our society is teaching young people to avoid direct experience in nature.  That lesson is delivered in schools, families, even organizations devoted to the outdoors, and codified into the legal and regulatory structures of many of our communities.  Our institutions, urban/suburban design, and cultural attitudes unconsciously associate nature with doom-- while dissociating the outdoors from joy and solitude.  Well-meaning public-school systems, media, and parents are effectively scaring children straight out of the woods and fields.

It is important that we care about and rebel against this trend because:

at the very moment that the bond is breaking between the young and the natural world, a growing body of research links our mental, physical and spiritual health directly to our association with nature-- in positive ways.  Several of these studies suggest that thoughtful exposure of youngsters to nature can even be a powerful form of therapy for attention-deficit disorders and other maladies.  As one scientist puts it, we can now assume that just as children need good nutrition and adequate sleep, they very well need contact with nature.

Indeed, in the most nature-deprived parts of our societies, we can see the rise of what might be called a cultural autism with symptoms including tunneled senses and feelings of isolation and containment.  This has clearly been the trend with the wide-ranging worship of the secondary experience offered by technology: television, computers, cell phones, internet "socializing," or video games.  But where do we achieve "primary experience"-- that which we can see, feel, taste, hear, or smell for ourselves?  In our modern "machine culture," it is shockingly lacking.

North Carolina State University professor Robin Moore directs a research and design program that promotes the natural environment in the daily lives of children.  According to Moore:

Children live through their senses.  Sensory experiences link the child's exterior world with their interior, hidden affective world.  Since the natural environment is the principle source of sensory stimulation, freedom to explore and play with the outdoor environment through the senses in their own space and time is essential for healthy development of an interior life.

We all love our children, and so many of us spend great amounts of time and money to purchase our children computers for learning or sign them up for classes and organized sports.  We are literally running from the moment we awaken. And so are our children... Is there a better way?  I remember spending hours sitting in the river catching crawdads, tadpoles or frogs.  I could be "lost" for hours with the baby animals born on our ranch.  Or I could walk for miles looking for rocks and arrowheads.  I'd trade a computer for these experiences any day.

Yet it is not so easy anymore for us increasingly growing masses of urban folk.  So what can we do?  Louv offers a great list of 100 actions we can take in his companion field guide.  The following are a few of my favorite:

1. Send your kids outside to play in the dirt.
2. Invite native flora and fauna into your life by replacing part of your lawn with native plants and maintaining a birdbath in your garden.
3. Regularly visit nature as an antidote to stress.
4. Tell your children stories about your special childhood places in nature.
5. Make the "green hour" a new family tradition (www.greenhour.org), a time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world.
6. Go for a hike!
7. Invent your own nature game.
8. Keep a "wonder bowl" where you can keep all of your children's collected treasures from nature for display.
9. Keep a nature journal with your children.
10. Go harvesting at local you-pick farms.

We are now building the foundation for our children's adult lives.  Richness of experience will help them to build survival skills-- for both in the natural world as well as in the urban jungles.  Help them to build these survival skills, and then help them to thrive by regularly taking them outside to engage with the natural world in unstructured wild play.

Embodiment

In our age of massive industrial production, surreal consumption, euphoric communication and fictitious digital environments, we continue to live in our bodies in the same way that we inhabit our houses, because we have sadly forgotten that we do not live in our bodies but are ourselves embodied constitutions.  Embodiment is not a secondary experience; the human existence is fundamentally an embodied condition.  Today, our senses and bodies are objects of ceaseless commercial manipulation and exploitation.  Physical beauty, strength, youth and virility are adored in the realms of social values, advertising and entertainment.  In case we fail to possess ideal physical qualities, our bodies are turned against us as causes of deep disappointment and guilt.  With ever-accelerating frequency, all our senses are exploited by consumer manipulation, yet at the same time these very same senses continue to be undervalued as prerequisites of our existential condition or as educational objectives.  Intellectually, we may well have philosophically rejected the Cartesian duality of body and mind, but the separation continues to rule in cultural, educational and social practices.

Human conscious is an embodied consciousness and we are connected with the world through our senses.  Our hands and entire body possess embodied skills and wisdom.

-Juhani Pallasmaa from The Thinking Hand

The Enchantment of Gaia and the Split Between Wild Earth and our Wild Natures

Oh, what a catastrophe, what a maiming of love when it was made a personal, merely personal feeling, taken away from the rising and the setting of the sun, and cut off from the magic connection of the solstice and equinox!  This is what is the matter with us, we are bleeding at the roots, because we are cut off from the earth and sun and stars, and love is a grinning mockery, because, poor blossom, we plucked it from it's stem on the tree of Life, and expected it to keep blooming in our civilized vase on the table.

-D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover

What Would you do if you Came Upon a Blue Tree?

Would you stop to wonder?  Could you just pass it by as you might any other tree?  Would you make a judgment about the rightness or wrongness of such a sight?  Would you smile?  Frown? 

I've not come across any blue trees near my home, but if one goes to Seattle, Sacramento, Houston, or about nine other public installation locations, you'll find them.   Sculptor and performance and installation artist, Konstantin Dimopoulos explains that he creates artworks that "are grounded in my sociological and humanist philosophies.  In my environmental installation, The Blue Trees,  the colour and the Tree come together to transform and affect each other; the colour changing the Tree into something surreal, something out of this world. While the Tree, rooted in this earth reflects what we may lose."

Think about it, Dimopoulos, has made the passerby stop when he would not otherwise have.  And she does think.  Yes, we have had our impact on the trees, and here it is obvious.  Elsewhere, we might not notice.  So, also in The Blue Trees installation, the trees, a part of the natural world, are impacted by humans, yet here Dimopoulos has given them a voice.  They call out to us to bring all trees to mind.  We are jarred out of our lackadaisical hypnosis, and we are compelled to know more.

And when enough people stop to question, we can no longer idly allow the decimation of our forests in a mass of anonymity.  We become accountable.  And in this step, I see Dimopoulos as having succeeded beautifully poetical in his artworks.

Dimopoulos tells us that he has "always known that art is and has always been an extended part of nature and that art can effect social change.  For that to happen one has to move out of the art institutions and galleries and move outside among nature and human beings in their living spaces."  I couldn't agree more!  To learn more visit http://www.kondimopoulos.com/thebluetrees/about/.

Hurray for the Trees!

An ancient tree is more than a beautiful plant, it is our wise teacher and guide.  Each of us can think of a moment when we felt a sense of being overcome with the beauty of an ancient tree upon entering the cathedral of an ancient forest.  The feeling grips us immediately; we are in awe.  So many of us then react by pulling out our cameras or cell phones and quickly posing ourselves or companions in front of these ancient creatures and snapping a few photos as we take a quick loop then move on to the next "attraction."  Not too many of us, linger, sit beneath our teacher and ask for some of it's wisdom.  If you do, I urge that you will be richly rewarded.

I have a friend who received a vision that God is a tree.  I am not disinclined to believe her.  Or perhaps, God is in everything, and if we take a moment to listen to the lessons of the ancients, we become closer to God.  After all, Adam and Eve dwelled in a garden and their lives and their fall from this original home are significantly intertwined with the tree-- the "tree of life", the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil."  Buddha receives his enlightenment sitting beneath the Bodhi Tree.  And the American Indians worship nature, traditionally living within, and not against, the natural rhythms of Nature.


I've stopped watching television.  It has been about five years now.  From time to time, when I visit a friend or family member, or I catch a glimpse of television at a public place, I am suddenly assaulted by the speed, the tone and the flashiness flickering across the screen.  It is not natural.  And it does not teach the lessons of the Ancients.  To me it is hollow, and hollowing.  I become discouraged, my thoughts distracted.  There is no Holy here.  There is no enlightenment.

The calendar tells us it is the beginning of a new year.  Yet winter still caries us through our natural little death until we are reborn in the spring.  For me, this is a time of finishing my resting, but anticipating the energy of rebirth.  I indulge my introspectiveness knowing that soon will be the time to follow through with the new year's rebirth.

This year, I would like to encourage you, all of my friends, to also indulge your own introspection and to turn to our ancient teachers, the lovely trees.  Go to a park such as in Big Sur or Big Basin, Grant Ranch or Sanborn.  Take a walk in your neighborhood.  Or go sit beneath the ancient tree in your own yard.  Touch it and, yes, speak to it.  Open up and it will communicate back!

Design in the flow

I know few who live outside the tyranny of speed.  I lament that despite my efforts, I am continually holding myself back from what I would rather do, because I am compelled to drudge through what I "should" do.  Speed in all its forms: efficiency, responsibility, performance, financial stability all scream their threats should I consider interrupting work for lunch with a friend, talking too long with a client on personal terms, or going for a mid-day hike.  Occasionally I rebel and I am richly rewarded with increased inspiration.  As a struggling student myself, I offer these thoughts.

It is not natural to think in terms of speed.  This way of thinking disconnects us from nature and hinders us from connecting with one-another.  Nature, including humans, is inclined to move in terms of rhythm as opposed to measured beats (I think this is why the ticking clock drives me crazy, and music and dance energize me).  When we move rhythmically, when we think rhythmically, when we breathe rhythmically, indeed, when we live rhythmically, we flow. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, noted for his work in the study of happiness and creativity, coined the term "flow."  He describes this state of being as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.  Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."  

When in "the flow" we feel truly alive.  In contrast, Austrian philosopher and social critic Ivan Illich laments, "speed is in conflict with aliveness.  It is a crude example of historical congeries gratuitously attributed to nature. It comes out of a bodiless lust that lies deeper than the major assumptions on which the modern world is built."

I relate this very natural need to remove oneself from the observance of the ticking of the clock to connecting deeply to a place.  We feel "at home," and somehow, we know it despite the fact that it surprises us that we know it.  We happen upon "home."  But how many of us truly become the creators of home?  How many of us utilize our sort of sixth sense to feel that we have, if for just moments, found ourselves in harmony?  How many of us understand how important it is, and I would argue even essential to create a place that enables a life of harmony where we can rhythmically experience our world?

As a designer, I am compelled to join my clients with a place of harmony, where they feel at home, where the clock ceases to click away.  I feel I have achieved success when I can help my client through place tune into rhythm which leads them to "the flow" which in turn leads to connecting with, indeed sensing, primal energies with a sort of sixth sense which leads one to a feeling of true aliveness.

The Energy of a Space

Everything is energy, therefore "energetic."  Imagine the world and everything in it composed of vital energy or a life force which vibrates at different frequencies.  This energy moves through space and around every living being, having originated from the sun, the earth and the air.  When the energy is dense, we can see it.  More fluid, less dense, ephemeral energy, often touches us without conscious awareness of how we have been touched by it.  Some of us are more inclined to sensing this more ephemeral energy, while others can learn to tune in to this energy.

I sometimes enter a garden, or a home, or an urban space, or a forest, or a cathedral and I can strongly feel the energy of the space.  Look at these images for example:

Looking through this obscured doorway invokes my curiosity.  My energy level rises as I wonder what is on the other side, and I am drawn through the portal.

This natural scene is peaceful, serene and contemplative.  My energy level relaxes and I feel soothed.

This lively city space is high energy; I feel activity in every corner of the space.

 It is important to take this energy into consideration when getting to know a space and planning for its transformation.  The space will have an existing energy inherited from the existing plants, wildlife, furnishings and surfaces.  It will also bear the energy of former residents, and past events that took place in the space.  This energy may be beneficial and should be retained to add to the garden transformation.  Other energy, such as neglect or harshness should be transformed.  

It is also important to consider the future intended energy to occupy the space.  Is the space intended for entertainment and activity?  Or is it instead intended for finding peace after a busy day of life.  The elements that we bring into the future garden should reflect the intended future energy.  Although we do not naturally understand a space in such terms, we are affected by it whether we recognize the effect or not.  Each garden that I get to know and create anew receives such consideration during my design process.  It is equally important as the aesthetics and the functionality as it is essential to the excellence of both of these realms.

The Jewel Garden

I'm currently installing a small, enclosed garden for a friend.  I've called it the "Jewel Garden" because small spaces allow a bit of luxury for details, and details are intended for this little space.  This garden has been envisioned and re-envisioned multiple times, and I think that the final revision suits the space quite well!  

Somehow as I design and get to know as space, it speaks to me of it's possibilities  and of what might suit it authentically.  I've never situated faux doors before, but this garden told me that they would make all the difference.  The fencelines in this space bothered me so much.  The back fence changes levels, you can see neighboring fences, and the material is uninteresting.  So I made the suggestion to add "doors" to the back fenceline to my friend, and he accepted the suggestion.  Now that the doors have been placed, I'm so happy to have them; they add so much to the design.  

I am helping with the construction, and so far we've proceeded as follows:

1. demo existing elements that were not to remain
2. rough grade site
3. install irrigation, fountain and focal point
4. build small, undulating, natural stone retaining wall
5. build small natural stone patio 
6. install lighting

The next step is the planting, and I'm quite excited.  Planting is my favorite part and always makes everything prettier and somehow come together.  I'll post before and after photos on my website, but for now, here are a couple of glimpses of construction photos.

The loveliest Chondropetalum tectorum that I've ever come across

Chondropetalum tectorum is one of my very favorite plants and, as such, I use it in almost every design I create.  It is a great profile plant, and looks terrific profiled up against a wall.  It is nice in native or Mediterranean gardens, and in my experience, I've seen it do well in either drought-tolerant or regularly watered gardens.  As I get to know the plant better, though, I find that it definitely prefers and looks better in sunnier locations with small amounts of regular water.  In the shade it tends to get a bit droopy.  

A few weeks ago, in the charming small seaside town of Cambria, as I walked with my family along the coast and through the neighborhoods, I came upon the nicest example of a Chondropetalum that I've really ever seen.

It is large, upright, and the brown flower bracts are so beautifully pronounced.  The site, a sunny seaside drought-tolerant garden suited it well.  It is notable that in several adjacent gardens I saw other Chondropetalum's, none of which looked even close to being as nice as this plant.

From San Marcos Growers, one of my favorite online sources for plant info:

"This South African plant forms dense tufted clumps from which arise 2-3 feet tall dark green unbranched stems. The dark brown sheaths at the joints drop off in summer leaving a dark band. Late in the season the stems arch gracefully from the weight of clusters of small brown flowers at the tips. Plant in full to part sun. It is drought tolerant, and appreciates supplemental water in spring. It is hardy to about 20-25 degrees F. It can be successfully planted in seaside gardens, used in relatively dry landscapes or as a plant in the shallows of a water garden. Tolerates a wide soil pH range. The plant widely grown in the US as Chondropetalum tectorum has been reclassified as Chondropetalum elephantinum. This true Chondropetalum tectorum is a smaller plant (about 3 feet tall) from the southern Cape. The larger plant Chondropetalum elephantinum which we still grow as well, is a more robust form up to 6 feet tall from the West Coast. The taxonomic work up on this was done by Dr. Hans Peter Linder who is a professor at the University of Zurich Institute for Systematical Botany and co-author of the "Restios of the Fynbos". Likely, many of the plants in the nursery trade are from seed collected from the larger form. We received this first offering of the "true" Chondropetalum tectorum seed in the spring of 2004. While this new plant should delight gardeners seeking a smaller plant, it will likely confuse many who know the larger plant under this name. In another taxonomic twist Dr. Linder, based on DNA evidence, has most recently included Chondropetalum in the genus Elegia, so this plant would now become Elegia tectorum. We retain the name Chondropetalum tectorum for this plant until such time as this becomes more widely accepted. The name Chondropetalum comes from the Greek words 'chondros' meaning "wheat" or a "big, grain of wheat" and 'petalum' meaning a "flower petal". The origin of the name Elegia is that it is the Latin word ' elegia' which means a "song of lamentation" perhaps in reference to the rustling sound of the culms in the wind. The specific epithet comes from the Latin tectorum meaning 'roofing' in reference to the fact that this species has been used to provide thatching material, though it is likely that the plant most used for thatching was really the larger ones now called Chondropetalum elephantinum [Elegia elephantina]."

A Letter to the Newhall Neighborhood, Looking Back

Several years ago, I authored an architectural design pattern book which was intended to guide new development in my neighborhood, the Newhall Neighborhood in San Jose, CA.  I have since regrettably moved away from my beloved home in this wonderful neighborhood, and I offer this summary as a letter which reveals my fond feelings for this wonderful place.

One’s native ground is the place where, since before you had words for such knowledge, you have known the smells, the seasons, the birds and beasts, the human voices, the houses, the ways of working, the lay of the land, and the quality of light.  It is the landscape you learn before you retreat inside the illusion of your skin.

Real estate ads offer houses for sale, not homes.  A house is a garment, easily put off or on, casually bought and sold; a home is skin.  Merely change houses and you will be disoriented; change homes and you bleed.  When the shell you live in has taken on the savor of your love, when your dwelling has become a taproot, then your house is a home.

 - Scott Russell Sanders

Our neighborhood is not only comprised of its buildings as objects, but it is, moreover, the sum of the uses of the buildings, porches, sidewalks, streets, and neighborhood amenities.  The language of any neighborhood is both collective memory and collective aspiration.  While history concerns the past, tradition concerns the thresholds from heritage into the future.  This notion of tradition, of urban evolution, and of creating and recreating wholeness should be our primary focus while adding to this neighborhood.  We thus offer this pattern book as a way of revealing both our collective memory and our collective aspiration to help designers, developers and the City to create beautiful homes and public urban space which complement the existing surrounding neighborhood.   

Pattern books were commonly used at the time of our neighborhood’s first construction, and throughout history.  They offered local builders and craftsmen essential details to construct an architecturally correct house.  Pattern books were offered in several forms: classical treatises or manuals, plan books that could be replicated, catalogs for building products, or plans for pre-manufactured houses.

Our pattern book serves more as a data and idea file.  We give the user a glimpse of the project sites from those who have a history and direct connection with them, and who have a direct stake in the projects’ success.  Consequently, we urge users to plan for this particular urban space by paying special attention to the surrounding details at three scales: (1) the overall plan for the development suiting the layout of the existing land; (2) the image of typical urban spaces within the plan complementing the existing urban spaces within the neighborhood; and (3) the individual buildings with their architectural details echoing the architectural styles of the surrounding homes.  The pattern book has three essential sections: Project Overview and Neighbor Concerns, which explains our understanding of the proposed development projects and our reaction to the proposals; Our Collective Memory, which reveals the existing neighborhood character, including the most prevalent architectural styles; and Our Collective Aspirations, which illustrates our hopes for the additions to our neighborhood, citing examples of recent developments of similar scale.

Our neighborhood derives much of its character from its diversity of architectural styles and textures.  We, therefore, encourage any development which pursues a similar mixture of styles and textures at a modern density which blends well with our existing density. In the final product, we would like to achieve a balance between the  individual expression of each building and a unity of all of the architectural styles.  Color should also be used to enliven the development and to harken to the surrounding neighborhood.  As in any composition, a symphony is created from notes which harmonize, take one on a journey, and tell a story.  Repetitions and patterns are present, but are accented and blended into the composition whole.

Finally, we urge all who use this book to study our concerns, familiarize themselves with our history and architecture, and understand and implement our prescriptions for quality developments to enhance our existing neighborhood.  Examine each section as a whole, and go back and come to know the details.  The overall layout of the neighborhood is important, the size of our streets, the positioning of our homes on their lots, our street amenities, street trees, and landscaping.  The massing of our buildings is integral to determining and recreating the proper architectural styles.  Door and window placement and dimensions are important, as is exterior detailing.  All of these elements combine together to develop the special place that our neighborhood has evolved into. 

Our residences within the Newhall Neighborhood are truly homes, and our neighborhood, consequently, offers us all a place of comfort and belonging, a place away from harm.  We stroll along our sidewalks beside tree-lined streets in couples holding hands, with our children, walking our dogs, or solo commuting to work.  Our streets are pedestrian friendly, and we feel safe. 

The Newhall Neighborhood has seen many new residents, but others have lived here for many years, and raised families within our grounds.  After so many years of intimacy, the neighborhood dwells in us as surely as we dwell in the neighborhood.  Those of us who have made a connection with this place continue to work to improve upon it.  Our efforts have accomplished the construction of new sidewalks, the planting of new trees, a traffic calming street closure, a park, and a prospering neighborhood organization which continues to address issues important to our residents. 

We dwell in a neighborhood of diversity, and this is exemplified by the variety of our homes’architectural styles. We draw the reader’s attention to five particular architectural styles which are prevalent within our neighborhood, and we discuss them in alphabetical order: (1) European Romantic, (2) Minimal Traditional, (3) Spanish Revival, (4) Vernacular, and (5) Victorian Farmhouse and Cottage.  We highlight exemplars from primarily a one mile radius of the project sites, and have secondarily looked to examples within a three mile radius.  After citing the characteristics which distinguish each architectural style, we then point to special features such as doors, windows, rooflines, chimneys, materials, details, and landscaping.  It is important to see these elements dimensioned individually as well as placed within the whole composition of the house to achieve scale.

 It is our belief that the special quality achieved by this architectural multiplicity draws a particular type of resident who will laude our diversity.  This is an important characteristic of our neighborhood, and although we are open to change, we support change which will respect this special distinction, and draw future neighbors who will contribute to our special place.

My New Worx Intellicut...

has arrived.  And I am soooo excited!  For I mow lawns for a living.  Among many other things, certainly.  I consider myself a bit of a renaissance woman.  As a landscape designer, life circumstances highly encouraged me to consider my clients' urgings to offer a maintenance service to accompany my installed landscape designs.  And when I found that it is oh so difficult to hire a prince gardener on a budget, I was thrown into the additional professional role as Botany of Design's head gardener.

Whew!  For years as I studied and worked in Landscape Architecture, I urged my friends and family who had no idea of what a Landscape Architect is that, "I (emphatically) am not a gardener."  And now, well, I suppose I am a gardener (she says as she shrugs her very petite shoulders).

Ok, I can do this.  I've a big white American truck at my disposal.  Check!  I've gone out and purchased all the tools, a small investment since I already had the bohemoth lawn mower (which I was already used to pushing around), and the only other power tool I included in my entourage was a backpack blower (which I love, by the way).  Check!  Gas and oil mixtures.  Check!  Clients.  Check!  Service lists, routes, notes and camera.  Check!

Ok, I'm ready to go!  Hmmm, how do I get this lawnmower in to the truck?  Well, after spending days watching actual gardeners' techniques and trying many of my own, I finally settled into hoisting the 70 pound monster onto its rear wheels and rolling its front wheels from the tip of the bed on back.  Sounds easy enough... but it wasn't.  Not to mention getting the mower back out again.

A few years later, I've settled into my gardening chores with a mix of dread, but true love.  It gives me so much time to think, I get to touch the dirt (which I love), I see the stages beyond planting and the evolution of my gardens, I learn so much more about my plants and my little created ecosystems, and it gets me out of my office.  One day, I'm in my dress and heels and the next I'm tired and dirty, hoisting around lawnmowers.  I've found my equilibrium and for now settled in with my gardener(ish) fate.

But my dreams of a lawnmower that I can actually pick up and (perhaps) fit in the back of my Volvo Cross Country abided.  Until now, for I think I may have found my ideal mower!  I never could have found such a silly little machine in a big muscular warehouse store, so, alas, I was obliged to take a chance on site unseen through the web.  The reviews were mixed, but mostly good.  And when  I kept seeing the words "small" and "toy" pop up, I thought, "this is the mower for me!"  So I snapped it up; and indeed, it is small and my 4 year old son could push it as a toy.  It has earned some points.  But the true test will come on the (battle) fields as I push it across the green locks of my gardens.  Will it cut?  The jury, of course, is still out.  But, indeed, I shall update...

Awww, isn't she cute?  

Death begets life

December’s descent into darkness has begun.  The chaos of wind and chill and rain bring disorder and death in the garden. And of death, while we await, begets rebirth.  Surely the gardening life places us privy to the many secrets of the cycles of endings begetting beginnings and our existence in between.  These cycles play themselves out many times in the garden, and as we gardeners partake in these cycles each season, we observe and participate in the unification of being and not being, infinite and finite.  It is a participation in the “holy,” this dance we follow.

January particularly triggers recognition of this unity dance of juxtaposition, as we remain still in darkness, yet yearn for new beginnings.  It is the topic of ancient myths, death begetting birth, and indeed, death sustaining life.  And as one considers deeply, we begin to see that these ancient myths silently guide our modern lives.  Lately it has frequently filled my mind, this deep connection of garden and myth.  Myths, rituals, and archetypes are quietly yet poignantly present in each design I create.  As I delve into the understanding of this deep connection between the garden and myth, it is my intention to invite the further participation of my friends and clients.  The garden is so much more than a pretty place to plant flowers, grow a lawn, and invite friends for lunch.  I’ve observed this over and over as I watch my clients’ interactions with their new gardens, and as I have experienced with the creation of (and loss of) my own garden.  Connections grow deep…

Jennifer Heath, in her book “The Echoing Green,” understands this connection.  She proclaims, “Gardens and myths are companions, twin visions that touch the same desire for transcendence.  Gardening and storytelling are both acts of love, veneration, and imagination.”

And so, too, a little death has taken place for me; I observe as I look back on the turbulence of the recently passing years.  As I find rebirth, it is this companionship of the garden and myth which allows us a homecoming and a striving for transcendence, to which I turn and to which I offer my clients.  I wish to you all a rebirth in this new year.

Thinking about vitality and wisdom with so much inspiration from nature

"And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything." (Shakespeare, AS YOU LIKE IT, Act II, Sc I)

I’ve always loved hiking, and have recently returned to this beautiful conversation with nature after so many years away. Yes, the trees do speak to me, the burgeoning winter streams tell me stories, and the moss-covered boulders and stones inspire.

I had convinced myself that working hard at Botany with focus and little distraction equals good business sense, and perhaps eventually a good life. But it is clear that we Americans work too hard, and in the process, we are sterilizing our minds of inspiration and deep aspiration. And we are making ourselves ill in the process. Returning to nature and appreciating the lessons it offers willingly to the attentive student has amplified my inspiration, and I now aspire to balance work and pleasure, especially in nature.

And we at Botany are on a renewed mission to bring this inspiration and aspiration to all of our lovely clients and friends; and we ask you to consider the following. We all recognize the refreshing feeling of renewal when we enter green spaces whether they be a forest, a garden or a favorite café which has paid extra attention to detailing with plants, but research has documented that plants offer further benefits including:

• Reduced stress. Blood pressure and muscle tension are lower when people are around plants, both indoors and outdoors. Stress is reduced when people have window views of plants and gardens. People performing stressful tasks recover from that stress more quickly and completely with plants in the room where they are working. And walking in gardens is particularly beneficial.

• Better health. When stress is lower, stress-related illnesses including headaches and backaches are fewer. Improved air quality results in fewer respiratory and skin problems. Pain perception is also reduced when plants are present, so people feel better. Working in nature or spending significant periods of time in nature has an even greater impact and evidence suggests that this can lessen the risk of developing serious illness. Also now being pioneered are health care programs where doctors refer their patients to forest-based health projects. Here, access to woodland is being improved and activity in woodlands is being encouraged. Following the results of such programs shows that people are becoming healthier due to the exercise and fresh air.

• Improved productivity. Productivity on repetitive tasks is higher when performed with plants present. Even cognitive capacity has been shown to be higher in the presence of plants.

• Reduced mental fatigue. Mental fatigue, which is increasingly common with the constant intrusions from e-mail and cell phones, is lower when plants are present. People are more attentive when they are in environments with plants.

• Enhanced moods. People are happier and feel friendlier when plants are present. They also are less sad when plants and trees are nearby.

We lament that in the last few hundred years, there has been an extraordinary disengagement of humans from the natural environment; due mostly to the enormous shift of people away from rural areas into cities. In evolutionary terms, the urban environment is a spontaneous, changeable and historically unfamiliar habitat. Never in history have humans spent so little time in physical contact with animals and plants, and the consequences are unknown. Already, some research has shown that too much artificial stimulation and an existence spent in purely human environments may cause exhaustion and produce a loss of vitality and health. Modern society, by its very essence, insulates people from outdoor environmental stimuli and regular contact with nature. And the question arises, are humans fully adapted to an urban existence? With parks and public nature reserves often their only means of accessing nature, the majority of urban-dwelling individuals may have all but forgotten their connections with the natural world. And at what cost?

And so I return to my hikes in nature and I seek the wisdom it offers, as did the Celts over 2000 years ago. We know that the Celts had a wealth of knowledge about trees and the human relationship with them. This was passed down through generations in poetry by specially trained elders. When the Celtic way of life was lost in Roman times, much of their knowledge was lost, as well. However, we can pick up remnants of this lost knowledge. We find that each species of tree was important to the Celts in particular ways. They provided shelter, energy, food and medicines as did other plants in the landscape. Each tree species also had certain wisdom and healing qualities associated with it. The Celtic Druids (specially trained elders), had a secret form of written language called ogham. The earliest known form of this was the Tree Ogham or Celtic Tree Alphabet. Each letter was associated with a tree and had a wealth of symbolic wisdom behind it. Further, each month of the Celtic calendar and therefore different seasons and festivals throughout the year were associated with a particular tree.

I recollect those I’ve known who exhibit a particular vitality or a rare wisdom, and I find a commonality—a deep connection with nature. We certainly could as a society benefit from increased vitality and more wisdom. So a renewed vision from us to bring to you this very special conversation with nature in hopes that beginning now in the freshness of 2011, you all shall find enhanced well-being in increased vitality and wisdom from a deeper connection with nature. May you all find yourself hiking in nature soon. Come home inspired, and contact us to help you design your new garden, install a completed plan, or maintain a beautiful garden that has been neglected.

We've all had the experience of arriving at a special place and becoming overwhelmed with a sense of awe and wonder. What is it about this place that affects us so powerfully? Natural places such as a "cathedral" in the woods or a sheltered cove have been designed by natural forces, and most created or developed places have been designed. These special, designed places have been thoroughly thought out. What story do we want to tell? How many outdoor "rooms" do we want to create? Which views do we want to open up, conceal, or reveal gradually? How shall we guide circulation? How do we incorporate resting places or spots for triangulation? How do we want to use color to create moods? How do we make users feel safe? What is the existing language of the space and the surrounding spaces that must be respected to create this sense of place? A great designed space matters. So many of our clients tell us that before we designed their gardens they never spent time in the space, and afterward they derive great pleasure spending much of their time in the space. They now want to show it off to friends, and they now start planning activities around the space. A fellow designer compares good design with smoke. "You know what they are when you see them. But when you try to grasp it, sometimes you can't reel it in." Again, we have the feeling of the ethereal.

Clients are often thrilled when we hand them their final drawings after so much time spent thinking about the design. It is a tangible representation of this ongoing conversation about the creation of this new place. We take great pride in our drawings, but the cost of our design services is not paying for the drawing alone. It represents the many hours of training, specific research, developing and storytelling that is behind each pen-stroke of our drawings. Only through these less visible steps do we achieve a good design; and a good design creates a great place. Good design is intentional, purposeful, and defensible. When a client asks us why we placed that patio or tree as we did, our answer will always be much more than "because we thought it would look pretty there."

Landscape Architect Dan Kiley has said "The greatest contribution a designer can make is to link the human and the natural in such a way as to recall our fundamental place in the scheme of things." Each of our designs strives toward this ideal, as we work through each design in conversation with nature. Now that so very few people make their living from the land, this contribution is particularly in need. So many of us are obliged to be locked up in an often windowless room for 8 or more hours a day, we drive to and from this room on an asphalt road, surrounded by concrete, and by day's end, we find ourselves completely drained. As Jennifer Heath laments in her book The Echoing Green, "Cultural memory is quickly disappearing under the weight of television, shopping malls, and wanton destruction of Nature. Yet whether we realize it or not, each time we plant a seed, we are rebelling against materialism and the loss of Soul." Mass media has hijacked the cultural memory, and we yearn to reconnect individually and as a culture with the cycles of nature. The land upon which we survive literally "grounds" us.


Landscape designer Harry Schuster once commented, "All other things being equal, a well-designed landscape costs just as much to install as an ugly one. Why not make them all nice?" We agree! All should bring beauty to our spaces and shine beauty into our souls. We commend all of our lovely clients and friends who have had this foresight, and we encourage you all to spread the word. We are on a mission to spread this sense of place, and we'd like to enlist your help. And to all of our new friends, we invite you to join us.