Botanica Atlanta Landscape Design

Pardon the pun but it's true. According to a survey conducted by the Garden Writers Association Foundation in November 2009, over 41 million households grew a vegetable garden, 19.5 million grew an herb garden and 16.5 million grew fruits during 2009.  Not only is this 7.7 million more households than previously but 37% of experienced gardeners have planned to increase their edible gardens this year - the majority of those reporting - while another 29% have planned to maintain the same-size gardening plot.  First-time edibles gardeners came mostly from the South, as did the more experiened edibles gardeners.

Gardeners named web sites as the number 2 source of gardening information, up from the number 5 slot a year ago.  As a source of information about gardening, the internet was most popular in the South.

Here's some inspirational video to get you thinking about the possibliities this spring:

Statistics courtesy of the Garden Writers Association.

Author: Cloud Conrad

The time has come.  Winter is not behind us. Daylight savings and the vernal equinox are still a few weeks away.  But we can indulge our impatience with the seasons by planning our vegetable gardens, shopping for seed and setting up an indoor grow station.  If you want to get the greatest and most steady yield this year, start your first wave of seedlings indoors now. 

There are acres of information about this on the internet including videos, downloadable pdfs and blog entries. A couple of the references you might want to hit:

Seeds: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds has an incredible variety. Shop online, but be sure to sign up for their catalog, which is coffee-table worthy and filled with eye-candy for gardeners.

Videos: For a basic primer in starting seeds from a common-sense Cajun, check out these YouTubes

1.    Part 1 - How to Start Your Seeds Indoors (The Bayou Gardener) 

2.    Part 2 - How to Start Your Seeds Indoors (The Bayou Gardener) 

Timing Chart: Use this downloadable worksheet to plan your seed starts for each variety you chose to include in your 2010 vegetable garden.

All photos courtesy of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

Author: Cloud Q. Conrad

Forsythia is one of those unsung heroes in the landscape. Through the year forsythia fades into the background. After all, its foliage isn't very exciting and its form unremarkable. And it's so low maintenance that it is easy to forget. But in late February and early March, forsythia is once again valued for its role in the garden - to brighten up gray winter days and to remind us that spring is just around the corner.

Photo credit: Susan Schurr

Forsythia is named for William Forsyth, one of the founders of the Royal Horticultural Society. Native to Asia and the Orient, forsythia has about a dozen species and many hybrids.

Photo credit: The Gardeners' Network

Site forsythia in full sun to partial sun in zones 4 - 8. Forsythia makes no particular demands on its environment or owners. Forsythia will thrive in average soil, in drought and in pollution. This shrub does not typically have pest or fungus problems. Reaching average heights of 6 - 8 feet or more, forsythia grows about a foot or more per year and benefits from pruning to shape, promote bushiness and blooms, or confine to a particular size. Forsythia blooms on old wood, so prune just after blooms are spent to get the most color from your shrub. This is also the best time to fertilize with an all-purpose 10-10-10 garden fertilizer. New plants can be propagated by cutting or layering.

Landscape designers use forsythia to screen a view, draw attention to other plants with winter interest, mask electrical poles and guy wires or electrical boxes, or create a hedge. But the real payoff comes in the dead of winter, when the days are short and the skies are bleak. Forsythia is a ray of sunshine and a vision of hope for the coming of spring.

Author: Cloud Q. Conrad

“A plant is only worth growing if it looks good when it’s dead.” This wisdom is from the father of the New Perennials movement in landscape design, Piet Oudolf (pronounced "Pete"). With so much influence over the evolution of landscape design the Dutchman has a lot to say about contemporary design principals in the landscape.  Oudolf is also credited with the prairie-style of landscape design, emphasizing the use of ornamental grasses and native plants in an effort to not copy nature but to suggest it in contrived compositions.  His innovative style challenges our time-worn perceptions of what a beautiful garden is.  Oudolf helps us to find hidden beauty in common plants combined in unexpected pairings.

We feature photography of Piet Oudolf’s winter landscapes in these first days of winter to celebrate the passing of time as it is marked in the garden.

This photo is from a public park in Rotterdam. Photo credit: Piet Oudolf.

Photo credit: Jo and Rob Whitworth.

This photo is from a private park called Wisley.  Photo credit: Piet Oudolf.

Notice the vibrant hues these two autumn landscape displays (pictured above).  Dried and dormant plants and spent seedheads combine for an unexpectedly lush post-season compositions that remind us in beautiful yet subtle ways that time passes inevitably.

Photo credit: Jurgen Becker.

The overlapping of seasons is most prominent from autumn to winter and winter to spring.  Oudolf upholds his ideal of using plants that only look good when they're dead.The snow layer on spent grasses and native plants lends a fantastical quality to what we would otherwise view a "graveyard". 

This photo is The Battery in NYC. Photo credit: Piet Oudolf.

Oudolf's genius for combining natural and man-made elements is on display at The Battery in NYC (pictured above).

Oudolf is currently working on the Gardens of Remembrance, just a few blocks from the former World Trade Center site.  Here is an interesting NPR piece on Oudolf.

Are you looking for something different for your holiday centerpiece this year?  Here are some inspired ideas to help get your creative juices flowing.

Alameda, CA floral designer Ron Morgan, included this photo in his coffee table book on centerpieces, The Center of Attention.  These vibrant -- and no doubt fragrant -- fruit

 topiaries celebrate the abundance of the season in a back-to-basics kind of way. 

Photo courtesy of Save-on-Crafts.com

Notice how Morgan has used the squash and fruit mingled at the feet of the topiaries to tie them all together.  Here is another set of centerpieces, tied together in the same way.

Photo courtesy of Save-on-Crafts.com

This tabletop panorama is brilliant in its use of variegated, mottled, flecked and striated patterns to unify a variety of 2- and 3-dimensional forms.  It also demonstrates that provocative designs can be conceived from the most elemental tools.  Aucuba, sweet flag, nandina, lenten rose, florida anise, autumn fern, hawthorn, waxleaf privet, mahonia, magnolia and other foliage perennials, shrubs, and vines can combine with fruits and vegetables in unusual ways for inexpensive yet dramatic fresh floral centerpieces this holiday season.

Experiment with new ideas for combining form, color and pattern.  Where you offer a broad variety in one aspect, limit the variety in the others.  To apply this statement to the photo above, Morgan succeeds with his design despite the fact that five patterns and four shapes are used because unity is achieved by the discipline of a two-color palette.

Take pictures of your creations and send them to us.  Happy designing!

If you are looking for inspiration to create a really unique outdoor holiday lighting display in your landscape this year, the 29th Sapporo White Illumination is currently on display in Sapporo, the capitol city of Japan’s Hokkaido Prefecture, located in the northernmost portion of the main island. This fantastically artful installation is on exhibit every November through mid-February in downtown Sapporo. While most of these examples are too grand a scale for the Atlanta landscape, the concepts can still be applied for an elegant and colorful holiday lighting display.

This effect is achieved by using different “gels” (tinted acetate layers) on flood lights. If you have deciduous ornamentals in key focal points at your home or business, consider adorning them with tinted light for the holidays.

Photo courtesy of Sapporo Tourist Association

You can find gels online by searching for “theatrical light supply”. This is a stunning way to feature your landscape in the holiday display, rather than just having trees and shrubs act as armatures for miniature lights. And with some seasonal adjustments to the colors, your flood light system can also be used to celebrate Halloween, Easter, July 4th or any event.

Photo courtesy of Sapporo Tourist Association

For the most powerful statement, spray paint the reflector portion of the flood bulbs with black heat resistant paint in order to eliminate any backlighting.

Photos courtesy of The Haunted Driveway

The above photos illustrate, from left to right: The bulb without the paint, the bulb with the paint, and which part of the bulb to paint.

Light Sculpture: Wrap individual light strands around 9’ bamboo stakes or, defoliate bamboo on the front of a stand that is visible from the street or a key window in your home. This concept will be most successful if wrapping five or more stakes. The greater the number of illuminated stakes, the more effective the statement will be.

Photo courtesy of Sapporo Tourist Association

I have also seen dead trees, and those whose removal due to disease or re-design is planned for the spring, painted and wrapped with miniature lights. If you paint a tree, be sure to spread an old tarp below beforehand. You may also selectively prune before painting to modify (clean up) the overall form. Do not paint a tree that you want to survive!

Does anyone have any unique holiday lighting ideas for the landscape to share?  Please share them here!

Light in design is an often overlooked technique in landscape design.  Good architects and landscape designers use this element to get further mileage out of the standard color – texture – form trio.  Here are some examples, taken in 2008

    Photos: Cloud Q. Conrad              

at the Getty Museum in LA.  Imagine that this solar pageant will change a seemingly infinite number of times in a day as the sun and clouds make their way across the sky.  In anticipation of that, observing a chosen design theme with consistency will give interesting ways to measure the changing drama of natural light as it encounters manmade objects in the landscape.  Here careful attention has been paid to the visitor's experience of light in the landscape and the visitor is able to appreciate light and time in the design through the interplay of light and shadow on the buildings, terraces and patios.

See how the regulated geometric forms of the shadows resonate with the grid-like pattern of the terrace trees?  It’s brilliant how this architecture creates its own gardens of light.  Do you know of some more great examples of light as a design element in the Atlanta landscape?

Sinkholes, those frightening depressions that appear suddenly in your yard after major rain events, are popping up (perhaps we should say dropping in)  in neighborhoods all over Atlanta and homeowners may be faced with another hazard of recent torrential rains along with flooded basements and crawl spaces, fungal diseases in the landscape and downed saturated limbs.  Whether caused by natural or manmade means, sinkholes must be addressed to maintain a landscape's safety, functionality and beauty.

Source: USGS

Georgia and Florida inherently have natural sinkhole tendencies due to a high percentage of limestone in the substrata.  Limestone is a soft rock and over time underground water movement and geological movement can erode the stone into a semi-solid status.  Heavy rains in turn cause settling of top soil in the spaces created by the reduction in limestone mass.  These are often imperceptible changes however there is great potential for a notable soil depression.

Manmade causes are also common.  Construction debris buried on site frequently leads to sink holes if the builder did not ensure proper grading and soil compaction before selling the property.  Broken water, sewer or gas lines can also create sinkholes.

Before you can properly repair a sinkhole you must first figure out what type of sinkhole you have and how big it is.  Dig beneath the sinkhole at the lowest point, and dig wider than the sinkhole to explore the cause.  If you encounter debris, you have a void that can be resolved with the help of a landscape professional. If you encounter limestone or granite bedrock, broken pipes and or water, you may want to get a city or county authority involved.

For the manmade sinkhole which is less than 3 inches deep, apply topsoil in a 2:1 mix ratio with sand.  Existing grass will grow through this easily or you may choose to seed if there was no lawn above the sinkhole.  Do not seed if there is existing lawn.  If the sinkhole is greater than 3 inches deep, remove the sod carefully, then apply topsoil and compact using a compactor and finally, replace the sod.  If greater than 1 foot of topsoil is required, compaction should occur once per foot of new soil.

If the sinkhole is a natural, substrate problem, remove all organic matter and debris and fill the bottom of the hole with rocks in graduated sizes from large at the bottom to gravel.  Apply landscaping cloth, then cover with sand until level with the top of the subsoil.  Compact, then add topsoil and compact.

Unless your sinkhole is small you should probably have a landscape professional help you assess the problem and suggest solutions.  If you encounter standing water or smell gas, call your city or county authority as well.

Atlanta recently got over 25 inches of rain and many residents experienced the ravages of our floodwaters in some way or another. High volume preciptation created problems with both pooling water and fast moving water, both problems that can be managed in the landscape.

Site grading is the most elemental of drainage strategies homeowners can use to control the flow of water across their properties from areas of undesirable over-saturation to collection areas for later use or to municipal stormwater systems. Generally houses should be sited so that stormwater drains away from the house.

If downspouts create pooling or erode the soil, or if high volumes of water enter from a neighboring property, dry creek beds can be used to direct rainwater off the property or to a collection area such as a dry pond, retention pond or rainwater harvesting cistern. Dry creek beds can be designed and specified to compliment the aethetics of your landscape and add a new dimension to your site vistas.

Photo Credit: Sturgis Rock Solid Solutions

French drains are appropriate for controlling excessive moisture around foundations, where hardscapes and softscapes create pooling and where grade depressions create ponding in undesirable locations. French drains are basically just trenches filled with gravel. Sometimes drainage pipe is installed. French drains act as disguised dry creek beds, and can transport water under turf or other landscape features.

Including native wetland plants in high moisture areas can also control water excesses on site. Winterberry hollies, inkberry, florida anise, willows, red dogwoods, birches, cedars, horsetail, ornamental grasses, lillies, and rose mallow are all species native to Georgia which can withstand or even thrive in excessive moisture.

If the recent rains pointed out site drainage issues on your property, talk to a qualified landscape designer for advice about how to manage drainage, even harness excessive water on your property for asethetic or functional gain.

Cooler temperatures and ample rain bring our attention towards fall landscape planting and many of us have started to make lists of new perennials to be added to our gardens this fall. We'll be devoting several posts to some prized plants that you might consider planting this fall.

Helleborus orientalis. Photo credit: Cloud Conrad

Helleborus orientalis is one to consider if you don't already have several in your shade gardens. Hellebores, or lenten rose, are glossy, dark green-leaved, evergreen perennials which self sow readily in mostly shady conditions.

They are expensive - there's no getting around that fact. But hellebores will more than pay you back your original investment, if you leave their blooms alone and let the beautiful black seeds develop and disperse amongst your pine bark mulch.

Hellebores bloom in late winter and the blooms last until late spring. The blooms arrive during the Christian season of Lent, hence the common name lenten rose. The seedlings will take a few years to bloom but once they do you'll enjoy a naturalizing effect that is dramatic and unique. Their blooms are not really petals but modified calyxs, which accounts for their long "bloom" time, according to Plant Delights Nursery. 

Seedlings rarely produce the same bloom color as their parents, but you'll not be disappointed because the blooms of the hellebore generally start one color and morph to another through the season. This transition is so interesting you'll forget all about the color you expected.

Hellebores generally stand a foot and a half high and spread as wide when mature. All parts of Helleborus orientalis are poisonous. Hellebores are deer resistant and can tolerate dry soil. Hellebores are perfect for the woodland garden or border, as groundcover or specimen planting. Native to Asia minor, hellebores grow throughout the US, from zone 4A to 9A.

Hellebores are beautiful year-round and look especially good paired with golden acorus (sweet flag), autumn fern, golden creeping jenny, false solomon's seal, hakonechloa, dwarf cypresses, and red and purple leaf Japanese maples. Ask your landscape designer whether you have a good spot for Helleborus orientalis in your landscape.  For more information, visit the Hellebore Society