How much space do you need to garden? What counts? It’s one of the latest questions buzzing around the garden world since NPR covered a study on urban gardening in Chicago. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign used Google Earth to find over 65 acres dedicated to food production — or at least what looked like food production.  These acres were patched together from abandoned lots, backyard, side yard, and roof top garden spaces.  And in just two short years the acreage has doubled.

But what counts as a garden? How much space do you need or, maybe the question should be, how do you make space for a garden?

I love the idea of creating a garden out of galvanized containers, gutters or troughs. Maybe a bit of room can be maximized with a dash of creativity and possibly the materials on hand? You may not become a self-sustaining homesteader overnight, but supplementing your and your family’s needs is pretty cool. And, as far as I’m concerned every garden of any size can be made to be beautiful.

At the moment I’m particularly fond of paring them with equal blocks of purple-blues (like sage) and purple needle grass or Mexican feather grass. And I love them when planted in mass. A drift of dark green foliage with long lasting golden, summer blooms against a block of lavender-blue blooms with grey green foliage and the warm texture of grasses in equal blocks. Throw in a yucca or agave (while giving care to meet water requirements or lack there of) and we’ve just created a breathtaking bit of garden.

Better yet, the allure doesn’t stop there. I was looking in on these particular black-eyed susans and nearly missed this busy garden spider. It appeared suspended in mid-air, waiting for it’s next meal to fly heedlessly into it’s web.

Eventually it will most likely take it’s turn as an unsuspecting victim. Providing a tasty and vital snack to a songbird in summer or when dormant in winter.

In general Rudbeckia spp. are easy to grow, requiring modest soils that can be heavy but well drained with moderate to occasional water. Once established they tolerate less water than usually given. They prefer full sun but will also grow in part sun. Snails and slugs enjoy feeding on them. I’ve also had mine taken to the ground by voles, bunnies and deer. Even so, they can rebound. An admirable quality.

Propagate by seed in spring and divide out in late summer and into fall.

Look closely as you follow the stone path leading through the cosmos. You’ll find a drain with grate at the center, evidence of it’s dual purpose, do-goodness. It’s a really wonderful design, in-part because, without closer inspection, its easy to miss that it was, in fact, designed. It’s simply meant to be.

This is probably true of most rain gardens, gardens that are planted or spring up naturally where there is a regular or seasonal source of water.  I typically think of them located in low lying areas, depressions, at the base of slopes, hillsides or other areas to catch and filter stormwater. This can aide filtration to the water table or simply reduce run-off and potential pollution that would otherwise end up in storm drains and ultimately the watershed. This particular rain garden is at the center of a turn-around servicing the Tarkio River Lodge on the Clark River in Montana. It looks a bit like an oasis but it’s actually doing the important job of converting what would otherwise be a mud puddle or worse in spring and fall – note the surrounding dirt and gravel road – into something beautiful and industrious.

Many towns, cities and counties across the country are now offering rebates to homeowners for the installation of rain gardens because of the measured benefits on a parcel by parcel basis.

Proof, yet again, that our gardens really do make a difference.

Shoot or pass the pistil.

Rain Garden How-to Manual

Seattle Public Utilities Rain Wise Program

The opportunity for “deckening*” is at hand, right out my door. However I’ve never loved growing plants in pots, at least not as a sole point of interest. In fact, when I get to the section on the latest container garden arrangements in nearly any and all gardening publication I hastily skip to the next article. Those people who put them together, the designers, always seem a bit stuffy and the pairings far too contrived for my liking. Now I see I’ve been short sighted and just a tad bit snobby.

I’ve decided it’s time to embrace my inner, container gardener.  Starting with a few native, drought tolerant or otherwise edible selections: Rosemary, party favor olives (a wedding guest gift), my poor soaproot - which is hanging on by a thread, blue fescue and some very fine Cleveland Sage (Salvia clevelandii) to name a few. Being one of those designers, I figure it’s about time.

My latest project is a raised veggie bed made from a galvanized steel watering trough. It’s a pre-fab, portable, hip meets urban farm solution with virtually zero risk of rotting. Perfect for deckening.

First, I measured then purchased a trough to fit the allotted space. Drilled drain holes along the bottom and placed the trough on 1/2 inch wooden slats to prevent it from sitting directly on the deck. This also creates a drop shadow, adding an element of visual interest. Finally, I filled the bed with a locally made organic planting mixture (mostly compost) and planted a no-fuss combination of scarlet runner beans, strawberries, sunflowers, calendula and nasturtium.

The task of hand watering, like weeding, is a seasoned love. However, potted plants suffer more readily from missed or inconsistent watering. Fruits and vegetables in particular often become stressed and therefore prone to disease, infestation, irregular fruting and bolting. So, I decided to install a drip irrigation system sourced from a deck-level spicket. It’s equipped with a timer, filter and backflow device.

It may not work out as I intended but it’s not for the lack of trying.  And, right now, it’s pretty darn satisfying.

*Deckening: the act of gardening on a deck environment.  Typically in pots or other containers.  AKA, a container garden.

Dr. Michael Mesler, my plant taxonomy professor at Humboldt State University, likened simplicity to parsimony.  When examining computational phylogenetics (a complicated subject) he taught us that the phylogenetic tree with the fewest evolutionary changes was most likely correct.  “Thus,” he would say, “the simplest answer is usually the best answer.”

While the study of the evolutionary relationships of plants or other organisms seems far from design it may not be.  It fact, Mike’s ideas of parsimony, slightly askew of the typical dictionary definition, could be applied to all sorts of life’s curve balls and creative problems.

And in my small mind, life is a set of curve balls and creative problems.  Best solved with the guidance of those of superior minds (like Dr. Mesler’s).

The french potager (clearly, as seen in these images, a kitchen garden) is parsimonious in the scientific sense.  Creative freedom is cultivated within well organized, uncomplicated space using a design scheme that optimizes utility and beauty.  Based on a twist of an intelligible, rectangular theme with the finishes exemplifying native materials, meaningful plantings and care for function.

Lessons of a potager (or computational phylogenetics) can be applied throughout the landscape, of the mind or garden.  When scratching your head as to what to do next remember, the simplest answer is usually the best answer.

We were on holiday in the UK this very month last year visiting friends.  There wasn’t much time to research points of interest before leaving, in typical fashion, we planned to travel only weeks before departing.  However, I’d been there before and quickly formed a must-do list.  Visiting gardens was on the top.

Sissinghurst Castle, a National Trust garden, was highly recommended by a friend and landscape architect, Rob Littlepage.  When I then read that it was one of the locations used to film the Hollywood version of Pride and Prejudice, among all the other rave reviews, not to mention the brilliant planting design, capitalizing on Gertrude Jekyll’s design philosophy, etc., we were in.   Hands down, we were going.

The affection and effort put into the making and keeping of this garden are at its heart.  Add to that its history, a moated farmhouse turned Elizabethan manor, changing by need, style, occupants and architecture over hundreds of years.  The location and how perfectly the garden moves with and into the surrounding environment.  It’s arts and crafts style, plantings and organization.  All create an experience while telling a story.

With spring in bud, the garden’s dignity is revealed.  The “bones” of the design, or design approach, clearly evident.  Laying bare the orchestration of space.

As seen, it is a series or combination of connected gardens, each with unique purpose.  The formal courtyards expand out to extended, theme gardens.  (The Rose Garden, Cottage Garden, Nuttery, Moat Walk and Herb Garden to name a few.)  Eventually becoming less formal as the garden boundaries approach.  The “working” areas, such as the orchard above, while informal, retain strong design composition.

The garden we see today reveals the life work of Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West.  They found Sissinghurst mistreated and all but abandoned in 1930, an opportunity to renovate a once-great, forgotten estate.  The form of its revitalization communicates the story of place as well as the story of Harold and Vita.

A “marriage of sensibilities,” the garden fuses classical design elements with a profusion of romantic plantings.  Each heightened and enjoyed because of the presence of the other.

The formal, tried and true design themes are easy to follow, elements such as the Yew Walk commanding.  While its lushness comes from Vita’s desire to cram “every chink and cranny”.  A method of “exaggeration, big groups, big masses” employed and maybe lost if not contained and framed by the overlying structure.

William Robinson, champion of wild gardening and author of The Wild Garden (1881) and The English Flower Garden (1883), once wrote: “Formality is often essential to the plan of a garden but never to the arrangement of its flowers and shrubs.”

My reading of the guardians of Sissinghurst exposed a couple absorbed in place, present and past.  A couple following their own, individual impulses (Vita was also lover to Virginia Woolf) while seeking comfort from their work in and with the garden.  To paraphrase Virginia Woolf, ‘something which you could attach your floating heart….’

I left our visit to Sissinghurst Castle not thinking of Pride and Prejudice.  Though I did wonder more than once if it was actually a filming location.  I didn’t recognize it.  But it didn’t matter.  Sissinghurst held a story of romance, but a story of its own.

Ever have one of those moments where you walk into a space, any space, but in this case a garden, and hear yourself say, “ah-ha”?  One where you relax with an exhale and, suddenly, all is right with the world?

I love these moments.  These are instances I hope for an look forward to.  And yes, like the most enlightened, I call them “ah-ha moments”.

One of my more recent experiences with this was our December visit to High Line Park, New York City.  Stunning for its design, plantings and borrowed views.  Possessing its own life while fitting perfectly into the landscape.

However big or small, formal or informal gardens providing an ah-ha moment do so in part because of the bones of the design.  How the shapes of space, positive and negative, fit together.  Even if you can’t see around the next corner the entirety of the design still affects the visitor.  Typically as harmonious and maybe even as harmony with purpose or surprise.

In many ways, to design a garden is to solve a problem.  There is always more than one solution, but for a positive and livable outcome the designer uses an organized approach in an attempt to find the best solution.

Examples of a few successful and not so successful design themes are sketched out to the right.  The top two designs show extremely weak compositions.  The adjoining forms don’t coincide or are lost within each other.  The bottom two designs are stronger.  The shapes correspond at natural geometric points or lines and remain evident, even when joined.  While rudimentary (not yet possessing the feel of an “ah-ha moment”), they are the beginning to a positive design solution.

The garden to the left, designed by Jared Vermeil of Vermeil Design based out of the San Francisco Bay Area, is a clever example of a well organized, inviting space.  It shows inventive use of a tiny city lot, full of limitless possibilities while also a personal sanctuary.  The design fits together in perfect geometric fashion, providing an underlying framework with pleasing lines.  Using a rectangular-45 design approach, the eye and body are moved to experience and enjoy the garden in a variety of ways.  The strength of the theme gives the garden weight and meaning.

The words “low” and “maintenance” are never uttered together when discussing this garden.  Just a few snips and tucks.  Possibly the antithesis of modern culture and expectations, where “fast food” gardening is a requirement.

The topiary garden at Levens Hall, South Cumbria, UK date back to 1694.  The original design enduring these 300+ years.  Dutch born, M.C. Escher was not born until 1898.  We’d like to think there is a correlation or possible inspiration between the two, however research has not surfaced any such parallels.

Topiary seems to have become a four letter word among some garden groups and designers.  Considered contrived,unnatural and definitely not carefree.  But, you have to admit, when set like this, it’s stunning.  Imagine the fun, walking through these garden paths.

This particular New York City borough alone has it’s own sense of self, uniquely hip while relaxed and confidently transforming.  To climb the stairs to the High Line is to realize a coming of age of an outdoor experience.

Previously a rail line built to remove the dangers of train travel at ground level (10th Ave. was once known as “death avenue” due to the number of accidents between freight trains and other street level traffic).  It connected directly with warehouses and factories and functioned at it’s peak for decades until trucking became an increasingly popular mode of hauling goods and use of the High Line decreased.  The southern most end was demolished in the 60′s while the remaining sections were saved initially by rail enthusiasts and eventually by Friends of the High Line with the hopes of reuse as public open space.  (High Line History)  Years of planning, research and a “Designing the High Line” competition lead to it’s final stages of development and eventual opening of Section 1 to the public in June of 2009.

Once on The High Line I’m immediately reminded of the sense of calm experienced upon returning from a trip abroad, having been surrounded by all sorts of foreign languages and now immersed in English again.  I didn’t realize the unconscious effort, the need to make sense of the world around me until the stimulus was removed.  Now, all is quiet.  It’s perfect.  From the contemporary path, meandering and inviting, to the chic seating, Piet Oudolf style plantings and the view that is accommodated from elevated advantage and fluid framing.

We wander.  Everyone is wandering.  Possibly as enamored as I am.  Struck by the point of view the park affords and the artful experience it provides.  It may be best in winter.   The grasses and Heuchera look like they just passed peak.  I could very well be an amphibian, soaking it all in through my skin.

Passing through what appears to be a sometimes art space, once warehouse, we find ourselves in between a human fish bowl and a smart group of trees.  Funny, the people in the “fish bowl” (nested in a mini-amphitheater) are occupied watching the people below.  I shift to the trees.  Of course studying the layout.  I count them, examine them (not sure of their parentage, except that the branching is opposite).  What is it about this little grove, organic and not so contrived?  It definitely gives reason to linger.  The Statue of Liberty hiding off in the distance.

All to soon we find ourselves at the gates marking section 2, scheduled to open this coming spring.  And then, after oogling over a crazy parking garage (how does that thing work?), a perfect little coffee and chocolate shop lure us in, completing our walk.

Someone asks, “What was that?”

“Amazing.”

“Lovely.”

Designing a garden is an art.  The landscape, with all of it’s endless possibilities, your palette.  However, unlike many other forms of art, it doesn’t begin with a blank slate, but a living system.  Even if the intended garden is a potted garden, it still involves a multitude of environmental factors.

Garden design is also a process in which a series of logistical problems must be solved.  How is the garden to function?  What would you like to include?  What is your style?  Would you like a kitchen garden, a place to entertain, rest, play or all of the above and more?  If residential, how does the home and the architecture of the home interact with the site?  What is the scope of the project?  Are there issues with drainage, erosion, slope, fire, shade, sun, water, etc.?  What is the site ecology and the ecology of the region?  These considerations are almost as limitless as the the creative options.  It can be overwhelming to the point of not knowing where to begin.

The practical response of where to begin is planning.  Yes.  Planning.

Map.  Sketch.  Observe.  Brainstorm.  Draw.  Draft.  Research.  Overwhelmed?

It’s a process that will bring you closer to the best solution and fit, for you and the site.  It’s the beginning of a relationship.  “The secret ingredient to which we respond… the essence of a good garden”, as John Brookes describes in The Book of Garden Design, comes from “the relationship of the garden to it’s setting, both physically and intellectually.”

There is more than one way to begin this process, but it may help to start by simply spending time on the property.  Get a feeling for it by being there.  Garden Zen starts here.

It may also help to do some mapping and take notes.  I like to use graph paper when completing initial, on-site maps.  If for no other reason than to help me draw a straight line, but it may also help convey proportion and placement a bit more accurately.  Your map may look like the one to the right or it may be freehand.

Consider the following when observing and evaluating your site:

Site Analysis

What is the climate of the area in question?  Microclimate?  High and low temperatures, rainfall averages and patterns, breeze direction?  Look for wind pruning on trees and use historic weather databases such as that found at Weather Underground.

Inventory Flora and Fauna

Know your critters.  Who is living on the property and who passes through?  Who would you like to invite to visit or stay?  Who do you need to fortify against?  Your garden is habitat.  (If you plant it, they will come.  Whether you like it or not.)

Take note of existing plants.  Weeds, natives, ornamentals?  Where are the plants located?  Are they healthy?  What can you learn from them?

Identify Soil Quality and Type

Understanding soil type, quality and structure is the beginning to protecting and fostering your most vital resource.  It will also help determine other factors such as plantings, drainage and erosion control.  Sand, silt and clay are the general components of soil, but it too has its own ecology and complexity.

Soil testing is a good idea.  If you go this route, ask for amendment recommendations in the form of compost and organic fertilizers.

The plants growing on the site can also shed light on soil attributes.  The book Weeds and What They Tell, written by Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer, is a helpful resource.

Wind and Fire

Where are the possible fire and wind corridors?  How can wind be manipulated through vegetation, decreasing wind tunnels but not eliminating it all together?  How can fire damage be prevented?

Points to consider:

A bit of wind is essential for pollination and vectors like butterflies.

Fire is more likely to move up a slope than down, often moving with and aggravated by wind.

Water Flow

The goal is to manage storm water, moving it away from buildings but increase landscape contact, replenishing groundwater, improving infiltration and reducing run-off.  Topography, soil type, vegetation and mulch all affect water flow.

Guiding Engagement

Positively direct traffic, views and experience.  What areas need to be addressed, hidden, amplified or borrowed?  Where are natural paths and points of focus?

Mapping and Surveys

Ultimately a complete map of the site will be necessary.  This includes property boundaries, easements, topography, building footprints and infrastructure, roads, paths and existing trees.  It’s also critical to locate power lines, utility mains, gutters, downspouts and the like.  If using a civil engineer to perform the survey, ask for all trees with a 6″ dbh (diameter at breast height) to be included and get both electronic and paper copies.

Google maps is a fabulous tool for further understanding of the site.

Other Considerations

Talk to neighbors about the history of the area, their observations and experiences.  And if you’re really curious, dig up historical photos to see what the land looked like across time.

Take cues from nature.

Bee the garden.