gentle gardener: green

'YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION...." ASLA residential landscape design survey: What y'all say you want now - 2011

LAND Article.

Residential Design Survey Respondents Look Ahead

Despite a down economy, landscape architects anticipate strong interest in outdoor living and designed residential landscapes, according to ASLA’s 2011 Residential Trends Survey. The survey asked 245 residential landscape architecture professionals questions on the relative popularity of a variety of design features and elements for the year.  The most popular outdoor living features this year include lighting, with 96.2 percent indicating the feature as somewhat or very popular for 2011. Rounding out the top five are fire pits (94.2 percent), seating/dining areas (94.1 percent), grills (93.8 percent) and installed seating (89.5 percent). At the other end, only one in ten (10.4 percent) rated outdoor bedrooms and sleeping areas as a popular amenity for 2011. Among landscape and garden elements, interest continues to focus on low maintenance landscapes (94.2 percent), native plants (87.2 percent) water features (81.0 percent), and food/vegetable gardens (80.3 percent). Respondents also indicated wide interest in several sustainable design features, such as water-efficient irrigation (83.1 percent) permeable paving (77.0 percent) and reduced lawn (72.6 percent). Outdoor Living Features (Percent rating somewhat or very popular for 2011) Lighting – 96.2% Fire pits/fireplace – 94.2% Seating/dining areas – 94.1% Grills – 93.8% Installed seating (benches, seat walls, ledges, steps, boulders) – 89.5% Weatherized outdoor furniture – 83.6% Counter space – 74.2% Utility storage – 61.3% Stereo systems – 58.3% Sinks – 54.7% Refrigerators – 50.2% Wireless/Internet connectivity – 46.3% Televisions/projection screens – 45.4% Outdoor heaters – 44.4% Showers/bathing – 42.1% Outdoor cooling systems (including fans) – 36.7% Bedrooms/sleeping spaces – 10.4% Outdoor Recreation Amenities Decorative water elements such as ornamental pools, splash pools, waterfalls, grottos, water runnels or bubblers – 84.7% Spa (hot tub, Jacuzzi, whirlpool, indoor/outdoor sauna) – 75.9% Swimming Pools – 69.4% Sports/recreational spaces (tennis courts, bocce ball, etc.) – 47.7% Landscape/Garden Elements Low maintenance landscapes – 94.2% Native plants – 87.2% Fountains/ornamental water features – 81.0% Food/Vegetable gardens (including orchards/vineyards etc.) – 80.3% Organic gardens – 65.5% Ponds/streams – 62.5% Rain gardens – 56.6% Xeriscaping or dry gardens – 56.3% Sustainable Design Elements Native/adapted drought-tolerant plants – 88.8% Drip/water-efficient irrigation – 83.1% Permeable paving – 77.0% Reduced lawn – 72.6% Recycled materials – 64.5% Rainwater/graywater harvesting – 63.6% Compost bins – 49.4% Solar-powered lights – 48.8% Geothermal-heated pools – 23.2% Structures Fencing (includes gates) – 85.1% Arbors – 83.8% Pergolas – 82.6% Steps – 79.3% Ornamental water features such as fountains or splash pools – 77.5% Decks – 74.4% Porches – 72.3% Art (sculpture etc.) – 60.7% Utility shed (tool shed, garden shed etc.) – 59.3% Play structures (tree house, swing set, etc.) – 58.9% Pavilions – 52.9% Awnings, including retractable – 49.6% Gazebos – 49.6% Columns – 40.9% ADA-accessible structures (ramps, bars, accessible shelving etc.) – 23.5% Here are the results in graph form:

4-H in Orange County, VA: 4-H Teen Hosts Sustainable Agriculture Seminar February 26

Sarah McKay, Orange 4-H teen and Blue Ridge Virtual Governor's School Senior, invites the public to attend a Sustainable Agriculture seminar on Saturday, February 26th, at the Orange Train Depot in downtown Orange. The event will be held from 1:00-3:00 p.m. and is free of charge. Participants will hear from featured speakers of Retreat Farm and Virginia Cooperative Extension about local food production methods now and in the future, as well as tips for your home garden and a demonstration of nutritional smoothies you can make at home from your own garden. The seminar is part of McKay's year-long Senior project for BRVGS. For more information, please call 540-212-3663.

via ocva4-h.blogspot.com

Sustainable Agriculture seminar
Saturday, February 26th
Orange Train Depot, Main Street, Orange, VA 22960

1:00-3:00 p.m.
free of charge

Is Grass always the 'greenest' choice? Beautiful alternatives to #turfgrass to benefit gardens, streams and the Bay

                
March 16, 2011
Time 7PM
Location: Central Rappahannock Regional Library

1201 Caroline St. Fredericksburg, VA
Speaker; Virginia Rockwell, LEED Green Associate, VSLD, VCH, APLD Associate

Topic: Is Grass always the “greenest” choice? Beautiful alternatives to turf grass that will help clean up out waterways, too.

via www.mgacra.com

Open to the public, landscape design alternatives to turfgrass on the eve of St. Paddy's Day.

Go Green!

Green Matters @ Charlottesville Community Design Center Tuesday 12 October

SUSTAINABILITY NEWS


GREEN MATTERS: PANEL DISCUSSION IN CHARLOTTESVILLE ON
SUSTAINABLE LIVING OUTDOORS
AT CHARLOTTESVILLE COMMUNITY DESIGN CENTER
Tuesday 12 October 5-7PM

Want to know why green matters? Join us October 12th for "Sustainable Living Outdoors" at the CCDC, from 5pm - 7pm for the return of the Green Matters lecture series. A special thanks to our sponsors: Blue Ridge Home Builders Association, Airflow Systems, Inc. Dominion Power, and Latitude 38. Sustainable Living Outdoors Expand your living space into the outdoors, create healthy habitats for butterflies and birds, grow your own food, and protect the environment. Join us for a discussion of how to design your yard and landscaping to require less water, lawn maintenance, while incorporating edible landscaping and native plantings.

Moderator: Charles Hendricks, AIA, CSI, CDT, LEED AP The Gaines Group, Architecture and Design Experts: Karl Shank, The Natural Garden Virginia Rockwell, VSLD, VCH, LEED Green Associate, Gentle Gardener This event is free and open to the public. For more information: www.greenmatters.info facebook link to more information

via www.gentlegardener.com

join us to talk about establishing sustainable gardens/landscapes this autumn, the BEST time of the year to plan and establish your garden.

75 year old Gillette garden goes 'green': update by Gentle Gardener Green Design

Rothesay..., the 2010 Richmond Symphony Orchestra League Designer House, is situated on a spectacular site overlooking the James River. This year, for the first time, the Designer House will not only feature the work of interior designers but also the work of 10 landscape designers, a few of whom are featured in the videos below.

via www.richmondmagazine.com

check out the video of Scotty Guinn Dilworth, Project Manager for Gentle Gardener Green Design, at http://vimeo.com/12752764...on our green approach to this Charles Gillette garden design..and visit the house and garden, open NOW through midOctober.  tickets at www.rsol.org 

http://blogs.usda.gov/2010/08/04/survey-says-farmers-markets-on-the-rise/

http://blogs.usda.gov/2010/08/04/survey-says-farmers-markets-on-the-rise/

Aug. 4, 2010 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that the 2010 National Farmers Market Directory lists 6,132 operational farmers markets, representing 16 percent growth over 2009 when the agency reported 5,274. The 2010 National Farmers Market Directory results are being released as part of National Farmers Market Week declared by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack between Aug. 1-7, 2010.

Tree Folks - Top Ten - 09: Trees increase your property value

 ..."benefit-cost analysis for Modesto's 90,000 street/park trees found $1.89 returned annually for every $1 invested in stewardship."

via www.treefolks.org

GOT TREE$?

green. and pink. and white and chartreuse and blue and purple and and and SPRING!

So much biomass, so little time.  So much more colour, in so little time.  To paraphrase my teacher, David Orr, "If it's not beautiful, it's not sustainable."  The human impulse to shape nature into what we consider to be beautiful is fundamental and innate; we garden for sustenance and our prosaic needs, but the process sometimes shows us the way to poetry. 

This year:  the early bloomers were late and the late ones early:  the result of 4 months of snow on the ground, with #Mount Chipotle in the Barracks Rd Shopping Centre in Cville melting April 27 or so after accumulating since December 19 (roll your eyes if you must, Buffalo and Boston, but this is Virginia!).
Spring in central Virginia, in the Piedmont, yields so much so quickly, with temperatures seesawing between 26F yesterday morning, and 89F predicted tomorrow.  

Plants! Scarlet quince blooming in shade, intermittently, still! along with dogwood, aesculus x carnea 'Ft. McNair' pink horsechestnut, and now native fringe tree, chionanthus Virginicus, a bit early (fringe tree is usually a Mother's Day bloomer).

Native woodland phlox divaricata, mertensia virginica (VA Bluebells), and English and Spanish bluebells mingle companionably with helleborus foetidus, orientalis, and variegated false Solomon's seal (polygonatum falcatum variegatum). 
And the drama of native Quamash:  camassia, punctuating the garden. 

And yes, even the azalea:  on the north side of the farm office & studio, with hakenochloa 'All Gold', heuchera 'Amethyst Mist' and 'Citronelle', and tiarella, heucherella, variegated Solomon's seal, plus gold creeping jenny duking it out with the weeds.  Magnolia 'Kay Parris' did well in snow, 'Little Gem' not so well.  Osmanthus 'Goshiki', Cotinus 'Golden Spirit', and Pieris J. 'Valley Valentine' , plus my first ever camellia japonica left over from a garden show display last year, all appeared to LOVE being buried in a snow bank.
  Did I dig them out or fret or kvetch?  No.  I left the snow drifts to support the branches when the snow load off the roof let go in big heavy icy sheets.  Damage:  Minimal.

And is a designer's garden perfection?  Ha!  No, my garden has not been weeded.  We pruned the trees and shrubs of damage, my able farmer husband used the grapple rake on the tractor to claw it up into a burn pile, and on a cool March Sunday evening, we burned it.  That, and some rock phosphate on everything, was it.  Clients' gardens demanded my attention, and the 'shoemaker's children have...well, actually, lovely, careless, glorious shoes.......including ladyslippers along the wooded driveway.  We creep in the truck and count, a game each April since our daughter was two.  This year, we counted over 40 ladyslippers.  We are blessed with such mysterious riches.

Enough words.  Pictures are better.  Later, I'll post more to web.me.com/gentlegardener. 
when I have time, but meanwhile, here are a few shot with my iPhone:   


 

why we garden. happy spring, happy birthday!

art by stella and taylor.
media: found organic# matter on asphalt.
happy birthday stella on the vernal equinox, your 10th b'day! xoxoxoxo #in