Tucked away in a corner of the Northwestern University campus is a beautiful garden with an unusual history. That history began in 1915, when the Garden Club of Evanston joined in a nation-wide effort to create gardens memorializing the 300th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death. Surprisingly, the designer was Jens Jensen, advocate of naturalistic …
If orange is the new black, then at this moment my front garden is very fashionable. For now the blues of early June have given way to an orange July. Orange is supposed to be a difficult color – too bright, too strong, so you’re not supposed to have too much of it. But I …
Jens Jensen: the Living Green is a documentary about an unjustly obscure figure who contributed greatly to conservation and garden design, especially in the Chicago area. His legacy includes naturalistic city parks in Chicago and elsewhere, as well as preserved natural lands. The Danish-born Jensen (1860-1951) arrived in Chicago in 1884, and got a job …
Last night Judy and I went to a lecture given by the noted author, plantsman and garden designer Piet Oudolf. The talk was sponsored by the Lurie Garden, which is appropriate because the Lurie was Oudolf’s first commission in North America. The presentation was an overview of his career starting with the creation of his …
The garden we loved best when we were in England last September was the late Christopher Lloyd’s Great Dixter. And so when we returned home I was determined to read some of his garden books. I have been drawn to and perplexed by the subject of color in the garden for some time, and …
Recently I wrote about five favorite blue flowers, limiting myself to natives of the American Midwest. The comments that followed revealed that I am far from alone in having a soft spot for blooms of blue. And so I found myself inspired to do another post on the topic, this time not limiting myself to …
Along with perusing garden catalogs, now is the time for obsessing over where to move old plants or add new plants for spring. For example, I love my Yellow Coneflowers (Ratibida pinnata), so in the last couple of years I’ve planted a bunch of them. Next year the younger ones should really come into their …
There’s a flower border along my front sidewalk. I’m not satisfied with it. The issue is what to plant up against the sidewalk, between the Bluestar (Amsonia tabernaemontana) at one end and the Monarda, Short’s Aster (Aster shortii), and Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea) at the other. It needs to be something relatively low-growing. When I first …
Does anybody remember the old Monty Python sketch about the Ministry of Silly Walks? This diverting bit of absurdity came to mind when Judy and I visited the International Garden Festival at Chateau Chaumont back in September. The Festival contained a number of gardens which, like the Ministry, took themselves very seriously but were in …
Gardening is something you do inside your head as much as out in your garden. Sometimes you need to look at an established bed and mentally rearrange the plants. You need to decide to pull the plug on an unsatisfactory performer. And you need to imagine potential replacements, newly planted and in a few seasons. …
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