GARDEN DESIGN OF THE FUTURE

In 2008, a show garden design at the Chelsea Garden Show envisioned a courtyard garden set fifty years in the future, designed for global warming. The garden assumes a somewhat hotter and sometimes wetter London than today, incorporating lush planting and cooling water canals under dappled shade.

The garden designed by Robert Meyers is assumed to be largely enclosed to the sides and rear by buildings, and visible from the street through implied railings at the front. The 'buildings' are represented by planted green walls divided into panels by strips of pre-cast stone. This references the emerging possibilities of the green architecture of the future. There is a double-layered tree canopy, created with tall palms, smaller sculptural trees, and a high proportion of evergreens.

all photographs ©ToddHaiman2013

According to Cornell University’s agricultural extension office, “a gradual increase in Earth’s atmospheric greenhouse gases is expected to make global weather more volatile over the next century. This might include higher temperatures, less rain but heavier downpours, changing wind patterns, and rising sea levels. Higher temperatures and more turbulent weather will affect everything — from which trees to which wildlife cover the region to what crops farmers raise to how cities allocate water. Weather unpredictability would make dry years more common and wet years less effective. The result could be more reliance on rain-intensive crops or more garden watering."

Extension Horticulturists have urged caution in accepting these new zones, because hardiness is influenced by rainfall, plant vigor, and drought as well as minimum winter temperatures. With global warming comes habitat conversion, pollution, an increase in invasive species. It is the combination of all these stresses that will likely prove to be the greatest challenge to wildlife conservation in the forthcoming years.

comparison of USDA Hardiness maps from their website

Countering landscape and garden risk with evolving climate may be achieved by purchasing smaller herbaceous plants and shrubs that are recommended for a warmer zone.

The use of native and adapted vegetation in the built environment, taking full advantage of the most appropriate plants that increase air quality, conserve water resources, and sequester carbon dioxide.

Traditional turf lawns contribute to global warming in multiple ways through: 1. The decomposition of lawn waste, which turns to methane gas as opposed to composting, 2. Using fossil-powered machinery to maintain it (mowers and leaf blowers), 3. Fossil energy used to pump water to irrigate and fossil energy used to produce fertilizers and pesticides. Native plants are significantly more effective than traditional mowed grass as a carbon sink due to their extensive root systems and increased ability to retain and store water.

I’m curious… how do you envision residential landscapes in the future? Did Robert Meyers accurately portray this? Please leave your thoughts…

SUPER TREES

According to The Guardian, UK's ancient forests could be reproduced again after the country's supply has been severely depleted over several centuries of favoring farmland at the expense of forests. Contributing to this was Naval exploration, the industrial revolution and finally the two world wars when imports were difficult to obtain. 

One of the largest oaks still stands in what is believed to be Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood fame.  Another one of these super trees stands on the grounds of Blenheim Palace, designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown, one of the most famous landscape designers.

Quercus alba (White oak) photographed on a late Spring day.

©todd haiman 2013

QI - Chinese Landscape Design

The Chinese word for landscape is “shanshui”, which literally means mountains and water.”

"Joys of the Fisherman", Wang Fu  1410

It is traditional to think of focal points in a landscape as statues, sculpture, topiary, buildings, follies, water features or plant specimens.  But what about topographic foci?

For centuries in Chinese landscape art, mountains (and water) were the emphasis in the landscape. And likewise this was also the emphasis in Chinese landscape design, whether in a large landscape or small garden design.

Rocks and boulders were and still are representative of these features. They provide the same or similar vertical emphasis that a statue, building or folly would, but with a more naturalistic “unbuilt” form.

They are not only foci, but also destination points along a journey. A strong contrast to the level or lower-lying ground plane.

Similarly a “bowl” which is an inversion or depression in the groundplane is at direct contrast with a mounded vertical feature.

In a depression, people are naturally and psychologically attracted to discover the mystery within and then ultimately ascend back up to higher ground.

"Palace of Nine Perfections", Yuan Jiang circa 1200 (scroll painting)

The Chinese word for landscape is “shanshui”, which literally means mountains and water.” In gardens, fantastic rocks represent the the rugged grandeur of the Chinese landscape and the great unyielding, solid, hard mountain ranges, the “yin” that contrast with the “yang’ –rivers and streams (soft, wet and cool, restorative qualities).

A wonderful exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of New York highlights these natural forms. Mountains and their symbolic equivalents which are boulders and rocks,.. serve as a primary source of inspiration in these antiquated Chinese gardens.

"Summer Mountains" Qu Ding  mid 11th century

"Elegant Gathering in the Apricot Garden", Xie Huan circa 1400

Ji Cheng's great work on garden design, the "Yuan Ye" or The Craft of Gardens, was originally published around 1631 and is the oldest surviving and perhaps earliest manual of landscape gardening in the Chinese tradition.

Ji Cheng’s text immediately wins the modern Western gardener’s admiration for its insistence on the need to adapt a garden’s designs and contents to its natural location. His western counterpart of thought, Alexander Pope, employed designers to consult the genius of the place. That is,.. landscape designs should always be adapted to the context in which they are located. It pays close attention to the selection of rocks and boulders as philosophical roots within the garden, therefore an inseparable part of the landscape.

“Rocks are not like plants or trees, once altered, they gain a new lease on life.”

“Pile up the rocks to emphasize the height, excavate the earth to increase the depth.”

Sydney Chinese Garden of Friendship, alextravelblog.com

Ji Cheng was a practicing garden designer in the first half of the 17th century. He designed gardens for several well-known individuals in the late Ming dynasty. It is believed that Ji Cheng’s clients supported the original publication of this book.

The Yuan ye offers no precise prescription for garden design, mostly practical advice and poetic visualization.  Ji Cheng states that “There is no definite way of making scenery, you know it is right when it stirs your emotions.” It is “qi” –-the pulsating breath of life that must be the result of the designer’s efforts.1  

(Most Chinese philosophical schools followed the same fundamental principle that everything in existence is composed of the same fundamental “qi” or breath.)   Ji Cheng speaks of taking advantage of "borrowed scenery", similarly screening out what is offensive.  He continues with suggestion of segregating space (garden rooms or compartmentalization), wall outlines, stone selection and much more.

In her preface to the translation of the Yuan Ye, Alison Hardie reiterates that Ji “emphasized the importance of basing the landscape design on the existing landscape, and uses poetic descriptions to build up an atmosphere which will inspire the would be designer to create a garden which can express the emotions he/she is experiencing.”

1. Landscape Design, A Cultural and Architectural History: Elizabeth Barlow Rogers.