Here she is again at the Restoration and Renovation Conference in Boston. It seems that her lecture covers much of what we have been discussing in several of the threads in the last few weeks. I'm ready to sign up for her classes, if she should offer any . . .(not that this vast subject can be learned via a few lectures, but it is helpful to see what experts in the field are about).

LS-7 Residential Landscape Design: Combining History and 21st-Century Living
Lucinda A. Brockway, Past Design LLC, Kennebunk, ME
Designing landscapes for period homes is often the last and one of the most important public elements in a restoration project. These landscapes should complement the period of the house, but they also need to accommodate today's lifestyles. This lecture will present a myriad of examples of private residential landscape designs that celebrate the history of the American garden, yet meet the contemporary needs of each owner. From an eighteenth century dooryard to a twentieth-century summer home, each of these designs is comfortable, period-appropriate and practical for today's
busy households.

Develop an overall understanding of how to combine historic landscape elements and contemporary needs.
Understand American residential landscape design from the 17th to the 20th century.
Be inspired by examples of other homeowners and their properties: how they solved the "marriage" between a historic house and its grounds with solutions that meet today's budgets and outdoor lifestyles.

Ginger

Looks like the University of Rhode Island (my alma mater) is also Ms. Brockway's too, not RISD. (The URL is for URI, and "Quadangles" is the name of our alumni mag, named for the "famous" Quadrangle at the center of campus.

Regardless, the subject looks fascinating.

Later this month - Feb. 27 and 28, the Ecological Landscape Assoc. and New England Wildflower Soc. are sponsoring an ecological landscape conference in Boxborough, Mass. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll provide info from the flyer I have. The sessions look information-dense, and include such topics as building a green roof, plant diseases currently on the increase in New England, a variety of pest control topics (good for credit for integrated pest control certification), and designing and maintaining eco-friendly landscapes around vernal ponds. And, there's a tradeshow floor with booths and vendors.

ALMOST enough to make me want to take a trip to the NAWTH...ALMOST. We've still got frozen precip on the ground in shady areas--my grandmother would say the snow is waiting around for more--when did I move?

melanie

Melanie, dear, that "frozen precip" has a name. It's called "@#$%!"

At least, that's what we call it here. Especially after 3 months of it. ;)

Well, see, it isn't exactly snow anymore--it has morphed into this weird ice-sleet-snow STUFF. It's not even the "snirt" I remember form childhood--though we have some of that as well. Clearly I have NOT moved far enough south. Can't move west--too dry. (my sinuses crack at the mere thought...)

melanie

Note that I didn't call it "snow"! ;)

Iam Going, leaving in a few hours...staying right at the hotel so I dont have to get out in that frigid weather!

Bringing DH and kids,too.

I'm hoping that my sisters will make it this year.

I dragged them to it a couple of years ago and they seemed interested.

Both will be doing a fair amount of landscaping this summer and although one sis has a set of plans to work from it is always good to visit a show to jump start the inspiration gene.

Is the graphic art on the poster as excellent as it has been in the past ?
The 2000 poster was incredible ! I'm so not into hanging posters in my house but the 2000 poster is one that I bought and had framed, albeit with the advertising lettering cut off.

Beats the crap out of the lousy cheeze dog graphics that the San Francisco Show does... this year is not so awful but ever since the new ownership has taken over the graphic arts has tanked big time.
Last year it looked like a teenager from the 60's hand drew and lettered the advertising poster,... it was worse than crap,,, it was sh*t.
This year it is a single rubeckia flower against a two tone background, much more classy albeit not too terribly creative.

I'm going tomorrow, and meeting up with Lee (from ME), another GardenWebber from the Japanese Gardens forum. Anyone else who wants to get together for a cup o' joe in between schmoozing with vendors, give a shout.

Oh, I AM jealous. Y'all will have fun. Drink a cup of Jasmine tea for me!

melanie

Jasmine tea?! More like Captain Morgan and Hi-C... Then we'll dance among the nursery displays, pre-fab acrylic greenhouses and Zoo Doo samples. I may do a fan dance with plastic palm fronds in one of the "Insta-Watergarden" resin floor fountain if they don't put food dye in the water.

Captain Morgan and Hi-C? Gives me a headache just THINKING about it. As long as there isn't any gin. Or tequila. Bad, bad memories....

melanie

Maybe you will share some of those memories with us someday, Melanie. Sounds like they might make a good movie, or at least an engaging collection of short stories. ;)

I just returned from a brief visit to New England Grows! (unfortunately, I couldn't take the day off from work to spend more time there), where I had the pleasure of meeting the charming and gracious Ginger, founder of this Garden Restoration forum.

Over lunch and a whirlwind visit to some of the exhibitor aisles, we covered a lot of conversational ground, including Ginger's review of lectures she'd attended that morning. I'm hoping she'll post about them here or on the Landscape Design forum, when she returns, as the lecture topics are relevant to the things we discuss here. I'm particularly interested in reading her thoughts on a session on "Continental Ideas for American Gardens."

I was hoping to meet up with Lee10, another GardenWebber, but we were unable to connect this time around. But, it was nice to meet at least one of the knowledgeable and engaging personalities from these forums.

Anyway, it was nice to get out of the snow and breath the fragrance of pre-seasoned forced blooms from a plethora of growers.

I wish I could think of a good excuse to go, just to meet everyone. The show would just be a bonus. Have fun.

Yes, those New England Spring garden shows are just a wee bit more special simply because they are that whiff of fresh earth, the breath of awakening Springtime. Here, our garden shows are just garden shows. Wish I coulda made an excuse for this one or the Philly show.
Enjoy!
Tessa

Hello-
The best part of the New England Grows! trade show (not a flower show) was meeting Cady - first time I have ever met a cyber friend in person, too - what a delight! Next best were the lectures - a couple of which might be of interest to posters here.

In terms of the "room" thread Tony has going ("Come into the garden, Maude" thread), P. Allen Smith of cable TV fame took the concept of the garden room to the limit. IMO he was obnoxious and commercial. Advised having your clients bring in paint chips and fabric swatches to match flower colors to the other decorative elements of the outdoor rooms and also to match to any indoor rooms looking out on the garden - all needs to match and look well together. . . the garden designer as exterior designer, based on the interior designer model. He sells books to keep all of your swatches, paint chips, and plant labels in order. A shameless promoter of his shows, books, and other paraphinalia. He heavily promoted his "recipe cards" for creating the "perfect containers." A paint-by -number approach to gardening which makes "the public", as he kept saying, seem really stupid. Enough of P. Allen.

Lucinda Brockway, the garden historian and restoration expert mentioned at the beginning of this thread, gave an excellent presentation on the practical aspects of garden restoration. She is known for her authentic museum-quality restorations of historical properties like Strawberry Bank in NH and Fort Ticonderoga in NY. For this presentation, she showed many slides of work she has done in the restoration of historical homes. In this work her efforts were not to create historically correct garden landscapes down to the last detail, but rather to meld the old with the new into livable landscape gardens for her clients.

Although she herself did not use these terms, I felt she was in effect saying she sometimes uses authentic plants in a new gardening style(such as colonial plants in island beds in the lawn) and sometimes uses new plants in an authentic gardening style("Proven Winner" annuals in Victorian carpet beds). She showed slides of a Colonial home with a modern swimming pool in the back yard and Colonial-style plantings; also a Colonial reproduction housing development for the elderly with complimentary plantings done in the style of the times.

The gist of the presentation was to understand that a garden will have a lot of lives and that your work in it is probably not its last. In other words, don't take yourself so seriously when trying to be historically correct in reproducing gardens from the past in homes being lived in; remember they are not historic, museum properties with paid staff to keep them up.

She had a good handout plus a flyer for a new book she has co-authored on the restoration of several Newburyport, MA gardens. I have extras if anyone would like them. E-mail me and I will send them off.

Lots more, but no more time to post . . .

Ginger

Ginger, Cady--more! Please post more! Mr. Smith sounds like a doofus--wish I could've heard Ms. Brockway speak.

melanie

Melanie,
We'll have to rely on Ginger, as I didn't have time to go to the seminars. She has already covered some great ground with her review of Lucinda Brockway's session. I'm encouraged by the idea of using traditional plants in new ways, and making new cultivars work in traditional settings.

Echoing Melanie -- More, Ginger! When you have time, that is. ;)

Hey guys,

Sorry to miss you guys; got the same report on Pal Smith from Lee (much shorter; they walked out) so you guys were in the same room for a while. Close but no cigar...

I was chained to a booth and did not get to see any talks, so thanks for the synopsis, Ginger. I did get to go out on the company ticket a few times; no Kool-aid and Morgan, but a wonderful sake and sushi one evening (drunken hoo-rah followed later)...
:-o

Scott,

Sorry I missed you, too (sent reply to your e-mail last night). If I'd known where you were stationed, I would have stopped by. You, Mike and I will have to go for sushi and sake when we eventually cross paths. Capt'n Morgan cocktails optional. ;)

Ginger:

Thanks for the report . . .rather see you on the Weather Channel than P. Allen Smith. In the Tropicals Forum, there is a bounty on his head. I kind of figured he was obnoxious, sort of like the male Martha Stewart. Now if only I can figure out a way to entrap him with some investment scam and get him off my TV.

Anyway, I bet meeting Cady was epic. I've met Venezuela and one other e-pal and it's so much fun. One thing we discussed is how one never looks like what you expect. I would love to meet Cady . . .anybody who can go toe to toe with me in Star Trek and British TV has to be a 10 on the "cool person meter".

For those of you SoCallers, are you going to the San Diego HG Show next month? I'll start a thread on this as we get closer.

spectre

Yes, spectre, I'm volunteering Friday noontime.
Tess