30 Jun 2012

What is in bloom now at my Place?

Mine is a landscape garden grounds.   Most rooms differ one from another.  Most of the structure is managed by conifers.....after all, the winter landscape  in Minnesota is as long as  Spring, Summer, and Autum put  together.......six months if you really want to know.; Color is very important and is highly valued in my grounds.   But it is only equal to texture and secondary to form, both shape and size. I control color in a number of...

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29 Jun 2012

WHAT IS A WEED?

Whether in the Landscape Garden or in the standard Minnesota city and suburban Yard, the answer to the question "What is a Weed" should be the same: .....A PLANT OUT OF PLACE..... That is the answer, the whole answer, and nothing but the answer! We are familiar with landscapes covered almost entirely with lawn.  Until the population began moving  to the suburbs in the 1950s,  the only landscape generally seen was a copy of the neighbor's.........

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21 Jun 2012

Some Big Surprises in my Landscape Garden

  SUNKIST ARBORVITAE:   Probably the most stunning plant on my grounds is the 20 foot Sunkist Arborvitae  in my front grounds.  Its form, bright gold color, and size dominate the scene as I or anyone drives to my house located at the end of a cul-de-sac.   Although its size impresses the viewer in winter, from late February to December it is brilliant yellow of the new foliage which makes this huge form so noticed and so beautiful. Its size...

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17 Jun 2012

Beethoven and the Classic Landscape Garden

"Beethovem is to the EAR what a Beautiful Landscape Garden is to the EYE. If they are to be enjoyed to their fullest, they must be allowed to enter the privacy of your thoughts and emotions to allow reflections of life and its beauty to enter your soul. One of my very favorite, indeed, perhaps my favorite mood piece to perceive aurally  to  blend into   my visual landscape garden inspiration,  is Beethoven's adagio  movement to his Spring...

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17 Jun 2012

Discovering the Landscape Garden

I began my drive to create a landscape garden 38 years ago this past Spring.   I had just been appointed to become Executive Secretary of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society and was winding up my graduate "studies" program and the University of Minnesota Horticultural Department. But the useable part of my education never came from those post graduate studies.   The two year effort was like being in the military service paying duty as a part...

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16 Jun 2012

Whatever Happened to Beauty in our American Lives?

A people's culture is imprisoned by the habits of the day.   It is designed by religion, politics, and education or the lack of it whereever people collect and settle. We live in an America that has been reduced to the indoors.   Perhaps the majority of its population now believe that the tomato is manufactured at the local super market or factory. We live in an America whose indoor college graduates in the social sciences believe that...

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