THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Plants for Clay Soil
There are lots of plants for clay soil. Difficult as it is to work with, the opportunities to tend a …
The Silence of Plants
The Silence of Plants By Wislawa Szymborska (Translated by Joanna Trzeciak) A one-sided relationship is developing quite well between you and me. I know what a leaf, petal, kernel, cone, and stem are, and I know what happens to you in April and December. Though my curiosity is unrequited, I gladly stoop for some of you, and for others I crane my neck. I have names for you: maple, burdock, liverwort, heather, juniper, mistletoe, and forget-me-not; but you have none for me. After all, we share a common journey. When traveling together, it’s normal to talk, exchanging remarks, say, about …
James Van Sweden (Part 2)
“No-one had ever seen anything like it. We were using perennials in a kind of meadow-like way, that was very different from anything anybody else was doing.“ James Van Sweden This is the style James Van Sweden, working with Wolfgang Oehme, created – known as the New American Garden. (For more about them, you can read part one here.) Starting by removing lawns from clients gardens, they then began planting masses (and masses and masses and masses) of perennials. “Wolfgang would take off his glasses, or not consider the scale of the drawing, and I’d say… Wolfgang that’s 5000 Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’… GOOD! He’d …
James Van Sweden
This video is of Monty Don talking to the late garden designer James Van Sweden. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpn08JoNFFQ He was known, in partnership with Wolfgang Oehme, to have created the ‘New American Garden’ style – think tall grasses, great swathes of perennials and a wilder, more natural look. Pretty much the opposite of how we think of American gardens, with their tightly mowed lawns that are weedkilled, fed and watered all summer long. “Don’t put in three, put in 300… you have to think big. Think huge leaves, enormous grasses and flowers big as dinner plates. The worst thing you can do is …