Category: WB- In Places and Terrain

• Garden Ideas For First Day of Spring

  

  Yahoo!  It's the first day of spring!  We made it through another New England winter!   For those of you who like to garden, time to pull out the tools and the wheelbarrow, right?  I wish.  Look out the window in the above picture.  We just got 10 inches of snow from a snow storm yesterday.   Drat! 

  Now look at the foreground of the same picture.  What is that?  It's a miniature zen fairy garden! Here is my first article I wrote on the subject.  Essential Attributes of a Zen Fairy Garden

  What is so nice about this kind of garden is that if your climate or weather  is not cooperating, you can still have one and work with it any day of the year.  If you have no yard outside you can have one of these.   If you are injured, handicapped or elderly, depending on what you can or can't actually do at this point, you may be able to have and tend to one of these.   If you have limited time or a limited budget, you should be able to have this kind of garden!

  I stayed clear of of this sort of thing for a long time because I didn't like what I saw.  I am very fussy about textures, colors and forms. And at the same time, I want a garden to be captivating and beautiful.   But, then recently, I thought of and defined a hybrid garden, one that takes principles from both a fairy garden and a zen garden.  And, that, I fell in love with.

  Now,  a month after creating it, my miniature zen fairy garden is very healthy, and is actually starting to fill out in places.  Most of all, it looks beautiful from all directions (this is one of the requirements I have for this kind of garden). 

  Here is what the garden looks from the north side.

  

  Notice the attractive textures and shapes that are being used.  You'll see the same kind of thing on the south side.

  

  The main goal of this hybrid garden is to create something that is very pleasing to the eye which  can actually calm you down and let you escape for a moment or two.  One other crucial requirement which makes this possible is to get object proportions correct.

  

   

  Notice the size of the birdhouse relative to the ground cover and the garden bench.  Look at how the type of vegetation that is both above the rock and below it make the rock seem like a boulder or a mountain ledge.  The net effect of good proproptions is the garden looks very believable and therefore interesting.

  If you'd like to get more details including how to make a miniature zen fairy garden, I have a new little book on it which is available from Amazon! How To Make A Zen Fairy Garden

   

   

   

   

  March 20, 2013

  activity, budget, climate, cold, elderly, fairy, first day, fun, funds, garden, garden ideas, handicapped, hybrid, injured, limited, miniature, money, person, physically challenged, poor, space, spring, time, weather, zen

  ---

• Essential Attributes of A Zen Fairy Garden

   

  

  Have you ever noticed that some gardens seem to just pull you in and  cause you to escape into a state of peace and contentment, even if it's just for a few moments?

  There are reasons for this.    And it has to do with the kind of  thought that went into the garden design.  When it comes to fairy gardens that have been made to date, I've noticed  there is a wide range of quality that has gone into their design.  This can be fine.  Many of these, for instance,  are part of children's play areas which may be in a constant state of change.  And, part of the fun can be to just participate in creating a garden that may or may not touch upon a particular theme.  

  If, however, you'd like for the fairy garden to be something more, perhaps magical and alluring, it would be wise to step back and consider what attributes might work better than others. 

  I've identified  some design rules which aren't really complicated or overwhelming. And,  collectively, they make an enormous difference in the quality of the result.  Here they are:

  (1) Carefully utilize elements, both well and not so well known, from fairy lore. 

  (2) Approach the design of the  elements with the essence of Zen (promoting a meditative state) in mind.

  Some specific guidelines that could come out these design rules are:

  (1) There is aesthetic use of geometric angles, lines and curves.

  (2) Proportions are very consistent across objects.  This allows the garden to be believable.

  (3) Less is more.  You'd be surprised at how easy it is to over do it and have a cluttered and therefore unattractive  effect.

  I also think it's important that you figure out what you love to see in a garden, if you haven't already. With me, for example, I love plants with dark, glossy green leaves and delicate white flowers.  I also like rocky terrain. 

  Next time you see a garden you love, ask yourself what are 3 things about it that you feel really make a difference.  After you do this for a while (this could take a few seasons!) you have a real chance of getting very good at designing a garden for yourself.

  If you'd like specific information on how to create a  beautiful miniature  zen fairy garden, I have just published a new book, How To Create A Zen Fairy Garden, which is available at Amazon. 

  Making a zen fairy garden  in miniature has a number of advantages including:

  (1) It helps you make it through the winter in a cold climate or living in a city where you don't have access to a roof top or balcony garden.

  (2) It takes hardly any time to start and complete.   And you get a surprising amount of enjoyment creating it a gazing at it.

  (3) If you think you are going to want to build a full scale zen fairy garden, creating a miniature one first will help you to develop the design more fully.

  One last point.  This makes a wonderful gift for folks that are hard to buy for, especially garden lovers!

  

   Update after one month (3/20/13).  The garden is doing great and is starting to fill out!  This second article has pictures I just took. Garden Ideas For First Day of Spring

  Also, I put a youtube video that was recorded while I was making the zen fairy garden on my youtube channel!   How To Make A Miniature Zen Fairy Garden

   

  February 21, 2013

  attributes, create, elements, essential, fairy, garden, gift, hard to buy for, how to, Japanese, make, rock, zen

  ---

• Winter White Can Remind You of Spring

  

  I like winter in New England for about a week, maybe two, around Christmas when there's a couple of inches of fresh, sparkly snow. 

  When it's the middle of winter, how I yearn for spring!  The White Poinsettia left over from the holidays and the Paperwhites mom gave me for Christmas certainly begin to tide me over.  But, I find that visiting very special greenhouses really helps a lot.  The ones at the Lyman Estate Greenhouses in Waltham, MA  fall into this catagory.  These are also some of the oldest surviving greenhouses in the country and consist of four structures:  1804 Grape House, 1820 Camellia House, 1840 Orchid House, and a 1930 green house which features  items for sale.

  I first went here some years back with my Dad during the winter.  We arrived in the morning when the green houses get a lot of light.  A number of the pictures I took came out incredibly well.   They can be seen here (just look for Lyman Estate in the title, there are 9 or so). I went again again this past Saturday with my friend. Take a look at this greenhouse:

  

  Doesn't this make you forget about winter?! We got there late in the day (a half an hour before closing).  But still was able to look at everything and even make some great purchases.  Here's what I bought:

  

  A Grey Lady Plymouth Scented Geranium (is at 1 o'clock), a Button Fern (is at 2 o'clock), a Serissa Foetida Mt Fuji Bonsai Tree (is at 6 o'clock), a Ficus Pumila Creeping Fig (is at 7 o'clock) and a Victory White Camellia (is at 11 o'clock).  The total charge for this was just $35 plus MA tax of $1.91!  

  See what greenhouses there are near where you live, which you can tour.  You may be quite surprised at what is available.  Many of these places are for free.  This  includes the Lyman Estate Greenhouses (there is a fee for the Historic New England (formerly SPNEA)  residence on the property, but it is nominal).   Check colleges and universities.  Wellesley College is another place close to Boston which has a wonderful greenhouse  you can tour.   Inquire with local botanical and horticultural societies about where interesting greenhouses are.  They may even have one of their own.  An example of this would be Worcester County Horticultural Society's Tower Hill Botanical Garden and incredible Orangerie which is similar to a greenhouse or a conservatory.     

   

   

  January 29, 2013

  Botanical, conservatory, County, garden, greenhouse, greenhouses, Historic New England, Horticultural, Lyman Estate, orangerie, Society, SPNEA, Tower Hill, Worcester

  ---