Design Is Not Opinion

No Pretty Boys

  What's Important?

 How do we learn what parts of a garden are more important than other parts? 

Works of art have a natural and constituent hierarchy.

“In every work”, wrote Samuel Johnson, “one part must be for the sake of others; a palace must have passages, a poem must have transitions”.

These passages and transitions aren’t less important. They are simply different. They are sometimes invisible, though, because the observer is blinded by the wittier parts, like the ‘sun standing at noon’.

It’s hugely useful to understand these differences because they help the designer make cost and maintenance-commitment decisions. Here’s a helpful thought experiment: imagine moving through your garden as it is now, or as you imagine it. Let your eyes linger as they will, without forethought or pretense. Every movement engenders anticipation because you want to know what is around the corner. There is a sort of suspense, only sated as you discover natural or contrived ‘focal points’ where your eyes fall naturally on one spot, and then another, sequentially and predictably. 

It’s a playful and simple game that loosens the imagination, revealing perspective and scale. There is nothing secret or profound about it. 

 Johnson wants us to focus on the passages, the supporting garden zones between the focal points. It’s counterintuitive, isn’t it? 

Let’s look at some useful plants that bring structure and support to your garden design, plants you use to create support for key, focal plantings.

  Dependable Examples

How do we chose these structural plants? We don’t want Hibiscus, or Ginger, Psittacorum, Plumbago, Bougainvillea, or any of the Pretty Boys that prance before our eyes demanding attention. What is wanted here is the strong, silent type.

Like all worker bees, our structural plants must be vigorous and reliable. They must dependably form a monoculture and need little-to-no mulch when mature.

And think about maintenance burdens, too. We allow high maintenance plants only where highly exposed, not in the support passages. This only makes sense: why spend money constantly pruning shrubs that you rarely see? 

Sound impossible? 

Not at all! Here are nine examples, from the largest to the smallest:

Clusia  (Clusia guttifera) is a large shrub with thick leaves and, in many situations, preferred over Ficus or Viburnum as a dependable hedge. The indestructible Clusia, at eight feet tall and four feet wide or more, has a fabulous texture and does well with partial shade. 

 

 

 

Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens), of course, can reach eight feet or more for the silver variety, and slightly less for the more common green version. Slow growing, they are practically indestructible, and should be planted five feet apart or so.

 

 

 

Ficus Green Island (Ficus macrocarpa 'Green Island') is easily the king of small structural shrubs. Maintained at 24” or so, this medium-textured plant will form a dependable monoculture when planted thirty inches apart in full sun to part shade.

 

 

 

The Boston Ferns (Nephrolepis spp.) are actually a group of related plants in a variety of sizes, all with similar horticulture and all forming solid, maintenance free beds. Use them anywhere except the deepest shade or the fullest summer sun. Plant them about eighteen inches apart, but space the three foot tall Macho fern a bit wider. Control them by turning the weed-eater parallel to the ground and gently pushing the perimeter back.

 

 

Wart Fern, too (Polypodium scolopendria) will fill available space with an interesting texture about eighteen inches high and in the same conditions as the Boston Ferns. With time, a mature bed of Wart Fern or Boston Fern will scoff at all but the driest droughts, requiring only occasional supplemental water;

 

 

 

Xanadu (Philodendron sp. 'Xanadu' ), the smaller Philodendron cousin, is two feet high and very reliable at two feet tall and thirty inches apart;

 

 

 

 

Finally, there are is the native Coontie (Zamia pumila), a lovely mounding plant with fine texture creating a very dark green bed less than three feet tall (and planted thirty inches apart). 

Vegetables and Mulch

September 21, 2012

 Is It Just Me?

An awkward time of year is upon us, the time when those of us who have called Florida home for decades notice something a little different in the air. It’s faint: the morning breeze is just a bit cooler and drier, without heavy tropical fragrance. 

It’s fall.

The Gulf of Mexico temperature is falling dramatically. Average water temperature in August is 87°, then 86° in September, and then 81° in October, falling to 66° in January and February before starting back up.

Cooling is a result not only of lower sun angles; the days, too, are becoming much shorter. In August, days are around 13 hours. By December, days are 2.5 hours shorter with the sun much lower in the sky.

The plants, of course, know that the weather is changing. Swamp Maples and Cypress trees are beginning to show color and to drop leaves. 

 Vegetables

Here at Peace and Plenty, shorter days mean vegetable gardening. Last year, I started tomato plants in late August but didn’t get fruit until January and I do not know why. I do know that Immokalee tomatoes appear in the stores in December, which means that they are put out in late August. This year all of our veggies will be planted in mid-october.

And the vegetable garden will be completely re-built this year, mostly because when Mrs. Pundit watches Victory Garden on PBS, and then she looks at our veggie patch, and then she looks at me, without saying a word, there is a certain unspoken energy in the air. 

Do the plants care? Maybe not so much but then again they don’t live with Mrs. Pundit. 

 Mulch

Many multifamily communities apply mulch every year in the fall in anticipation of season. My own testing at two communities has shown that the cost of mulch can be dramatically reduced with a few sensible steps. 

First, of course, shop around. Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone…after all, mulch is usually an expense that ranks in the top four of all annual expenses for Homeowner Associations (HOA).

Second, remember that monoculture is your friend: use large numbers of a single species. Plants should be spaced at about 80% of natural spread and 120% of spread from pavement or buildings. When mature, you will have a bed that needs no mulch whatsoever, except at the margins, and during the grow-in, of course.

Third, do not waste money on dyed mulch. And do I have to tell you once again that red mulch is just bad? Mulch is not a design element, people. It is a necessary evil, with the emphasis on ‘evil’. We use mulch as a temporary element in a well-designed garden to help plants establish a natural canopy. During the grow-in period, the ground is exposed to the sun, so we need a way to keep weeds out and water in. 

But when a planting bed is properly mature, the plants themselves serve as the best possible mulch, shielding the ground from the sun. Here at Peace and Plenty, for example, and at many of my multifamily projects, are large beds of (for example) Ficus ‘Green Island’ with no irrigation and no mulch. Similarly very large beds of Macho Fern, and of Wart Fern. All of these beds are self-mulching and require additional irrigation only very occasionally.

Fourth, in many homes and communities maturing trees have obviated grass growing below them. So often, I see large mulch beds in these areas, mulch beds that must be sprayed to keep down weeds. A better solution is to use ferns or other low-light plants. 

Fifth, if you have a large bed of mulch, something is wrong someplace. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but not many. Mulch is expensive and in the long term the use of plants is cheaper.

And finally, remember to use low maintenance or no maintenance plants. These are the shrubs that do not need pruning or trimming: the grasses and ferns are two examples. And there are many shrubs that require only irregular pruning, like Ficus Green Island.

Keep those emails coming.

 A version of this piece appeared in the Naples Daily News 9.21.2012:  Download 9.21.2012 Fall, Mulch.

Ferns Rule

Boston Fern

Is there anything more tropical than the sweep of a fern bed? In a residential setting, this large group of ancient plants can replace pieces of lawn, cover a shady area below a maturing tree, replace troublesome grass in a side yard, or provide very detailed planting in the dooryard. In larger, institutional settings, these benefits grow in scale, offering lovely tropical appeal, huge variety, affordable prices and very low maintenance. What’s not to like?

 Fanciful History

Ferns are a huge group of flowerless plants in the Class Pteridophyta that appeared in the fossil record some 360 million years ago during the Carboniferous period of Earth’s history, and were among the earliest vascular plants. Like trees and other common plants, ferns have differentiated tissue for water and food transportation, and they have stems, leaves (called fronds) and roots. But unlike the flowering plants, there are no seeds, pollen or fruit: they reproduce by means of small eruptions called ‘sori’ on the back of the fronds. These are usually dark brown, sometimes subtle, usually prominent, and contain spores that are disseminated by wind, or animals, or water. 

Florida has more native ferns than any state other than Hawaii: 123 species, plus more than 20 exotic or hybrid species. By the early 1900s a huge industry in Florida and in northern cities was producing Florida ferns for floral use. In 2002, fern production in Florida alone was an $86 million dollar industry. 

Macho Fern

While we do use a number of different ferns in the landscape industry, our palette is dominated by several species in a single genus called Nephrolepis (nef-ro-LEP-is).

 Endlessly Useful

Ferns are upright, generally low-growing, herbaceous plants that prefer bright light and rich, moist soils (don’t let this dissuade you, though; they do just fine in our sand). All species in this genus are the same light-to-medium green. They are easily massed, creating a medium texture and appealing monoculture quite early, tolerating a wide range of light and water conditions. Use them in dark to bright environments; none will thrive in full summer sun. They are quite xeric once well established. And remember that ferns will not survive prolonged flooding. 

Choose your fern based on your needs for a detailed, up-close fern, or a faraway massing fern; choose also based on needed height, ranging from Macho at four feet or so to the Boston type ferns that are as low as a foot or so.

Wart Fern

Naming these desirable plants is tricky and often just plain wrong. Here’s your guide:

Macho Fern is a 4’ tall critter and is Nephrolepis falcata. The diminutive Boston Fern which is N. Exaltata, and there are several named varieties of this species. The Giant Sword Fern is also N. biserrata. There is a Fishtail Fern, too, with more detail in the frond; this one is also N. falcata.

These plants are all highly recommended and widely available. However, there are also a few non-native and invasive species that are sometimes confused in the trade. Among these is the tuberous Sword Fern, or N. cordifolia, which has become a serious pest and is no longer cultivated.  This fern will have a round, translucent tuber in the roots, easily visible by lifting the plant from the container. Don’t use it.

The University of Florida’s Web site has much more information that helps differentiate these plants (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ag120).

 But what do we care? We just love the lushness of these wonderful plants. Let’s have a look at a few common and not so common examples.

 Using Ferns

Using the ferns couldn’t be easier.  Because they naturally spread, spacing of new plants is a function of

Maidenhair Fern

your patience and your pocketbook. I usually specify one gallon plants 18 to 24 inches apart. The natural growth pattern means that they will gently spread, filling a bed and eliminating the need for maintenance. When they spread too far, simply turn your weed-wacker sideways, running the whips close to the ground, cutting new vertical fronds. Never ‘prune. Over-hanging fronds.

Interested in some of the rarer ferns? Me too! I’ll cover these in the fall.

A version of this piece appeared in the Naples Daily News 9.7.2012.

Black Olive Staining

For those wanting to learn more about the issue, please see Doug Caldwell's work. His Web site is here, and a relevant article is here. An earlier discussion is here.

Michael's Garden Column, 8.21.2012: Pruning Matters

  Lightening Rod

You are standing at one end of a very long hotel hallway. A bright window, covered by gauzy fabric, is at the far end. On each side are doors, dozens of doors, some ajar, some wide open, most closed. Sprinkled along the length of the hall are small writing tables. There is an alcove for elevators.  

As I get older, more doors in my own hallway of life have been opened and I have observed that each leads, not to a room or suite, but to another hallway. I imagine with gathering enthusiasm the richness hidden away in each. 

Opening even one more requires that I ignore the barnacles of insouciant malaise accruing with the years. We live lives upside down, don’t we? Boundless energy of the young is replaced by insatiable thirst for opening doors. Is this a fair trade? It sure is.

Regular readers will recall my fascination with the Kruger-Dunning Effect (call it ‘KDE’). Remember? Wikipedia calls it a ‘cognitive bias in which unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average’. Charles Darwin said that ‘Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge’. 

In plain English, one cannot guess.  Open the door and be surprised.

Why has this notion become so important to me? It’s this, at least in part: everyone’s an expert when it comes to gardening, and design, even though the depth of necessary knowledge is neither readily apparent nor easily separable from stylistic preference.

I'm not speaking about individual preferences. Some like blue, some prefer red. No, I'm talking about knowledge or, as a stand in, realizing that unknown depths are plumbed by recognized experts. People are entitled to preference. But ‘facts is facts’.

 An Example

Is there any feeling more wonderful than shining the light of understanding on a troublesome issue? Much of my email concerned last week’s piece on the troublesome staining associated with some Black Olive trees in some years. That column was the logical successor to a series of essays describing street trees in southern Florida. Recall that we have but three widely-available major shade trees (Live Oak and Mahogany being the other two). Your Design Pundit has been discussing each in turn, and at length.

My email was, in a few cases, humorously KDE, especially from those who should know better. Black Olive staining, let me reiterate, does not occur every year. Staining is provided by a troublesome caterpillar. When it does appear, the caterpillar is more likely to be present in the first half of the year.  Most email was appreciative, while a few writers, including those who should know better, concocted personal caterpillar gumbo from a very simple recipe.

Shrubs Are Deep, Man

Meanwhile, shrub pruning, too, is more complex than apparent. The proper care of shrubs is so often a jumbled mess because maintenance professionals do what they can with what they have, which is so often a garden full of personal choice without horticultural reference and with direction from the uninformed. What is a maintenance worker to do?

Take for example the noble Plumbago, a pendulous pastel blue wonder with small light-green foliage in a bundle most happy at 5 feet by 5 feet. New growth on this plant shoots out from a heavy center. And since flowers occur almost entirely at the apex of new shoots, proper pruning, year by year, is needed to create the cascade effect of maximum flower richness. Indeed, if you shear Plumbago you might as well use a non-flowering, green plant. Plant it too close to a curb, as at Mercato in North Naples, and shearing is obligatory. Similarly, Firebush and Thryallis can be resplendent. Or not.

And timing, too, is important. Recently, a landscape crew was doing an annual pruning to Ixora ‘Nora Grant’, admittedly alien to our soil and, yes, over-used, but possessed nonetheless of glorious tropical flowers. These plants were situated below some windows, and in peak bloom about a month ago. When the crews went to reduce the height below windows as instructed, many residents were aghast: ‘Don’t they know anything?” 

Sure they do. Language notwithstanding, much of the time the people you see in the field are quite knowledgeable professionals deserving respect. More on this in a few weeks.

Please feel free to email me with your questions or observations.