Urban gardens, done so well it's urbane

Every once in a while, I stumble on a design firm that just stops me in my tracks, and I find myself digging through their website until I've seen every photo they have to show me. Rees Roberts and Partners, out of NYC, are one of these firms.

It was this tiny urban garden that first caught my eye. They have pulled off everything you can hope for in a tiny city garden: it is verdant, peaceful, livable, comfortable, seasonal, and stylish, all in about 300 square feet! I adore the all-green color palette and how it makes you focus your eye on the texture of the plantings, the long draping Boston Ivy, the delicate bamboo, the big-leaved hostas.

Altogether nice, nice, nice. This is an urbane garden, if ever I saw one.

© Kate Wiseman 2012. In San Diego? Want your own waterwise landscape design? I'd love to help! Please visit www.sageoutdoordesigns.com for more info.

Water slides: please don't do this

On Kate Presents, I try to make an effort to stay positive, so I don't usually post very often about things that I really dislike. It is a belief that I hold very strongly that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

That said- there are a few things that I am quite happy to be outspoken about disliking and this is one of them- I hate the way water slides look. In my mind, they fit into two categories: ugly, and horribly ugly. The worst offense of all is when you don't have a hill to slide down, so you just build one.... in the middle of nothing... and then you label it naturalistic. They don't look natural! In nature, water runs downhill, end of story. It doesn't magically get pumped up to the top of a pile of rocks so that it can tumble down.

And, as much as I do believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I believe something else even more strongly: things that look like they violate the laws of nature, like you tried to copy nature's work and just did a bad job of it, those things can never be beautiful.

(Normally, I link to the photos I use as examples. In this case, I'm sure you'll all understand why I'm not doing that).

What do you all think? Water slides, really fun or really ugly?

© Kate Wiseman 2012. In San Diego? Want your own waterwise landscape design? I'd love to help! Please visit www.sageoutdoordesigns.com for more info.

A cool look for summer

This photo was my inspiration for the day, so I thought I'd share it with you all to see what you think of it. This is a garden I came across on my rambles around the web, and I'm sorry to say that I don't know who the designer is (but if you do, please tell me so I can credit them). I love the plant palette for this garden- the cool blues and greys with a few pops of burgundy really grab me.

In case they grab you too, these are the plants I can identify in the photo (starting at the front left and working to the back right): Phormium tenax (maybe Amazing Red?), Carex testacea, Senecio mandralascae, Anigozanthos flavidus, Agonis Afterdark, Bougainvillea 'California Gold', Olea europea.

Other things I love about this garden: the decomposed granite pathway, the way the soil is mounded against the seat wall.... oh, and did I say the colors? I adore the colors?

Obviously, this garden isn't for everyone. I can imagine some crazy people might think it looks too wild or unkempt. What do you think?

© Kate Wiseman 2012. In San Diego? Want your own waterwise landscape design? I'd love to help! Please visit www.sageoutdoordesigns.com for more info.