The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook Book Signing at Plant-O-Rama

The 18^th Annual Plant-O-Rama Horticultural Trade Show & Symposium is produced by the Metro Hort Group – an Association of Horticultural Professionals in the New York City Tri-State Region. 

Plant-O-Rama has long been considered the crown jewel of horticultural events – bringing together horticultural and gardening professionals, garden designers, plant enthusiasts, urban farmers and agriculturists - to learn from the Horticulture leaders who speak and lecture at the all-day symposium.

Plus there are the authors’ talks and book signings – which is where I come in! 

I am thrilled and honored to be invited to participate in this year’s Plant-O-Rama Authors book talks and book signings with my book, The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook.

goo.gl/0Moqvo  

I am eager to see my former Brooklyn Botanic Garden family – I was privileged to work at the Garden as Director of Communications for many glorious years.

I also can’t wait to spend time with my Metro Hort and plant friends, especially – (and in no particular order…)

Bob Hyland – a dedicated and respected plantsman, garden designer and former vice president of horticulture at BBG.

Bob was the genius who created the dreamy Bluebell Wood at the Garden. Today, the more than 45,000 Hyacinthoides hispanics 'Excelsior' bloom under the oak, birch, and beech trees, there. It is a favorite site of many romantic, heart-clutching visitors and lovers, not to mention a favorite site for filming glamorous, otherworldly TV shows, movies, and videos. 

I remember one memorable shoot when musician Dave Matthews shot his “Dream Girl” video with - who else? Julia Roberts as his Dream Girl.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4bFX1ZEKyA  

(As an aside, at that time, Julia lived upstairs from us in our Manhattan apartment building -- she moved on. The day of the video shoot she brought the twins with her - so it seemed a truly serendipitous "moment” given all that beauty and good karma...)

The morning of the shoot was all misty and mysterious making it all that much more magical…

Bob moved to Portland, Oregon and is now the owner of Hyland Garden Design & Contained Exuberance http://www.hylandgardendesign.com

Ken Druse, panel moderator, is a garden communicator extraordinaire, garden photographer, writer and author – with – what is it -- more than 16 books in his portfolio now?? 

For a full listing and link to buy Ken’s books:

goo.gl/K5BnBT

His iTunes radio podcast, Real Dirt covers the world of gardens, featuring interviews with intriguing and visionary garden luminaries, notables and artists -- including, ahem, me! http://www.kendruse.typepad.com (scroll down a few)

Ken is a horticulturist, a sustainable garden lover and a BIG promoter and mentor to young professionals in the green industry. 

At the same time, Ken is a generous networker and has been ever so good to me this way too – looking to make the garden and plant connections that will benefit the entire horticulture community. 

I am proud to say I've been a card-carrying member of the Ken Druse fan club since forever! 

https://www.facebook.com/ken.druse

Ken is a nice garden sprite... and a true Hort Hero.  

Speaking of Hort Heroes, there is the inimitable Charles Yurgalevitch, Director School of Professional Horticulture, The New York Botanical Garden. 

And as part of Metro Hort’s Board of Directors, Charles serves as Secretary.  

Charles is tireless in his devotion to the hort students  -- always looking to educate and showcase the next-generation of green industry environmentalists and professionals. 

Plus Charles is a foodie!

And I am keen to reconnect with fellow author, Marta McDowell, who I met on the Metro Hort’s tour of Greenwood Gardens early last fall. 

There was the group of us “training” it from NYC to the nearby train station in Short Hills, in the Garden State – not far from Marta’s home and she was kind enough to give some of us a lift in her “garden express!” 

At that time she told me about her upcoming book and I warmed to the charming subject immediately. 

Now her book is out and is a big success: Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, The Plants and Places That Inspired the Classic Children’s Tale

My garden writer friend, Anne Raver wrote about Marta’s book in a recent NY Times article too. 

Here is a whimsical video about the book:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlCldbhsl8w&feature=youtu.be

I don’t yet know the other authors but I am very much looking forward to meeting them and learning about their plant and garden books.

The schedule for the Authors Talks is:

Author Talks and Book Signings

Lily-Pool Room 10am to noon and again from 1-3pm

Leeann Lavin, Hamptons and Long Island Homegrown Cookbook

Bill Logan, Air: The Restless Shaper of the World

Susanne Lucas, Bamboo

Marta McDowell, Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, The Plants and Places That Inspired the Classic Children’s Tale

Vincent Simeone, Grow More With Less: Sustainable Garden Methods

Here is the full listing of the day’s schedule and a link to purchase tickets:

January 28^th, 2014

9:00am to 4:00pm

Link to tickets:  brownpapertickets.com/event/515529

Full listing for the symposium and trade show: http://metrohort.org/index.php/archive/18th_annual_plant-o-rama/

Overview of Plant-O-Rama 2014

8:45 am: Welcome & Sponsor Acknowledgment

9:00 am NEW DIRECTIONS IN HORTICULTURE:


A layered look at plant and garden trends
David L. Culp, VP, Marketing & Sales, Sunny Border Nurseries, Kensington, CT Mr. Culp has his finger on the pulse of the nursery and horticulture industry, particularly perennial plants. Hear Dave interpret “where we’ve been & where we’re going.” What’s up with layered planting styles, container gardening, demand for multi-season garden shrubs, “green” and other trending garden colors, native plants, naturalistic planting methods, and more. Dave is author of the 2012 award- winning book The Layered Garden: Design Lessons for Year-Round Beauty from Brandywine Cottage. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.

10:15 am WHAT WILL THE FUTURE OF HORTICULTURE LOOK LIKE?
Panel discussion moderated by Ken Druse, award-winning garden communicator, author and photographer
A group of young professionals give us a look into the future of horticulture in
a challenging, fast-changing world. Topics include soil consciousness, water, public gardens, education, growing food, climate change, technology, social media, and making a living in our profession. We hope the audience will participate with questions and comments.

Morning speakers focus on public horticulture, garden design & urban agriculture. Katherine Aul (partner, Staghorn Design Studio), Kristen DeSouza (superintendent, Allen C. Haskell Park), Rebecca McMackin (director of horticulture, Brooklyn Bridge Park), Kelly Norris (horticulture manager, Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, and co-owner of Rainbow Iris Farm), Gwen Schantz (chief operating officer, Brooklyn Grange)

AFTERNOON SYMPOSIUM SESSION (repeat of morning)

12:45 pm 2 pm
NEW DIRECTIONS IN HORTICULTURE: A layered look at plant and garden trends
DISCUSSION: What will the future of horticulture look like?
Afternoon speakers focus on nursery production and management, plants and
conservation & youth education. Jason Austin (nurseryman, RareFind Nursery), David Daley (Children’s Garden educator, Brooklyn Botanic Garden), Nate McCullin (horticulturalist and facilities coordinator, New England Wildflower Society/ Garden in the Woods), Rebecca McMackin (director of horticulture, Brooklyn Bridge Park), Kelly Norris (horticulture manager, Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, and co-owner of Rainbow Iris Farm)

3:30 pm

CLOSING RECEPTION & SILENT AUCTION RESULTS —BBG Palm House

Exhibits – Free Admission All Day!

8:30 a.m.–3 p.m.	Plant Catalog Display Members’ Room FREE! Take home 2014 plant and seed catalogs while supplies last.
9 a.m.–4 p.m.	Palm House Trade Show A Trade show with 50 exhibitors representing the NYC metro region’s premier specialty nurseries and wholesale growers, pottery distributors, horticultural suppliers, soil and compost companies, public gardens, and greening organizations. Exhibitor list in formation—check metrohort.org for updates.
10 a.m.–noon 1–3 p.m.	Author Talks and Book Signings Lily-Pool Room Leeann Lavin, Hamptons and Long Island Homegrown Cookbook Bill Logan, Air: The Restless Shaper of the World Susanne Lucas, Bamboo Marta McDowell, Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, The Plants and Places That Inspired the Classic Children’s Tale Vincent Simeone, Grow More With Less: Sustainable Garden Methods
11 a.m.–3:15 p.m.	Silent Auction Classroom 236 Bid on plants and horticultural items donated by Plant-O-Rama exhibitors and sponsors. Proceeds benefit Metro Hort Group programs.
3:30 p.m.	Closing Reception and Silent Auction Results Palm House
10 a.m.–4:30 p.m.	BBG Garden Shop The Garden Shop at BBG’s Visitor Center carries books, seeds, plants, tools, and gifts for gardeners and the home.
10 a.m.–3 p.m.	Terrace Café The Terrace Café offers a delicious winter menu of soups, sandwiches, desserts, and beverages in the lower level of the Steinhardt Conservatory.

SYMPOSIUM REGISTRATION
   REGISTER ONLINE to reserve seats:
      brownpapertickets.com/event/515529

Home Renovation Update: Garden Design Takes Shape

I had been dreaming of my home garden design ever since I started taking Landscape Design classes at The New York Botanical Garden. 

For one of my final exams to earn the Certificate in Landscape Design, I created somewhat of a fantasy garden – knowing full well I would never be able to afford or create the concepts I had rendered on the blueprint. 

Now, in addition to being a garden and food writer, I’m also a garden designer and an award-winning designer at that! 

So when it came time to actually design my garden, I realized the stakes were high.

I wanted to produce a garden I could be very proud of. One that would not only showcase our home, but would show off my garden design profession.

And inspire other garden lovers.

And make my garden design clients glad I work for them.

And something I could write about.

And a place of enduring, beguiling beauty…

And a design we could afford.

Clearly the stakes are high.

Some of those early design concepts still bewitched. 

And over the years, while conducting painstaking research for my clients that made the home office look like something out of the movie “A Beautiful Mind” and John Nash’s garage -- with magazine clippings everywhere, books opened on the settee, tables and the Mac screen open to too many sites, I would sometimes – well actually often – come across ideas I would tuck into an all too soon bulging folder. 

When the time came, I deftly edited the file.  I smiled as I reviewed eras of garden interest: the billowy English gardens, palatial fountains and pools. Or boutique-style Caribbean retreats, Hollywood-inspired set designs, Colonial Spanish and Pasadena, California to Italian Riviera.  Then to my focus on native plants.

All grand inspirations.

But truth be told, I think a good garden design borrows a bit from all that and then it will tell a story unique to the person and home and location.

Just like I do for my clients.

I sketched the concept for the front yard garden rooms, including the driveway garden to be. Already in place is the arbor that we built and have been nurturing for years.

The goal of the arbor is to architecturally, with beauty, lead a guest from the street to the back yard.  Most suburban homes have no clue how to do this.  In our case, I wanted to create the added tension of walking from one world to the next as leading the eye through the tunnel of roses, Lady in Red Hydrangea and Coral Bark Maple overhead and the sides of arbor, there is the big drama at the end of the walk where one can see the bay and marina and New York City skyline beyond. 

It is a heart clutching, take-your-breath-away moment made possible by the creative and elegant use of plants and good garden design.

Oh and at night, the arbor is softly lit with solar powered little lights.

So romantic.

One group of designs that was appealing to me from the early days and struck a chord or me and informed my garden design for clients were the driveways from the studio of Dargan Landscape Architects. 

I made so many copies of the magazine layouts for fear I’d lose them to a misplaced file.

So it was with great joy and surprise when about a month ago, I saw an ad or received an email from the principal of that firm, Mary Palmer Dargan, to participate in a garden design webinar. I never did, but intend to. 

Yet I took this handshake across the internet as a good sign that my long-ago lust for those driveway concepts was coming into play just as she reappeared in my world.

My interpretation of the driveway look is to eliminate macadam and use natural elements of stone, gravel, trees, planting beds, and utilize layered, graded elements.

Make it good looking and functional.  Not a parking lot, for goodness sake.

One garden design client has turf and Italian white marble for two parking courts.

I almost persuaded a client to incorporate turf for a somewhat checkerboard look but instead we agreed on a paver stone set on diagonal that has worked well, especially due to its sloping elevation so no need to irrigate.  The walls are covered with climbing hydrangea and kiwi for a dripping-with-plant look and cooling effect on the sun-drenched bowl effect of the driveway to garage design.

For another client, I designed a teeny, postage stamp-sized parking court using the Turfstone – where the grass can grow up through the pavers, providing stability but beauty (see earlier blog post, November 2011) to create a serviceable and pretty driveway in what was the front yard.

While I drew up the plans for the driveway and the rest of the front yard garden vision, including the walkway to the front steps and door, my landscaper and I met several times to review materials and schedule. 

Bluestone -- to best amplify the blue grey of the house siding and old/new brick.

Decomposed Granite for part of the walk leading from the main walk design to a water garden off what is now the dinging room, with its wall of windows, two of which are sliding French doors.

Here, I wanted to create an instant mini lawn for the two steps down into that water garden.  I think it will be lovely in every season: green grass to step out on and in winter, a wonderful canvas for the snow.

There will be a front border, street side, and small strolling garden off the front steps. Later…

But as the spring season turned to early summer, we still had plywood leading to the driveway which made guests come and go like circus Wallendas or gymnasts on a balancing beam. 

And when it rained, it was more medieval moat.

Then there was the big sand pit or what we came to refer to as the big kitty litter box. 

It was the sand left by the mason.

Burke the landscaper extraordinaire and the team were so over-scheduled and weather wasn’t helping due to what I call the Goldilocks weather report: “it’s too hot, too cold, too wet…”  All extremes.

So no work at our house despite great planning.

In the meantime, we had the stunning but massively large Kwanzan pruned up and in for our sake, and our neighbor’s and the tree.

And we waited.  And waited.

Finally the week before the big Independence Day fireworks party the work began!  Towns around glory in our town’s fireworks, set off in the marina below and our house has a front row seat. The entire town ignites in preparation. There is a Fireman’s Fair the week before.

Every house it seems is undergoing painting, manicuring, and decorating. It’s big.

And happily, we could too.

I couldn’t have guests navigate the plank. My sister in law just had had hip surgery too. So for safety reasons we needed at least the walk and a bit of turf. 

A few last minute reviews with Burke and me.  He painted it out.

At his suggestion, I went to his yard to look at some stone and brick.

At this point, there wasn’t really any time to get from a stone dealer.

Plus he could clear out some things and I loved the idea of getting some stone with provenance.

The turf step off the dining room would now be in former bluestone sidewalk from a neighboring seaside town! 

So the work began.

The first-class team of Honnold Landscaping artisans was on the job. 

Like cobras, they fix on the stone to be measured and cut. 

They stare it down.

They use the string, the level.

And only when they are absolutely, positively certain, do they cut.

After the step up from the driveway, I wanted a circle design. I think a circle represents movement and in this case, one has the option of going up to the front walk and door or to the walk to the water garden. Essentially offering a choice of three directions to take.   

In terms of the design and the stone, the circle proved a bit challenging.

It took three of us some time to recalibrate and amend a look to make the angles and geometry work.  But we did it.

The dust flew.

It was hot.

The grass steps and stone turned out better than perfect. The old stone is extraordinary and made the design work all that much better.

And there is a story to tell with it. You can even see some of the yellow from the No Parking mark!

The steps are off the new dining room - seen here from inside.  I designed the curtain look from the valance to the drapes.  When the breeze catches them billowing and flirting it's pure cinema. Then picture opening the doors to step out onto the grass steps and soon to be - I hope - water garden.  I wanted to create that lovely sound of water off the dining room. 

The other side is all bay and city scape vistas which is tough to compete with! 

The turf was cut as the truck waited.  And then, just like that, we had a front walk and some real grass for the very first time.   

And our guest for the fireworks party could walk up to the front door.

We celebrated our first phase of garden design with a bang!

Party Time

Couldn't have done made phase one of the dream come to be without the amazing talent and dedication of Burke Honnold Landscape team. I love them and respect their talent. Burke and family, er sorority made it to the party too! 

 Do you want to see the before/before pictures??

Garden Glamour Premieres

Garden Glamour

To launch the Duchess Designs garden blog I, of course, had to name it. Always dodgy naming something, I think.  Monikers are potent.  Names can mislead.  Or the everyday use of a word may have stolen or hijacked the meaning from what was intended.  Or it can be pure destiny. 

Initially, I thought my blog about the possibilities of gardens and gardening should reference “Dreams” in the name.  But that seemed to suggest the idea that gardening was somehow a bit too out of reach or unlikely for any serious gardener, who of course wants to see results in their little plot of earth or containers.  Then glamour came to mind.  I do love glamour of course, and when I looked up the definition to a word I use with frequency ^:^  to confirm if it could work – and just like that -- stardust! 

According to Encarta, Glamour is an irresistible alluring quality that somebody or something possesses by virtue of seeming much more exciting, romantic, or fashionable than ordinary …  Check! That describes my gardens, garden aspirations and garden perspectives.  Striking physical good looks or sexual impact, especially when it is enhanced with highly fashionable “accessories”… Check!  And then this topper:  A magical spell or charm… Check! 

You see where I was going with this.  Alluring, exciting, romantic, sexy good looks and magical charms add up to my point of view about the enchanting world of gardens.

The Garden Glamour blog will offer garden stories about gardening’s best practices:  when to plant, put the garden to bed; garden tips; advice on what tools work best; garden design; opinions on garden trends; garden book reviews; garden lecture review snapshots; lots and lots of images, and funny anecdotes about the humbling, glorious and glamorous world of Gardens!