grounded design: landscape + culture

Grounded Design is moving from Blogger to Squarespace. You can find the new blog site at: www.thomasrainer.com I hope to soon transfer the domain www.groundeddesign.com as well to this new fo...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2017/03/grounded-design-has-moved.html

“I think wildness matters more now than it ever has. We’re urbanizing at a pace unprecedented in human history… We have to look at the landscapes we live in as places where nature could...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2017/01/gardening-in-post-wild-world.html

After almost 50 talks last year, I'm thrilled my speaking schedule is back on a more reasonable pace this year. I did want to let folks know about a handful of upcoming events. If you are in the ...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2017/01/upcoming-talks-2017.html

REFLECTIONS ON A YEAR OF PLENTY There’s a good bit of speculation that 2015 may be a mast year for many oaks. “Mast” is the fruit of forest trees, like acorns or nuts, but unlike trad...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2015/11/mast-year.html

A BEHIND THE SCENES LOOK AT CO-WRITING A BOOK Like many of you, I garden and I write about gardening. Both of these are essentially solitary acts. As a blogger, I get to do and say what I a...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2015/10/one-idea-one-voice.html

It has been a long time since I’ve written here. I have missed it immensely. And I have missed you. I am writing to say that I am back. I am returning to write refreshed and re-energized by a...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-collaboration-teaming-with-claudia.html

YES, NO, MAYBE SO? BY SUSAN HINES 2009 composed salad LA: Coen + Partners  Photos: Paul Crosby, Paul Crosby Architectural Photography In just a few weeks, the recipients of the American ...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2014/10/has-asla-abandoned-residential-garden.html

“Sucking is the first step to being sorta good at something.”  My border in early July I love this quote from reddit founder Alexis Ohanian because it reminds me of a thought that al...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2014/07/sucking-is-first-step-to-being-sorta.html

IN MAY WE ARE GARDENING GODS. This is the month where the fullness of spring meets the opening of summer, creating a moment in time where the garden in our heads matches reality. May is the ...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2010/05/may-days-garden-in-may.html

Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn. Sources from top left: s p1te; DS.JPG; wirednewyork & ennead architects; Poulin + Morris; Prospect Park Alliance. CONCEPTUAL ART IN BOROUGH OF TREES Article by H...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2014/04/darrel-morrisons-addition-to-brooklyn.html

"Primavera" Eugenio Gignous  "APRIL IS THE CRUELEST MONTH . . . " writes the poet . That line has confused me for years. Is it cruel? April is the springiest month, when elementary scho...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2014/03/april-is-cruelest-month.html

From left, a current day aerial photo of the site for Muscota Marsh Park; a graphic recreation of the site in ancient times; a 2012 designer’s rendering. Sources: Photo and illustration by M...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2014/03/muscota-marsh-park-lucid-view-of.html

IS THE NEW PERENNIAL MOVEMENT LOSING ITS INTEGRITY? OR WILL ITS EXPANSION REINVIGORATE IT ARTISTICALLY? This year on this blog, I have started to celebrate the idea and expression of contem...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-new-perennial-movement-exhausted-or.html

THE FIRST IN A FOUR-PART SERIES ON SEEING GARDEN DESIGN IN THE LIGHT OF WINTER Article by Harry Wade I'm delighted to introduce Harry Wade to Grounded Design. Harry and I started corre...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2014/02/off-season-visits-to-new-yorks-newest.html

This year, Grounded Design is celebrating the IDEA of contemporary naturalistic design, and its great diversity of expressions across the world. It is my contention that naturalistic planting de...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2014/02/piet-oudolf-fall-winter-spring-summer.html

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AMERICA’S MOST PROMISING PLANTING DESIGNER TAKES TIME TO STUDY THE WORLD’S LEADING DESIGNERS? Adam Woodruff is thinking about plants.  Woodruff, the St. Louis gar...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-sabbatical.html

WHAT TO EXPECT THIS YEAR ON GROUNDED DESIGN Tokachi Millenium Forest by Dan Pearson Studio; image by Syogo Oizumi/TMF It is the first of January, and like many of you, I am taking a few m...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-year-ahead.html

THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF DARREN HIGGINS The border serves as a buffer to the road in a part of the yard that was pointless as lawn. Photo by Darren Higgins We had such a warm response to Michael...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-garden-by-road.html

The duck blind in our border garden. Wouldn’t you know it: the one garden I designed that I'm sheepish to show even to my friends is the one that gets featured in The New York Times . Ah w...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2013/11/were-in-new-york-times.html

The next future plants? Or not quite garden-worthy? HOW GREAT PLANTSMEN USE SUPERIOR PLANT SELECTION TO ELEVATE THEIR DESIGNS  Let’s face it: it’s entirely possible to create an eleg...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2013/11/selecting-exceptional-plants.html

It is November, and for a few brief weeks in autumn, I enjoy my garden. Other than bulbs, there is little to plant. And my constant second-guessing about what to change can wait until late w...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-garden-cannot-be-designed.html

The question of how we compose ornamental plants in beds—particularly whether species are mixed together or in solid masses—is now moving to the excellent website ThinkingGardens . Last m...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2013/10/mingle-or-clump-debate-is-moving-to.html

WHAT IF THERE WAS NO LANDSCAPING . . . ONLY WILD PLANT COMMUNITIES?  If you have a freestanding house in America, you probably have a yard. And if you have a yard, you probably have a law...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2013/09/what-if-there-was-no-landscaping.html

IS INTERMINGLING REALLY MORE ECOLOGICAL? OR JUST THE STYLIZED LOOK OF ECOLOGY? This summer the Highline had its four year anniversary. Perhaps the greatest testament to its massive success ...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2013/08/intermingling-and-aesthetics-of-ecology.html

WHY LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS ARE GETTING BEYOND THE GRID. A spate of recent landscape architecture projects are loosening up the traditional orthogonal geometry that has dominated both traditio...

http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/2013/08/design-trend-collage.html