Friday, May 15, 2009

Garden Contrasts - A Garden Installation


























Garden Contrasts


Design: OVSLA





Cornerstone Sonoma's garden
creators make up an international roster of eminent landscape architects and designers, while the gallery-style gardens express ideas from whimsical to lyrical to more weighty concerns.

In September of 2006, Cornerstone joined with the Garden Conservancy to host a series of design talks, resulting in a lively discourse on the art of the garden.


A new garden designed by the firm of Oehme, van Sweden & Associates premiered in conjunction with the seminar.  James van Sweden, an influential figure associated with the New American Garden style, and partner Sheila Brady follow a philosophy that references natural meadows, an ecologically minded, low- maintenance approach, and the skillful uniting of informal plantings within a refined hardscape.

The OVSLA design for Cornerstone achieves a lovely clarity in its division of space. Abetted by a diagonal arrangement of 'Tuscan Blue' rosemary, forming a long hedge, the fragrant shrubbery effectively bisects the garden's rectangular layout. Along the boundary to the rear of the hedge, the garden yields to a gathering of olive trees, and plantings of herbaceous perennials that pay homage to the shifting seasons.

In describing the concept, Brady pointed out the design's interplay with geometries: The rectangle... strongly contrasted with the diagonal... and a circular overlay, resulting in a play of light and shade. 

Meander along the pathway and your focus turns from the sculpted multi-stems of the olives, to a vibrant juxtaposition: Within a monolithic field of grasses - punctuated by California poppies - a massing of winter-flowering Agave attenuata emerges in a wedge-shaped, sunny corner. The demonstrative succulent rosettes of the agaves offset the lacy leaves of perennials such as ferns and columbines, growing along the sheltered area behind the trees.

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14 comments:

  1. nice, it seems almost abandoned land. if those at the back are olive trees, it could be my granpa old place with extra funny cactus!

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  2. I really need to go there some time.

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  3. Really cool shots of the agaves and grasses!

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  4. This is wonderful...using different sized agave is a brilliant touch (and smart too...so they won't all bloom and die at the same time!) Gorgeous and inspirational. Field trip...

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  5. I almost like it in an alien sort of way.

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  6. What an interesting and unexpected combination. I wonder how long before we see it at RHS shows in UK

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  7. I like the contrast of the Stipa grasses and the Agave...quick striking!

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  8. The Agave with the grasses has a very nice effect!

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  9. I'm with Janet and sweet bay, the agave mixed with grasses is wonderful.

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  10. Love those yucca (if that's what they are) no matter who they're partnered with!

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  11. Thanks for this glimpse of the new garden. This looks like a new direction for Oehme & Van Sweden. Not entirely new, but a new plant pallete and more sculptural forms (the agaves in particular).

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  12. Ah, the misty grasses and the sharply angular agave! Surprising and effective. I'd be interested in seeing more examples of the design geometries you mention.

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  13. Of these, I think this is the one that's easiest to like at first glance. The agave and feather grass is nice in the photos, but I'm sure even more impressive when the wind moves the grasses while the agaves stay in place.

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  14. Beautiful inspiring pictures with sufficient information on gardens. I appreciate very much.

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