dig in

Tree vs. Architecture

2009-01-29T16:16:00.001-06:00

Secret Path

2009-01-29T16:11:00.002-06:00

Autumn in the Suburbs

2009-01-29T16:08:00.001-06:00

Details

2009-01-29T16:06:00.001-06:00

highrise

2009-01-29T16:04:00.002-06:00

before and after...

2008-06-24T10:02:00.002-05:00

Midwest Modern

2008-06-24T09:49:00.001-05:00

Proportion and scale...

2008-01-16T12:58:00.001-06:00

These design elements can make or break any landscape scheme. Relating house to landscape to client is a balancing act of great importance, but with a calm eye and innovative spirit, this grand goal is happily achievable. Who doesn't love a challenge, after all?

transformation

2008-01-16T12:48:00.001-06:00

Out with old......

....and in with the new!

Giving

2007-11-01T17:13:00.000-05:00

In the landscape world, we gardeners and designers seem to be a sort of professional giver...that is, giving our creativity, our passion, our energy, and our knowledge. Of course we are reimbursed for these gifts on a monetary level, but sometimes, when the designer-client relationship is a happy one, we are reimbursed with gratefulness and joy. And this is so much more about why I love what I do.

Well, I'm excited to report that I have a side project designed specifically with giving in mind...it's still in the works, but it's one that will help me--with your generosity--to donate more to my company's annual charitable contribution. With the help of a friend, I am excited to be offering Dirt organic soy candles in their Nitty Gritty Scent..."This herbal organic delight contains organic soil, ripe tomatoes, fresh Mediterranean sage and a hint of Malabar grass and celery seed, creating a unique combination down to the the nitty gritty dirt." Appropo, don't you think? I'll be selling each one for $35 with all proceeds going towards bolstering the monetary donation to the charity I choose. For those unaware, the last 3 years or so have seen my company supporting various local, grass roots, charitable organizations whose focus lies in land or natural resource preservation. Some of the recepients in the past have been Garfield Farm and Chicagoland Wilderness. This year's candidate is likely to be the Land Conservancy of Lake County.

If you're interested in getting involved with my big idea and you'd like to order a candle (the holidays are coming!!!), please send me an email and let me know how many you'd like. Shipping and postage is included in the price, and orders will go out at the beginning of December. It's an easy and effective way to get more involved! Thanks!

Framing

2007-10-25T11:53:00.000-05:00

What I do...

2007-04-08T12:03:00.000-05:00

I find inspiration every day in the natural world we live in: frost clinging to leaves in the pre-dawn haze; the bravery of tulips as they push through the cold spring soil to reach the warming sun. The natural cycle of birth-life-death as we experience our growing seasons. It takes vision and a great sensitivity to client and site to create gardens that are lasting compositions of light and shadow, color and texture. I believe that a thoughtfully designed garden can change the relationship our clients have with their home and landscape, and I strive to create living environments that are in harmony with the existing ecology of the landscape. Above all, the landscape scheme must meet the needs and expectations of the client while highlighting the beauty of the plants and the thoughtfulness of the design.

volcanic

2007-03-08T20:49:00.000-06:00

Visiting a place like Kaua'i, Hawai'i certainly puts things in perspective for those open enough to receive some world wisdom. The sheer magic of a place that exists because it bubbled and oozed up out of the ocean...at first barren and naked, then slowly receiving the components necessary for life of any kind. The first grain of soil, the first seed sprouting the first bit of green, the first insect which would ultimately feed the first bird...and so on. All the things that we take for granted everyday are amplified here, and so, more sacred. And yet surprisingly, an idea that would make the most sense anywhere--let alone on a chunk of land surrounded by thousands of miles of salty blue ocean--is new and controversial and even unknown. The idea of sustainability. If there is anywhere on the globe I've had a chance to visit which has made me cherish the earth beneath my feet, it is Hawai'i. Thankfully the people of these islands are cautiously trying to overcome their aversion to change...acting now so that future generations will see an island not overrun with landfills and polluted waters, but one where the incredible mountains, rivers and ocean wildlife will be protected and revered for what they are...ecologically and globally priceless.

Creation

2007-01-26T08:12:00.000-06:00

So much of design is about line and shape, mass and void, it can be easy to forget that the other components harmonizing with curve, angle, and tangent must also be deeply considered. Plants are beautiful and seductive by their very nature, so it is too easy to skew things the other direction as well: that is, designing around plants. So what's the answer, then, if each aspect depends so much on every other? A considerate designer gathers all their knowledge --be it of tree or stone, circle or square -- and bundles it into a kind of story. With skill, insight and imagination, we designers weave tales of beauty, transition, birth, death, and shadow in the landscape. We give those who are thoughtful enough to create a garden endless possibilities to be inspired by the magic of nature and light and growth.

sweetness

2006-12-12T21:07:00.000-06:00

present

2006-11-08T10:39:00.000-06:00

This evening I'm attending a lecture at the Chicago Botanic Garden entitled Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime. Given the polarizing nature of politics in general, and certainly now when things are so uncertain around the world, I can't think of a topic more prescient to the landscape industry today. How lucky are we American designers and gardeners to be members of our world community? We have the divine luxury of seeing all the strife in the world and trying to weave a beautiful web from tangled strands of social consciousness. Gardens are defiant in many ways: the very essence of creating a garden means one is defying (or attempting to defy!) nature and taming the wild landscapes around us...urban or agrestic. But especially now, creating gardens means not giving in to the melancholy that can easily grip us in the midst of so much unrest, so much aggression and deceit, so much unnecessary killing and dying. I can't remember who, but someone once said, "Who plants a garden plants hope." I like very much being in a position of such selfless giving, as one who shares the love of life and the green, living things in it. To find out how you can plant hope, visit http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/index.php

harvest

2006-10-31T08:25:00.000-06:00

falling

2006-10-23T15:47:00.000-05:00

landscape II

2006-10-06T15:11:00.000-05:00

landscape I

2006-10-05T08:34:00.000-05:00

Our internal image of landscape travels with us wherever we go: the feelings evoked by places and memories we've gathered along our life's journey...these are the things that shape our view of the world. How we see beauty, where we find it: all is connected via the neuronal pathways etched early in our developing minds. For some, wild and wide open spaces equal thoughts and feelings of freedom and possibility. Others embrace the frenetic fields of city spread, the spinning energy feeding into everday goings and doings. Regardless of the source, landscape always reflects back at us, fueling our creativity, driving our momentum.

high

2006-10-03T08:15:00.000-05:00

Life has been exciting and full lately: from learning how to shimmy up a tree (41 vertical feet so far and counting!) to exploring new projects and new partnerships with friends and colleagues. I'm thrilled by it all! Perhaps part of me embracing life at the moment comes from my tendency to embrace change...perhaps even seeking it out sometimes. I make a living out of creating change in fact: as a designer, I'm transforming the land into any number of things: a destination, a refuge, a place for joy and delight. Whatever fantasy a person seeks, that's what I try to achieve with line and shape, plant and flower. We all search for that perfect balance of what we see in our mind and what we can create in our living environment. Sometimes reaching that equilibrium means taking some initial wobbly steps. Sometimes failure slows you down. Ultimately , though, growth comes in again like spring: warmly anticipated, sweet, and full of hope.

Inspiration

2006-08-04T07:44:00.000-05:00

green screen

2006-07-25T19:58:00.000-05:00

suburban prairie

2006-07-25T09:45:00.000-05:00

blue + green

2006-07-14T07:32:00.000-05:00

certified

2006-06-26T14:56:00.000-05:00

After years of being at the top of my to-do list, here's an item I can now proudly check off: I successfully passed the International Society of Arboriculture's certification exam last month. So what does this mean anyway? Well, from ISA's standpoint it means that, "A professional arborist has a minimum of three years experience in some aspect of tree care and has passed an exam developed by an international panel of experts. The exam extensively covers every aspect of tree care and the individual must have an acceptable level of knowledge in all areas of arboriculture." On a more day-to-day level, this means that all the seminars and classes I've been haunting over the years, along with the gurus I've been keenly observing(hi Guy!)are now formally acknowledged. Why would this matter to a garden designer? For one thing, it makes me all the more capable of recommending educated solutions to landscape problems. It also makes me a better designer because I now know--quite intimately, in fact--the numerous facets of tree care and proper tree selection. Believe it or not, there are countless factors that influence a designer's choices in every single corner of the landscape design process...understanding these giants in our landscape is just one more piece of the puzzle solved.

camouflage

2006-06-26T12:24:00.000-05:00

quiet

2006-06-04T20:29:00.000-05:00

urban greening

2006-06-03T20:27:00.000-05:00

fresh

2006-05-19T07:04:00.000-05:00

Buds have shed their papery scales to reveal spring's long promise: leaves and blooms!
Everything looks lush and vibrant--thanks largely to our higher than usual rainfall--and the warming sun turns paved sidewalks into radiators for passing feet. Everything about spring feels good: blue skies seem bluer now that our winter blahs are leaving town; springsun warms inside and out this time of year...too soon for a sunburn we think! All this new green gives our city-weary hearts a lift of hope, and we are filled again with the excitement of possibility.

bloom

2006-04-11T08:48:00.000-05:00

form

2006-04-09T12:54:00.000-05:00

Texture

2006-04-06T17:32:00.000-05:00

classic

2006-03-23T06:53:00.000-06:00

modern

2006-03-22T08:08:00.000-06:00

When new clients ask who I am and what I do, I always have to pause and think. I'm a big believer in the idea that we are more than just what we do for a living, even if it is something we're intensely passionate about. I also have a hard time putting other people in 'boxes', and that includes myself as well. So on a basic level, I'm a designer and a gardener.
But one could also say I'm a land artist, a naturalist, a modernist, a photographer, a problem solver...you get the idea. As a designer, it is my responsibility to create responsible and conscious spaces that echo the client's vision and fantasies; but as designers we are also contorting reality: gardens are really another kind of visual theatre. What makes these endeavors successful on any level is that I am pulling not just from my experience in my industry, but from history, art, architecture, nature, the eco movement, etc. All these elements shape the gardens I design, and whether modern or classic in style, inspiration is recycled through drafting paper and pencil.

before and after II

2006-03-18T07:53:00.000-06:00

before and after

2006-03-14T07:45:00.000-06:00

transition

2006-03-07T07:36:00.000-06:00

origins

2006-03-06T08:34:00.000-06:00

far

2006-03-01T10:21:00.002-06:00

My recent last getaway before the big spring push was to Colorado: amazing land of contrasts and endless sky.
The arid landscape there is a challenge for those in the landscape industry, where the driving factor behind design is resource conservation: water-land-energy. But these limiting factors often result in studies of striking simplicity: massed plantings of drought-tolerant grasses, junipers, and the native Pinus aristata.

for Joerg

2006-02-22T08:15:00.001-06:00

I think it's important to honor those people in one's life who have impact--impact of any kind--on the way we see the world. Our vision is something we share with the environments we inhabit everyday: with friends, family, clients. I think it's seldom--if ever--the case that we are shaped and that we evolve without any outside push. We are inspired. We are awed. Sometimes we are afraid. But all of it seeps into all of our cracks and crannies of consciousness and so it is that we are who we are. There exists only the responsibilty for acknowledgement.

warmer

2006-02-20T08:16:00.000-06:00

colder

2006-02-19T09:51:00.001-06:00

balance

2006-02-18T10:46:00.001-06:00

It's always a challenge: finding the right symmetry of work-life, business and pleasure. This week was an especially interesting adventure in that classic struggle, but the change of pace was certainly welcome. Along with several other local and long-distance colleagues and friends, I attended a design seminar given by UK design gurus Robin Williams and Rob Templar Williams.
What really struck me about this event was that all of the participants-every single one-had a completely different and original solution to the design dilemmas presented in the case study. It was interesting to have a first-hand view of the various styles and tastes of other professionals practicing in the field today: we are all working within the same contexts of site-client-design-plants, but as with anything, our take on the game varies according to our vision, our imagination, our motivation. While I made it my goal to define the heart of the landscape, others took a more pragmatic approach and sought to pull and push design elements to new heights. Still, I believe it's the intensity of the challenge in a class like this that is the gift: where it takes you, what you gain. The design itself is secondary.

Dream Gardens

2006-02-09T11:50:00.000-06:00

Alright, mark your calendars. In just a few weeks, on March 2, I will be teaching a class at the Chicago Botanic Garden on the inspired landscapes of Piet (pronounced Pete) Oudolf. If his name hasn't yet popped up on your radar, I hope you'll take a minute to check out some of the photos of his work that I shot at Millenium Park's Lurie Garden in downtown Chicago. One of the things that sets Piet apart from other designers working today is his constant striving for a naturally uncontrived balance of texture + color in the garden. And he does great gardens: they hook into mind-body-soul, fulfilling our human need of beauty, rhythm, and harmony. Sometimes beauty comes in the form of process in a garden: birth-life-death, as plants push up in spring, wave their leaves and blooms in summer, and stand stoic and silent in the winter. In short, he expects the visitors of his designed spaces to have interactive connections to his work, instead of a purely visual one. Piet has a number of really wonderful books, including his newest, a collaboration with Noel Kingsbury. Time for a trip to the library!

summer days

2006-02-08T14:03:00.000-06:00

Returned

2006-02-07T10:36:00.000-06:00

Back home after a wonderful week of work at Starhill Forest. New chainsaw challenges were met head on!
Also on the agenda this time was a sidetrip to Southern Illinois where the Sprinfield chapter of the Illinois Native Plant Society hosted a fieldtrip to Horseshoe Lake Nature Preserve. We were also able to visit Ferne Clyffe State Park, Big Cypress Natural Area, Heron Pond, and Blackpowder Hollow. Along the way we met some amazing trees...even some state champions!
We were also fortunate to be able to spend some time with the father of the natural areas movement, Mr. John Schwegman. Thanks to his work with others, the richly diverse natural areas of Illinois were mapped , the effects of which revolutionized conservancy efforts across the state and country.

magic

2006-01-30T07:53:00.000-06:00

I captured this image at an amazing garden in Somerset, England called Hestercombe. I visited in September, when the cool damp mornings did much for great mysterious misty photos. I think the magic and mystery of many of the gardens that I visited on that trip is a good part of what is lacking here in the States. There are so many wonderful opportunities for designers today to really beef up the landscape with innovative plants, materials, and design ideas, but many in the industry are more interested in the bottom line than with their responsibility to innovate. Maybe this is why I remain a small company--perhaps it's more fitting to say because of this I am a small company. I am thrilled to be able to work intimately with clients--as well as with my contractors and suppliers. I can't imagine being in the business without being able to create that connection: client-design-grower-supplier-garden. None of us in the green industry truly works alone: we are a web of creative, conscious folks working towards a rather noble goal: beauty.

day of rest

2006-01-29T20:54:00.000-06:00

in bloom

2006-01-28T06:53:00.000-06:00

Have you thought about starting seeds for planting out in summer? Now's the time to plan and order so that you can start growing in time for spring! Don't be afraid of seeds... sometimes you can stick them right in the pot along with nursery grown plants and a few weeks later you've got wee little sprouts doing their thing. A good one to try is scarlet runner bean. Super easy to grow and very forgiving. For another easy pot o' green, try wheat grass...good for your kitties to nibble! You can also plant up a strawberry pot with herb seeds and watch for things to start sending up their fragrant first sets of leaves.

Looking back while looking ahead

2006-01-27T09:06:00.000-06:00

After speaking with colleagues during the past couple weeks, I've discovered I'm not alone: we're all feeling a bit jumpy. The unseasonably warm weather is kicking our biological clocks into 'prep' mode for the coming spring...should we be starting spring cleanups even though it's only January? Should we start pre-booking spring and summer annuals? Will we be able to get all the dormant pruning that we had planned done before clients start calling with their wish lists? I've been trying to keep things at an even pace, despite my body's instinct to want to shift into high gear. I have been thinking about the landscapes I've had the wonderful opportunity to be a part of, and what changes or additions I'll be making come spring. It's also a great time to look over and critique projects that were a challenge and remember what worked well. I hope you'll enjoy seeing some of the fun projects I've worked on in the past year.

footprints

2006-01-26T01:08:00.000-06:00

It's a busy time of year, believe it or not. People not in the landscape industry always ask, "What do you do in the winter?" Plenty! For starters, I can get to the 101 things I can't even think about the other 8 months of the growing season (plus the 'getting ready for the growing season' season, as well as the 'put the season to bed' season.) This time of year I'm finalizing designs for the spring and meeting with clients, making sure that everything's set for the whirlwind we call spring. I've also started teaching a bit more: my first class at CBG is coming this March! I've also got another class co-taught with Julie Siegel at Northwind Perennial Farm this August. Hope to see you at one or both of these events!

You'll also see me at the Midwest Ecological Landscape Association's (MELA for short)Annual Conference: it's a great place for those in the landscape industry as well as others concerned about the future of our landscapes to come and hear all about 'getting green greener'.

A Beginning

2006-01-25T09:48:00.000-06:00

I'm glad you're here and hope you'll stop back often to see what's new with Dig In. It's an exciting time as I continue with my internship outside Springfield, IL at Starhill Forest Arboretum located in Petersburg, IL. My next commute downstate happens early next week, and will see me continue with my proficiency tests in chainsaw use, as well as a sightseeing tour of WAY downstate: southern Illinois' Horsehoe Lake. There our little team of explorers, including my chainsaw mentor Guy Sternberg, will explore the varied landscape that is this part of Southern IL...swampy bottomlands as well as drier upland flats. I hope to include some photos of the wonderful trees that populate the area, including Taxodium and Nyssa Stay tuned!

Where's winter...

2006-01-25T09:44:00.000-06:00

2006-01-24T15:27:00.000-06:00

2006-01-24T15:14:00.000-06:00

greetings!

2006-01-24T15:10:00.000-06:00

trying to figure this out...

First Contact

2006-01-24T15:03:00.000-06:00

This just in! My brand new blogsite to share the work of Dig In with you. More later...