Seeing The Light

Lighting the landscape is not my forte.  Everyone does a better job of it than I.  Fortunately for me, the light lingers in the summer.  All it takes for Buck to abandon the yard is the warning buzz from one mosquito-he is through with the garden once it gets dark.  When I am working the landscape season, I am up between 4:30 and 5 am.  This means I am often in bed by dark.  Landscape lighting is not a big priority for me. I am happy with the daily dose of natural light, the sun and shade created by plants.  I do have landscape lighting on the driveway-this for safety and security.  Landscape light subtly washes the front of the house.  I like how it looks when I drive by on my way to work before dawn.  But the winter landscape asks for more light.   If it isn’t dark out, it is dark grey out.         

 Though I go out every night after work with the dogs, I am not out there long.  Given how mild our winter has been, I am out with them longer than usual-but a half hour at most.  By that time, it is dark, or well on its way to being dark. The evergreens in my garden would be beautiful from inside, if lit for the winter season.  I do have 2 containers on the drive ablaze with light.  Rob fixes them for me in December-I keep those pots lit until well into March.  They are beautifully cheery.  I have a cut Christmas tree strung with enough gold and white lights to softly illuminate the entire side garden-I run those lights all winter too.   

The process of cleaning and painting the walls of several rooms in the shop has put lighting on my mind again. Landscape spaces are notable for lots of reasons, just one of which is their lack of a ceiling, or roof.  Natural light falls illuminates every landscape space-unless one chooses to plant a tree, or build a pavilion, pergola, poolhouse or other cover.  These rooms in the shop have little in the way of natural light.  The shop ceilings range from 12 to 18 feet tall- this part helps to make a description of how an object might look in a large outdoor space.    Rob cannot, and does not try to light the space as if the sun were shining.  He lights objects.  I am seeing that a lighted object in a dark room pops; every detail reads clearly and dramatically.   

Good landscape lighting can features a specimen tree, or illuminate a walk. One of the great pleasures of a shaded spot is that clearing with its pool of light on the ground.  An object or painting that is spot lighted garners attention.  A dimly lit corner is cozy. Oblique lighting casts long shadows in an interior space.  Whether indoors or out, the mix of dark and light is visually exciting.        

I know that skillful lighting can so enhance the experience of a landscape.  But the experience of these dark interior spaces has unexpectedly provoked a lot more thought about light as a design element.  Were you to ask me what is of utmost importance to me at the shop, I would of course say an experience of great service rendered in a personal and knowledgeable way comes first.  We meet people,  learn their names, we take and file pictures, we remember the kids, the events, and the gardens that go with those names.  A passion for gardening always comes with a name and an individual set of circumstances.  The vetting, purchase, and availability of beautiful objects would be second-whether that object is a fine antique or a fine looking fiber pot matters not.  Great design is great design.  Providing a beautiful and thought provoking experience-this would be next.    

The shop does have some natural light, via our greenhouse roof, and a small skylight.  How we arrange and display things in the shop revolves around creating relationships between shapes, sizes, styles, textures, and color.  That arrangement is not finished until it is lighted.        

I am experiencing my own shop in a different way right now, given some choices about paint.  None of the spaces pictured are finished.  They have some major elements set, and await the arrival of our purchases for spring.  Once the room is arranged, Rob will light them.  We will be another month, getting there.  But in the meantime, I am looking at my own dimly lit winter garden as an opportunity to experiment with creating a better winter landscape experience.    

A little less gloom, and a little more glow sounds good.

Posted on: January 27, 2012 1 Comment
Filed Under: Detroit Garden Works, Holiday, Landscape Design Tagged With: ,

Shop Light, Shop Bright

Today was one of my most favorite days of the gardening year.  I never know what day that will be-that is part of the excitement of the event.  What event?  My crews get most of the last of the landscaping work, and the winter and holiday pots finished.  One moment later, they swarm the shop, intent on getting our holiday and winter display out front up and running.  The 6 pots in front of the shop have had their centerpieces of pussy willow since before Thanksgiving.  I have had lots of time to think over a plan for the holidays.  Time has not particularly helped me this year-Icould not figure out what I wanted to do.   But I knew I needed lights-and lots of them. So why not just get started with that?

The winter is a tough season for any northern born and passionate gardener.  How I might survive the months of the grey freeze is of great interest to me.  I would much rather create a hospitable place where I can live, than wring my hands, and spread discontent. Each of my 6 pots got their own nest of lights.  We twist and zip tie 4 or 5 strands of lights of different sizes, and colors.  White, red and lime is this year’s scheme.  This is not an entirely simple thing-we plan the spacing so each 45 foot garland has lights equally dispersed along its length. 

This giant wreath based on many stems of huck-I have owned it at least 8 years.  Dusty,wobbly and in need of some some restoration work,  I got it out of storage a few weeks ago; it would be perfect for this year’s field and weed holiday theme.   I added many more twigs;  I reglued every stem all around.  Most of what existed from some 8 years ago was sound.  The staying power of weeds is well known to every gardener.  Rob  is, and has been the driving force behind this year’s holiday.  His trips into the fields to collect dead branches and weeds have made for a season with focus, purpose, and structure.  This weedy wreath would be perfect.        

A big part of the window box display in front of the shop-the dried remains of asparagus.  The cultivation of asparagus-I have read lots about this.  But only from Rob have I learned about the dry stems of asparagus-how their wiry skeletal branches might play a part in the winter season. The dead stems are amazingly persistent.

Once I get my act together on a plan, my crews make quick work of it.  The window boxes got green, and had a bed of c-9 and c-7 lights installed in the center.  Lucio was in charge of sticking the asparagus branches between the light string wires. 

Bamboo stakes at the corners of the pots form an armature around which to wind the lights. 

This gold and green sinamay does several things.  It provides a soft transition between the geometrically placed willow stems, and the hard structure that is the light nest.  The shimmery polyester threads will amplify the light coming from the garlands.   

Multiple pots with lots of lights draws a lot of power; the shop has 2 20 amp circuits specifically installed for holiday lighting. 

We have enough lights in the pots to create a daytime glow.  Michigan is well known for its cloudy winter days-this day is no exception.

Dusk arrives 4:30 in the afternoon this time of year; we have an answer to that. 

If you have not put lights outside for the holiday and winter yet, one light garland draped in the branches of the tree will do you, and your neighbors, a world of good.

Some holiday lighting asks for a well placed spotlight.  Lots of lights can throw unlighted decor deep into shadow.  Our wreath would not be visible at night, save for a pair of spotlights. 

The window boxes now provide warm companionship to Rob’s pot o fire at the end of the driveway.  Only one more detail remains to be done-can you spot what or where it will be it is?    

Do try this at home.  It will warm you up.

Posted on: December 14, 2011 6 Comments
Filed Under: Detroit Garden Works, Holiday, Landscape Design Tagged With: , ,

Light Up That Night

My garden is poised to take a three month sabbatical – Bon Voyage, dear garden.  This state of affairs is sad enough, but there is more.  Michigan has the dubious distinction of being one of the cloudiest, greyest, gloomiest and darkest states in the union.  We rank right up there on that list of most consecutive sunless days.  A sunny day in my winter is cause for celebration, but I had better be quick about enjoying it.  Daylight gets off to a slow start, and gives up early.  At 4pm, it will be dark.  It will still be dark at 7am. I have no plans to live on that schedule.  I do have plans to light up that night.  This garden bench in the shop greenhouse looks cheery and inviting draped with a light garland.  Light garland?  Multiple strings of holiday lights in various sizes and colors twisted and zip tied together makes for a brilliantly lit garland that can be swagged in a favorite tree, or over a door or arbor.       

 

For whatever reason, I love a flocked tree.  Years ago, there was a place down river from me that would flock any tree in any color, for 35.00. Apparently they still offer this service-you need to get a quote.  Courtesy of our client and friend Brandon, the Harry Pinter Greenhouse at 6830 Rawsonville Road in Belleville still offers this service, on real or artificial trees.  1-734-482-2776.   A client who was expecting a baby girl December 23 one got a pink flocked tree, loaded with pink glass ornament from us.  It was loads of fun-truly.   I like how the holiday season has the potential to value expression over good taste and design.  I think thats’s fine.  There are beautifully constructed artificial trees that come loaded with the flock.  At night, the tree lights play off of and compound those white branches beautifully.  This tree is decorated in small chickadee shaped birds with sparkling white feathers, white moire glass and clear glass ornaments.  In the daytime, a flock of long sleek partridges in their typical black, brown and grey feathers take a bigger visual role.  

By this time, I am sure it is clear that I enjoy the holiday season. Why wouldn’t I?  It is a great antidote for that big dark.  The greenhouse at night, lit with holiday lighting, is a completely different visual experience than the daytime look. No other season, indoors or out, looks quite like this.      


Candlelight is always a romantic and warm accompaniement to an event.  Candles, that civilized version of burning logs in a galvanized bucket, can create a friendly and congenial atmosphere.  It is amazing how a collection of votive candles can banish the dark.  Be generous with the numbers-everyone will appreciate that.

 We have little artificial lighting in the greenhouse, as most of the year we get light at no charge from the sky.  The sun is no longer directly overhead, so that space can be surprisingly dark on a cloudy day.  In the evening, it can be difficult to navigate.  For an evening event, we are lavish with the light.  Votive candles deliver a lot of light; their small space makes it easy to mass them, or tuck them in smaller spaces.  Candle light makes everyone look good-that is a happy byproduct of this kindly light.

The landscape gets the same attention to lighting as the indoors, only on a bigger scale.  Every year Rob creates lighting for the winter landscape that is simple to install, and dramatic in its impact.  I for one will not be climbing in my trees, to string holiday lights on the branches.  I value something that is simple to install, and beautiful to look at.  This year, per Rob’s design,  we fabricated channeled steel rings in three sizes, and filled the channels with brown corded holiday lights.  Hung in a tree or window, from a pergola or arbor, these rings of light are beautiful.  The largest of the rings makes a very dramatic statement. 

He took that circle of light idea, and took it a step further for the pots on the shop pillars.  Simple rod steel spheres were wound in the round with a combination of garland lights, ands pearl lights.  Garland lights have bulbs spaced very close together-the effect is more light, with less wire.  Pearl lights are just how they sound-these small spheres look just like pearls.

The tour de force of his winter lighting creations has to be this arrangement in an antique cast iron trough we have situated at the entrance to the shop.  Rob covered the soil surface with translucent C-9 and C-7 white light strings.  He then set a few stems of cut “tree of heaven” branches, and filled in between the wires with the dry remains of some unknown dried weed from a neighboring field.  

For all the world, Rob’s pot looks like it is on fire.  The most modest of materials are dressed to the nines for the winter season. 

The 6 pots out front-they have a beginning.  Single sterms of red bud pussy willow have been zip-tied tightly, and all around a plant climber that holds up my asparagus in the summer.  A single globe of light sits at ground level inside.  The globe by the way, is a lightbulb frequently used in bathroom light fixtures-of course Rob dreamed up this part.  That globe of light illuminates those branches.

What will I do now?  I am not sure.  I have the finishing on the pots, the windowboxes, the windows, and the front door to consider.  It is good to have a holiday/winter project underway.

Posted on: November 13, 2011 3 Comments
Filed Under: Detroit Garden Works, Holiday Tagged With: , ,

Night Light

Rob has been putting in some very long days.  He doesn’t quit until the daylight is gone.  He sent me an entire group of pictures about his 9 o’clock dinner hour.  Rural France is not in any way lit like my neighborhood at night.  The light is intense, but just every so often.  The dark is punctuated by the occasional light.  I cannot imagine having dinner outdoors only inches from the road.  Public American landscapes are all about medians, curbs, and most importantly, big spaces.  Big segregated spaces.  Rural French landscapes are about a very close relationship between travel, commerce, farming, neighborhood, and the natural landscape.  It is a small country.  Dinner on the edge of the road-a unique experience.         

 The lamp illuminating the striped tablecloths-just enough light to make the space cozy.  I have mixed feelings about landscape lighting.  Lighting for safety’s sake is a given.  Stairs, doorways and sidewalks are spaces that get used regularly at night need to be well lit.  Lighting the landscape is so easy to over do. The best light-natural light. Sunny, overcast, early late, stormy-natural light is much about climate and weather.  What comes next is about artifice.  How much artifice is too much, and how much is just right?       

Up lighting gives every element of the landscape a theatrical look-as in the the drawings and paintings Degas did of dancers in the theatre.  Down lighting, expertly done, believably replicates the the light of the moon.  In this picture, all of ther light is coming from the top down, or from the side.  Up lit trees have a very theatrical and unnatural look to them.  I light my pumkins in my pots at Halloween-it gives them an extra measure of holiday creepiness.  At the Christmas holiday, I pull out all the lighting stops.  We have more dark than light, and our natural light is likely to be about grey and overcast.  

Rob’s pictures are provocative.  Perhaps uneven lighting creates an exciting atmosphere.  Very bright street lighting is about providing safe passage, but has that carnival, rather than theatrical look to it.  Black shapes, and long shadows are visually striking. The CFL’s-or compact flourescents are cool to the point of being cold.  The CFL’s,  in combination with incandescent lighting-the French are doing such innovative work with combining the two.     

Artificial light is not one bit like the light from the sun.  This is not to say that one source of light is better than another.  Just different.  This lit doorway has a lonely but starkly beautiful look.  This is a landscape experience of a different sort.  Rob has a big interest in lighting.  I am sure I will see the results of this evening in France somewhere is his winter and holiday lighting schemes.   Rob’s late evening in France was as much about the light as the place.  The deserted streets in the evening is much different than in my neighborhood, where there is activity almost all night long.  Every season I vow to spend more time thinking about how a landscape can be beautifully lit.  This is not to say I do not consider the lighting-I have a contractor whose point of view and skill I really like.     

The warm light illuminating this building comes from within.  The green walls appear all the more blue, given the compact fourescent light from the street. The green walls, blue shutters, and orange light-vivid.

This is the mayor’s office.  The warm yellow orange light from the interior spilling out into the street is comforting.  The contrast of light and dark is graphic and moody. 

The sign designating the Rue Pietonneire is still visible, even in low light at the end of the day.  Haunting, this.

Posted on: September 9, 2011 1 Comment
Filed Under: Good Design, Landscape Design Tagged With: