Posts Tagged ‘1001 gardens you must see before you die’

“Gar­den of Con­trasts” by James van Swe­den, Oehme van Swe­den and Asso­ciates, Wash­ing­ton, DC

Sit­u­ated along the main gate­way between Sonoma Val­ley and Napa Val­ley, The Gar­dens at Cor­ner­stone Sonoma are a series of walk-​through gar­den vignettes show­cas­ing new and inno­v­a­tive designs from the world’s finest land­scape archi­tects and design­ers. When com­mis­sioned, these artists were given the free­dom to cre­ate any­thing from tra­di­tional gar­dens to mod­ern, con­cep­tual installations. According to 1001 Gar­dens You Must See Before You Die, Cor­ner­stone has twenty instal­la­tions by some of the world’s most well-​respected gar­den design­ers and land­scape archi­tects. Some of the gar­dens are in place for only a sea­son, oth­ers for longer. This com­bi­na­tion pro­vides Cor­ner­stone with a sense of per­ma­nency while con­stantly pro­vid­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for gar­den design­ers and gardeners.

I vis­ited in Jan­u­ary when the gar­dens were not at their best, but I still saw some won­der­ful instal­la­tions. Founded in 2004 by Chris Hougie, and mod­eled after the Chau­mont Gar­den Fes­ti­val, this com­plex offers many ideas to the home gar­dener. If I lived nearby I would go every season.

www​.cor​ner​stone​gar​dens​.com

For Oehme van Swe­den Asso­ciates go to www​.ovsla​.com, and the Chau­mont Gar­den Fes­ti­val (in French) go to www​.domaine​-chau​mont​.fr/​i​n​d​e​x​.​php

On the Web:

Note: my last post, Home groan toma­toes, listed tomato events for the next 4 weeks!

Thurs­day, March 17: Book sign­ing for From Seed to Skil­let by Jimmy Williams and Susan Heeger, Pot­ted Store on Los Feliz in Atwa­ter Vil­lage: (323) 665‑3801, www​.pot​ted​store​.com

Sat­ur­day, March 19:

• Free lec­ture at the Los Ange­les Arbore­tum spon­sored by the Arbore­tum and the Theodore Payne Foun­da­tion: The Amaz­ing Life of Bees, Wasps and Ants with ento­mol­o­gist Eric Gris­sell, 6:30, free/www.theodorepayne.org, www​.arbore​tum​.org
• Sat­ur­day and Sun­day: Cherry Blos­som Fes­ti­val at Des­canso Gar­dens, free with admis­sion, www​.des​canso​.org

1001 Gar­dens is a book to die for!

.….YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE. That’s the title of a book edited by Rae Spencer-​Jones that I had to have when I spot­ted it at the Hunt­ing­ton Gar­dens gift shop (www​.Hunt​ing​ton​.org/). Weigh­ing in at about 2 pounds and with 960 pho­tos and 800+ pho­tos, this is not a take-​along book. It really is intended for arm­chair trav­el­ing (to actu­ally visit a listed gar­den you will evi­dently need to do some dig­ging on hours, direc­tions, etc.) I like it because there may be a gar­den not far afield to visit that the reader is not aware of. The for­mat lists design­ers, own­ers, gar­den style, size, cli­mate, loca­tion and a brief descrip­tion. List­ings are eclec­tic, on every con­ti­nent, with a heavy con­cen­tra­tion on the British Isles.

1001 GARDENS YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE, Pub­lished in Jan­u­ary 2007 by Barron’s Edu­ca­tional Series Inc.