Tuesday, January 28, 2014

My new Oudolf/Kingsbury inspired Hellstrip

Yes, inspiration comes less frequently in my middle to late age. However, after reading 'Planting a New Perspective" by Noel Kingsbury and Piet Outdolf , I've been "blown up" with inspiration. The information in this book is very informative for those who have wanted more conceptual information on the "New Perennial Movement". I'm interested to see how all this pans out. I'm sure most of you have read reviews about this book as well as seen many Oudolfs/Kingsbury designed gardens so I won't bore you with more details.
This inspiration has powered me enough to design the unfinished west side hell strip which currently is mostly a Fescue lawn area, a few perennials and last but not least a large Silver Maple (which the wood borers are devouring and will be removed). I got the old canary tracing paper out (yellow dog) and began to sketch over the CAD created base plan. So much fun, it brought back old memories from college and my early professional career, installations during the day and designs at night.
View looking West

View looking East, below.


As you can see soil preparation has began with gravely soil, compost and native fill soil added from all my unfinished garden projects. Yes, I will admit my propensity to start many projects at once, it's just that when you start one project details arise which create new projects. Evidently my perfectionism and artistic mind leads me to many different avenues (rabbit holes)
These are photos of my sketches of the planting plan: first one is the planting plan

Second one is a rendering of flower and foliage color:
So now the next step is to scour the internet for plants and transplant many from existing inventory on hand. Looks like a busy time ahead, hope to have it completed by my 60th birthday this August. Shalom.