Best Garden Blog in Arizona?

Well, I'm amazed. Designing in the Desert has been nominated for the 2009 Blotanical Award of Best Garden Blog in Arizona. I'm honored and amazed. Thank you all so much, who voted so far. I've been working so much, I wasn't even aware of the awards or my nomination until another blogger sent me a congratulatory "tweet" this afternoon.

Which brings me to another point, the competition.... I don't have a chance.

Mo at Green Desert and Aiyana at Water When Dry both have excellent blogs. I enjoy reading them before any others and highly recommend them to you. They both have been much more faithful posters and great about sharing their lives and garden interests with us then I have been. ...And they both have better cameras, but I digress.

The other two, A Garden in the Desert and The Desperate Gardeners are both fairly strict garden blogs of the edible variety and where I like to visit when I'm in the mood for Az veggie garden info.

Never the less, I am fairly competitive. Since I don't have a chance at winning this thing straight up, I'm going to call on my enormous networking and Web 2.0 clan to create a landslide of votes and bury those two wonderful gals under tons of peat.
Four days left to buy votes.... Good luck Ladies! Bwa ha ha ha ha!

1st Annual Flower & Garden Show

Last weekend was the 1st Annual Southwest Flower and Garden Show. It was beautiful early Saturday morning when I arrived, the Sweet Acacia trees blooming and the parking lot empty so I could get a good spot. Left click the pictures to enlarge.

I usually avoid Home & Garden shows. I’ve never been a very aggressive marketer or salesperson and I think it helps at home shows. But, this show was to be different. This was to be the beginning of a real Flower & Garden show in Phoenix. I was hopeful. A few others were too. The Arizona Nursery Association teamed up with the Arizona Chapter of the ASLA to judge a container garden contest. A couple of nurseries had some very beautiful displays of flowering plants, Gardener’s Eden and one of my favs, Desert Gardens Nursery. The Phoenix Art Museum had an exhibit, too. Our group, the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, Arizona Chapter, planned to provide some simple Landscape Design consultations on Saturday morning and Sunday.

I arrived early Saturday because I also wanted to take some pictures. Here is our APLD area. The lavender, Bush Morning Glory and Blue Hibiscus got a lot of attention all day.

I’m glad we had a place to sit during the consultations. Some people brought pictures, others brought sketches, some people just asked pointed questions. The consultations were fun, but not physically being in the yard was difficult for me.

Desert Gardens Nursery put together a very nice display. Two waterfalls and some very interesting plants.

But by far the best part of their display were these two islands of succulents. What a beautiful arrangement.

Here is the front.

The Best display of the show was by local Landscape Architect and Contractor, Chad Robert. Hats off to him and his company "Exteriors", for putting forth the effort to create a very interesting display. Obviously Sustainability was a big part of his message as many of the materials were recycled.

Interesting meandering path of used concrete (Urbanite) lined with lots of succulents.

The Presentation boards were great, but the light conditions and my meager camera skills prevented a good closeup. Notice the retaining walls.

The Aloe and Fescue in front of that blue wall is great. Like I said, succulents everywhere. This would be a very low water use landscape.

Here is the main entrance below. The sculpture just behind the awning was made from found materials as well I believe.

His use of used concrete with glass bottles placed here and there with lights tucked inside no-less show what you can do with recycled materials and little imagination.

I have to admit, I don’t know what his retaining walls are made of. Again, inserting the bottles sure made it interesting. I don’t think I could have passed up the opportunity to put lights inside those bottles though, but I’m obsessive that way.

Can you make out the bottles poking out of every other hole in the wall?

You might be thinking YUK! That looks rediculous! Step back a sec. Remember that a realistic display is not the goal. Realistic displays are a dime a dozen at virtually every home show and Phoenix has a lot of home shows. The idea here is to express concepts and new design asthetics, not realisim. They are supposed to stimulate your imagination and show off some of the designers talent. He integrated water conservation, recycled materials, innovative lighting, art in the landscape, and leading edge plant materials (all important design elements and challenges right now) into a beautiful space. Like I said, hats off.

As far as the show, there was diffinately space left open and traffic was probably slow for the "Slicer-Dicer and Miracle Cleaners" people. However, I think we should recognize this will take a few years and a better economy to grow into a really great Flower & Garden Show; we in the industry should join in and support the process. If we do support it, the show will grow and mature in quality. I found out about this show a little late this year. However, I am excited about putting together a display project for next year. Hopefully the economy will come around some, as well. I'm looking forward to it.

Chihuly! The Nature of Glass

We have a unique opportunity to experience one of the most amazing glass sculpture artists work in the world. Dale Chihuly’s The Nature of Glass exhibition at the Desert Botanical Garden. This exhibition has toured numerous world class museums and botanical Gardens all over the world and now it’s here. I think it’s a must see and besides, March is an awesome time to visit the Garden.
You can read a Bio of Dale Chihuly here and some info on the show here.

Here my wife and children pose near the entrance.

I think it is interesting to note that Dale Chihuly studied Interior Design and Architecture at University of Washington Seattle in the 60’s but became captivated with the process of blowing glass. I think all Landscape Designers and Architects love Sculpture. Many of us practice some sort of art as a hobby and since sculpture is three dimensional, maybe it feels more familiar to us. We all love to incorporate art and sculpture into our designs and this exhibit has some great examples to learn from.

His works displayed at the Desert Botanical Garden are all very organic and vibrantly colorful. Chihuly’s works are alive with energy and movement. You will be awed at the scale of some of his works like, “The Sun” (just above) in the Ottosen Entry Garden. Some works compliment the natural surroundings while being the focal point, others are meant to be radical contrasts that introduce a completely new meaning. Chihuly says, “Over time I developed the most organic, natural way of working with glass, using the least amount of tools that I could. The glass looks as if it comes from nature”. He also says many of abstract flower and botanical forms are reminiscent of his mother’s garden in Tacoma.

I’m sure one or two are tongue-n-cheek, but I’m not telling which. You’ll have to discover them for yourself. The only thing that had me worried was the boats. Yes boats, old wooden row boats full of stunningly beautiful glass globes. I’m sure boats have a more important meaning in the Pacific Northwest then they do in the Sonoran Desert. So although I think the boats should have been left on the trucks, the glass is amazing. Don’t miss it.

The Chihuly exhibit will continue thru May 31st, but March is an amazing time to tour the Garden. The spring Butterfly event starts on the 7th, too. So that the Garden doesn’t become over crowded and your experience is more enjoyable, you will need to make a reservation before attending. Now that it is warmer, I’m sure the evening shows will fill up fast, too. Enjoy your trip to the Garden.