no drought in these gardens

After liv­ing with drought for the last sev­eral years it’s refresh­ing to take a look at some gar­dens where water appears as an unlim­ited resource. Last weekend’s L.A. Times Home sec­tion fea­tured an arti­cle on iwagumi, the art of aquas­cap­ing. Take a Japan­ese gar­den aes­thetic, only apply it to a fish­tank, and you have a basic take on iwagumi.


Above: Luis Car­los Galar­raga, Sao Paulo Brazil, “When the rocks flow.” [ source ]

Each year the Aquatic Gar­den­ers Asso­ci­a­tion hosts a com­pe­ti­tion for pho­tographs of these care­fully planted tanks. (This year’s con­test dead­line is Sep­tem­ber 30.) Con­tes­tants have to apply the same design sense that they’d need to work with in a gar­den on land. But instead of the famil­iar plants of the ter­res­trial realm, they’re using aquatic species, most fre­quently plant­ing them among an assort­ment of strik­ing stones. In these gar­dens the del­i­cate crea­tures over­head aren’t birds, but fish.

The image above and the two below are medium-sized tanks from last year’s com­pe­ti­tion. Click on the “source” link and you’ll be taken to the page where you’ll see more images of each project, along with com­ments from the competition’s judges. It’s a very spe­cial­ized aes­thetic that they’re employ­ing in the scor­ing, but the com­ments are inter­est­ing to read with a grain of salt, and might give you ideas on how to play with plants and space in gar­dens that live on the other side of the water table.


Above: Mélisse Moireau, Sar­celles France, “Grass­land sun­set.” [ source ]


Above: Michal Paster­nak, Krakow Poland, “Sun­set.” [ source ]

Since we’re air-breathing crea­tures these tanks trans­port us to a realm where we nor­mally don’t have an oppor­tu­nity to look at in any detail. They remind me a lot of the pho­tog­ra­phy of Karen Glaser, a Chicago pho­tog­ra­pher that I had a chance to exhibit with a few years back in a group show here in town at the Museum of Pho­to­graphic Arts. Much of Karen’s work is taken under­wa­ter, in the oceans or in swamps. Her mag­i­cal, mys­te­ri­ous work is noth­ing like the clichés that make up most other under­wa­ter photography.


This image: Karen Glaser: Dust Storm in Cat­fish Sink, 2006, Pig­ment Print on Hah­nemühle Photo Rag, 37x25in.

Check out her web­site for lots more exam­ples of her beau­ti­ful work.

September 25 2009 | Categories: art • gardening • landscape design | Tags: • • • • • | 12 Comments »

more waterlily photos to share

Here in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia sum­mer slips into the dol­drums as the weather heats up and the land dries out. If only we had shal­low lakes every­where we might have acres of waterlilies bloom­ing their heads off. Things might look a lit­tle bit like this…


Jenny was at Long­wood Gar­dens in Penn­syl­va­nia recently and sent me these pho­tos of their water gar­dens. (Thanks, Jenny!) She was struck by their flow­ers, but was really drawn to the foliage. It’s easy to love the var­ie­gated ones, but the crin­kled edges on the other vari­eties are awfully cool too. These are all waterlilies but for one, the plant with­out blooms. I’ll try to get the name of the from her, but if any of the rest of you know what it is, just drop a note.

Of course, hav­ing a body of water in a warm cli­mate is no guar­an­tee that water plants will thrive. Last year, up in Los Ange­les, the Echo Park Lotus Fes­ti­val took place. But after cel­e­brat­ing the bloom­ing of the water lotuses every year since 1972, there were no lotus blooms to show. Ear­lier this month they went ahead and held the annual cel­e­bra­tion, but this time it was re-branded the Echo Park Com­mu­nity Fes­ti­val. No lotuses. Sad.

July 24 2009 | Categories: gardening • places | Tags: • • • • | 1 Comment »