I’m trying to assess this year’s Valentine’s day. Is it just me or were there a lot less roses curled under the arms of sweet men rushing home from work last weekend. We sure felt it here. Maybe that sexest, ridiculous show The Bachelor has made giving roses as silly and passe´ as the mohawk or ‘jeggings’. That is totally unfair to roses and flowers in general. I love receiving AND giving flowers. The problem is the have become so upsurdly arranged and wrapped in the most tacky paper, stapled to within an inch of their lifes and held together with rubble bands and twisty ties. The process of receiving flowers has become a burden. How do you cut them, remove the leaves, arrange them. We need to give simple, hand-tied bouquets like they do in Europe. and we need to give them often so the become as common as egg, cheese and bread! We would be a happier country, I promise.

If you love gardens but live in an apartment or condo without an inch of land to your name fear not. I have made it my mission to find the coolest stuff you don’t have to water, fertilize or take care of in any way. I have always been a big proponent of using garden accoutrement to indoors. My own living room has a life size cast stone statue of a goddess of the garden peaking over my modern olive green curved armless sofa. Not only is it beautiful and whimsical, it takes away some of my resentment that the only greens growing in my backyard are the weeds creeping throught the cracks in the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel.

Some of my favorite things are the aluminum dragonfly and ginko leaf trays made from recycled hubcabs! How fun are they?

Smack dab in the middle of a recession, the middle of a flaundering block, in the middle of New York City I decided it would be fun to open a store with a HUGE sign in bright neon green that read GROW.  I had a sneaking suspicion that other designers and architects had discovered the fantastic Deco loft buildings being vacated by a the furriers who were going out of business, like I had, and moved their businesses into their beautiful open spaces.  My hope was, that being close to the flower district, but not in it,  we might attract the folks GREENING their apartments, terraces and backyards as well as the pros in the biz.  The best part of moving onto the same street our offices have been on for 3 years is that we are finally meeting our neighbors…landscape architects, interior designers, structural engineers, building contractors, architectts, lighting designers…and that’s just on this block!  So my dream is coming true.. I wanted to open a store/showroom where the GROWing industry of urban living, green roof gardening and organic home design merged and I wanted to be on a block that was growing.  ANd I think we did it.

Come on down and see us sometime.  Til then…

keep GROWing

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/garden/09open.html?_r=1&ref=garden

http://rebeccacoledesign.com/store.html

It is always interesting how much different a project looks in real life than it does on paper.  The funny thing about designing roof gardens is that you design them from inside to look out unlike most garden where your designing them from afar to look in and around it.  When I entered these two garden show I was told by those who had done it before DO NOT LET PEOPLE WALK THROUGH YOUR GARDEN. Well, I knew I would have no garden to look at if people did not walk into it.  In San Fran, the stairs could be positioned in the the front of the Penthouse which allowed the path to draw focus directly to through center.  Mark Campbell was also able to build out the narrow section of the roof floor about two feet which really opened up the garden.  This simple adjustment made the garden much more open and balanced in San Francisco.

When I first agreed to enter the Garden Shows,  my intent was to do a roof top garden as green as it could be.  I wanted to tie in all the cool green building products I could think of.  But most of all I wanted to design a garden that was functional AND beautiful.  I wanted some interior space to show the seemless transition of inside to out.  I want a comfortable lounging area and a dining table large enough for a family.  I knew I wanted an easy path thousands of people to walk through the garden.  I hate going to garden shows that have no access into the gardens.  I can’t imagine not exploring the layers and secrets planted within a garden. 

The truth is I desigend my dream garden.  If I had the money,  I would build this garden on the in the middle of Manhattan,  design my clients gardens from my penthouse office,  drink wine with friends nightly on the cement sofa and have Sunday brunch for girl friends only.  The shape and size was dictated by the Garden shows first and the concept of a skyscraper second.  I want a standard rectangle but given the fact that I had enter the shows so late in the came there were no rectangles left.  All this to say the positioning of the penthouse was dictated by the shape of the space.  The rest of the layout was like a puzzle so I actually made little pieces that represented the cement sofa,  the log dining table and a few stools and chairs.  I wanted a large carpet of the green grid in front of the penhouse so I marked that off limits right away.  It took a bit of finagling to fit the large peices of funiture but I was determined to use large pieces as I believe smaller spaces will feel larger with larger furniture and trees.  I spent the first two weeks  of the design process without a plant or container in sight.

I thought it would be possible to write daily or at least often about the progress of this project.  But, alas, I was wrong. I thought the 200 one day make overs I did on Discovery with Surprise By Design would have prepared me for the intense build for this show but it didn’t.  I’m not sure if it is the competiion of a show that drives us all,  or the fact that it is on of those few times designers have no client, no compromise other than money and time  I just was not able to write about the process during the process.

So now I will take my time and explain the process.  Starting with the end…I wanted a beautiful space, sustainable and green as it could be and still a little edgy.  the results tonight, the process tomorrow.

Mark Campbell must be one heck of a good guy.  For 15 hours, two days straight now,  15 friends and family members of this landscape contractor, super dad, generous friend and all round talented guy have volunteered to work, work and work more.  For what?  for Mark of Garden of Eden Landscapes.  They all say he would do anything for anyone and I am the happy recipient of this weeks “anyone”.  Wait til you see what Mark has done to my garden.  As he put it yesterday,  he’s pimping the garden!

So what does it take to create a full scale, rooftop green roof in 3 days….a large crew of experts…Truck drivers, a pit crew, carpenters, welders, roofers, and much much more.

We’ve arrived…or some of us have and the rest (4 voluntereers from Seattle and 3 staff from NYC) are on their way.  I flew into San Francisco Thursday morning, Mark Campbell, landscape desginer/contractor extraordinaire, picked me up in a huge red truck, (wish I had packed a ladder to climp in more gracefully) and wisked me off to Hayward to peak at my new green walls.

Weston Soulutions and their fabulous Green Grids are responsible for all the live ‘carpets’, the green wall and the green ‘art’.  Honestly, This was the one element I was concerned about for my garden in San Fran.   The green walls, floor and art in Seattle were so incredible I did not think we could come close with another grower.  I knew we could do the same or even better in every other element of the garden but I had my doubts about the “green” goods as I had been monitoring their progress via the internet for the passed two months and frankly, was concerned.  We started much later growing them, I chose different plant material  because I did not want the two gardens to look the same,  and the pictures from the Mountain Crest Nursery were not spectacular. BUT, the pictures LIED.  These walls, grids and art ROCK!  I could not believe my eyes when I walked into Dave’s rare car shop (I’ll explain all that another day) and saw between a 1963 Red Mustang and a 1968 Dodge Teal something,  the most extraordinary green walls ever, I believed I yelled.  Mark was alarmed,  he doesn’t know me well enough yet.  I was HAPPY.  Wait till you see them.

It’s 6am two days later and I’m off to begin the install what may be San Francisco’s last flower and garden show.  Mark has 9 trucks, 18 friends and 3 family members on their way to San Mateo,  and once they drop off those they loop back around to the car shop to pick up the next round.  Crazy……but fun.  More later……

My garden is on the road again and I am thrilled.  Some thought I should never have come to Seattle and believe me at times I couldn’t agree more.  But as I picked up my New York Times this morning and read a lead story about the closing of major Garden Shows across the country, I couldn’t help but think how lucky I am to have experienced this and how sad for our country if this great tradition goes the way of the local newspaper.  I think the article missed the point as it quoted person after person stating that baby boomers was getting older and the younger homeowner think gardening is a dirty word as the reason for the closing.  I’ve heard that,  but I definitely didn’t experience it in Seattle or in Philadelphia this week as I visited that garden show.  I saw plenty of strollers and young hipster with their lucky bamboo wrapped in brown paper tucked under their arm, wandering through the show gardens looking for inspiration.

I do think garden creators could hip it up a notch, embrace the new sustainable and outdoor living desire,  but I don’t think garden design is done.  Far from it.  The green movement sweeping the country has left ‘30 somethings’ needing inspiration and info on how to live with nature and not destroy it.  Now, more than ever we need Garden Shows to teach, inspire and lead the way away from the green grass putting lawn and into the drought tolerant, sedum strewn yards of our future.  Every fifth person waiting in line to see my garden in Seattle asked for the plant list and instruction on how they could grow and maintain their own green wall or green roof.  That is progress, and very hopeful for a true gardening revolution in the future.  

Perhaps the days of forcing flowers into early bloom, wasting lots of energy on the way, and growing precious, difficult tender nutrient feeding “show” flowers, has had it’s day,  but that need not mean all gardening is old fashion.  It’s a new day, a new time and if my sustainable rooftop garden and all it’s awards is any indication…the garden show judges and the people who attend seem to really appreciate the new direction.

Let’s support the Garden Shows….come see us in San Francisco March 18-22.  And may someone please step forward and buy the show so it is not it’s last year.  Or let’s write to Congress and have them bail it out….I can’t think of a better “green jobs” or “green educational” program.