I was asked
"Do we need a new lawn"? During our consult they turned to each other to whisper. Apparently someone made the recommendation they would need a new lawn. I answered: "Well. The lawn you have right now is doing what it is supposed to do - Defining the space thought of as lawn. So. You don't need a new lawn." "If your lawn does not look the way you want it to, that is another question. Then you should say to me 'How can our lawn look THIS way." I can help you get what you want and need. But it should never be the work of the designer to make judgements against you, especially ones that make anxieties that can only be relieved by paying your landscaper.
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4/8/2019 0 Comments Collaboratives...The Buffalo Horticulture identity for the most part organizes around the concept of design build. But I see it as (A) "We always need the work" and (B) we are here to help in whatever capacity we are asked. Above is a architects drawing for a stair and retaining wall structure surrounding a basement height patio in a backyard. I feel my strengths on a collaborative team are that I can understand the organization and visual language of an architects design program and can offer feedback as we put the project together on little bits and pieces of detail, the number of ways I have experience building such things, and of course the production complications with certain ways of building - or, I may help find easier, less costly, or more valuable ways to produce. Most importantly, I think, is I can communicate. 4/2/2019 0 Comments Notes On the Language......I saw a wood fence
painted black on another designer's 'gram feed and wished to comment that it was "well executed." But. To speak of an idea such as a color choice - as it relates to "the design"- we don't say "executed." I searched around and found "articulated" to be the right word choice. The black painted fence was a nice articulation. 3/29/2019 0 Comments On Trimming PlantsFirst off
I always feel I need to find the right photo to aid an idea's representation. But we can't have our mouths paralyzed and be left without words just because people prefer to look at pictures. ... Most often What I confront in the field are not plants that need trimming but shaping. Sometimes trimming isn't enough. We need to start specifying that shaping be done. "Trimming" is part of maintenance. "Shape" and "form" are elements of design. And if you look around you'll see that the way we seem to care for our plants here In "The Buffalo Garden" Is by trimming them, never shaping. ... This idea is part of a larger conversation I want to have on "the spring clean up." I believe the clean up is composed of three separate elements - Cleaner and manicurist; Plant health and care giver (horticulturist); and designer/visual person - elements that are the basics of a, not having a name for it really, a person who tends to and cares for gardens and landscapes. Most of what we have come to think of as a "landscaper" now specializes in the first element - raking and edging. They are tasked with trimming but with a hand for neatness and cleaning not an eye to recognize repetition or line and form. 3/27/2019 0 Comments Morning Reading.I love the imposition of a garden space into the plane of the landscape. The grid of urban space is homogeneous. We don't need to tend every square inch We make the spaces we can use. |
AuthorFrom Matthew Dore, the "I" voice of Buffalo Horticulture and "The Buff Hort Project." Archives
March 2022
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