Another Garden Media Client Hits It Big in The Wall Street Journal

When Margie Grace of Grace Design Associates first told us about the Victoria Garden Mews, we knew instinctively this was a BIG story.

Anne-Marie Chaker of the Wall Street Journal loved the story and so did her editors. They took a closer look at the larger story and focused on the yard sharing from as simple as sharing a common garden to sharing living spaces, as in the Victoria Garden Mews. Read her full Wall Street Journal report here.

Or watch the WSJ Lunch Break video with Anne-Marie and Gwendolyn Bounds.

Yard sharing is really nothing new. People have been doing it for years. We'd identified it in our 2010 Garden Trends Report and talked about it again last year.  But the four couples who built this Santa Barbara, CA compound have taken the concept to a whole new level.

This LEED Platinum Certified living cluster proves green can be gorgeous. The four separate homes were conceived, designed and built by the families involved and their hand-selected team including Grace Design, Allen Associates and Santa Barbara Design and Build, in full compliance with Santa Barbara historic district’s demanding guidelines.

Where once stood a rundown Victorian house located in the historic district of Santa Barbara, now stands four separate gorgeous, high tech homes. One is the rebuild of the historic Victorian house. The other three homes are designed in southwest style architecture.

They are tied together with an integrated landscape, communal veggie garden, shared dining area and “art walk” designed by Margie, who is a member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) and a past recipient of the APLD International Designer of the Year
All with the latest technology and green design, including a 14,000 gallon water bladder, car lifts for double-decker parking to maximize land use, and solar panels on the roof.

All within walking distance of town.

It is one of only 155 projects worldwide selected by SITES (Sustainable Sites Initiative) to demonstrate pioneering approaches to using land wisely. This urban infill trend is being supported by urban and residential planners around the country. Apparently Urban mayors like Corey Booker, Newark, NJ, are behind projects like this to solve local land use and quality of life challenges.

One of the owner's son and daughter-in-law now live in one of the units with their new baby. Dennis Allen gets to spend lots of quality time with his new granddaughter.

Life couldn't get much better.

Please visit our Flicker slideshow to see some awesome pictures.

Suzi
Garden Media Group

Victoria Garden Mews stars in WSJ Lunch Break

Homeowners Trade Backyard Fences for More Space

Watch Anne Marie Chaker and Gwendolyn Bounds discuss Victory Garden Mews. The garden was designed by Grace Design Associates, a member of APLD.

Photo:  Scott Lewis for The Wall Street Journal

Tracey
-Garden Media Group

Spring Ushers in New, Easy to Grow Plants to Color Your Garden

It’s the first day of spring and time to take a lesson from Mother Nature’s palette to create a garden masterpiece with new easy to grow, low maintenance plants.

Susan McCoy, gardening expert for the Garden Media Group, a Philadelphia area firm specializing in green living and garden trend spotting says, break the rules when choosing colors. “You learned to color with crayons and experimented with mixing paints, so take that sense of play and extend it to the garden.”

Design and Photo by Margie Grace Associates, APLD

McCoy says to take cues from Mother Nature’s color wheel. “Mother Nature is daring,” explains McCoy. “She mixes amazing color combinations, from bright hues to soft pastels.”



Gardening experts say it’s easy to have a show stopping garden with continuous color spring through fall by picking the right plants for the right spot. New plants out this spring prove to be just what the gardener wants: easy to grow, full of blooms, and low maintenance. 

“The first thing you want to do when planning this year’s garden is to determine the “feel” of the garden, where you want your plants and the overall color scheme,” says Margie Grace, Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) member. “Then select plants that will create balance and draw the eye.”

Tropic Escape Hibiscus from Costa Farms

“Those looking for a backyard oasis can bring it home with the new Tropic Escape Hibiscus Collection from Costa Farms,” says McCoy. The over-sized flowers almost the size of dinner plates come in a dozen tropical colors like Caribbean Cocktail yellow and Tiki Temptation orange, and bloom twice as long as traditional hibiscus. These easy care hibiscus take the heat in sunny locations and add punch to any outdoor décor and quickly turn a deck, patio or balcony into a party.

 

Bambino Bougainvillea
from Hines Growers



“Bold colors are dominating this spring,” says McCoy. Purple, red and orange are showing up in many new plants, like the new dwarf Bambino Bougainvillea from Hines Growers. These new plants are more compact than traditional bougainvillea and produce abundant flowers. Plus, they’re drought tolerant once established. “They give spectacular color in the landscape, are ideal for containers and create a colorful spot in small outdoor spaces.” 



American Beauties Native Plans

Another planning idea is attracting birds and butterflies to the garden. McCoy loves native plants from American Beauties Native Plants for beautiful flowers and plants that are ideally suited for regional conditions. Plus a portion of each sale supports the National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat program.



Herbs in the landscape, in pots or in the kitchen garden are also hot this spring. Grace uses herbs to add color and texture in borders and mixes them in containers with veggies or perennials. 

Using herbs. like this wall of rosemary,
in the landscape gives gardeners beauty and function

McCoy agrees. “It’s so easy to pot up herbs indoors and out for fresh ingredients year round.” She loves the rare and traditional new herbs like stevia, lemon grass and bee balm, the herb of the year, she’s found at The Growers Exchange. “Perennial herbs like rosemary look stunning cascading over walls or out of containers,” says McCoy.

If planning a garden is challenging, it may be time to call in a professional. She says that professional landscape designers like Margie Grace, a recent International Landscape Designer of the Year, can help bring life to a garden with beautiful native and low-maintenance plants and natural materials. To find a local, professional landscape designer, check out APLD’s website.

 -Karen

Garden Media Group

APLD 2010 Design Awards: Call for Entries

APLD 2010 International Landscape Design Awards: Call for Entries
The Association of Professional Landscape Design is looking for landscape projects 'par excellence' for 2010. It's easy to enter -- all online, and their are lots of categories to allow for recognition of show gardens. Sustainability will be considered in the judging .The best entries, judged by a distinguished international jury, will receive a gold award. Margie Grace (right) from Santa Barbara won this year.

Other deserving entries will receive a merit award. From the gold award entries, the judges will choose the 2010 APLD International Landscape Designer of the Year. Her winning design is featured above.

Awards will be presented during the awards banquet at the 2010 APLD International Landscape Design Conference in Dallas, Texas, in September 2010.Deadline for entries is February 1, 2010.