Modern Landscape Design

This is a post describing a recent talk at the Upper Midwest Regional Master Gardener Conference by Tom Smarr, Horticulture & Natural Area Director of the 21st Century Parks in Louisville Kentucky. 
 
Our landscapes have been influenced by several thousand of years of garden history starting with the hanging gardens of Babylon, through the herbal monastery gardens, the Italian Renaissance, to our current landscape and environmental movements.  Whew!  That’s a lot of history in one sentence.

We are now looking to more natural environments that use less chemicals and effort to maintain.  There is a tension between native vs. non-native, natural vs. formal, intentional vs. spontaneous, and rural vs. urban.  ​

​The current trend is to look to nature for inspiration.   Some large, noteworthy urban gardens that illustrate a more natural environment include the High Line-Elevated NYC Park-Rail Trail, the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston,  and Parklands of Floyds Forks in Louisville, Kentucky.  
 
Tom Smarr has been involved with each of these gardens and offered his philosophy on garden design.

1. Be authentic – work with the location and environment, do not cause more harm
2. Be intentional – design and gardening are practices where we make choices
3. Know what you create – understand the plants used, their maintenance needs and growth patterns
4. Open yourself to change – be flexible to correct or allow for discoveries

 
For inspiration, check out these books:

• Planting in a Post-Wild World, Thomas Rainer and Claudia West, Timber Press ©2015
• From Art to Landscape, W. Gary Smith, Timber Press, ©2010
• Design with Nature, Ian L. McHarg, Wiley, © 1995