Rick Button is a thoughtful man; a thoughtful landscape architect. It’s almost possible to see the wheels turning inside that head. He carefully considers color, elevations, planting palette and planters for each project. The Bennett residence presented a number of challenges for Rick’s grand intelligence.

• The two story residence features interior shifts in elevation and because of the shifts,  each porch and terrace varies in elevation. To address this, Rick established a series of spaces at the same elevation to flow into one another.
• The original grading and drainage was designed for all rainwater and irrigation runoff to travel under the house, through the basement. Now, one circulation system surrounds the entire structure and all water is sheet drained away from the structure.
• The back of the property was too shallow and steep for needed construction. A retaining wall was built, expanding usable space 20’, three staircases were designed to connect the house to the lower garden featuring a new pool house designed by Ron Ettinger, fireplace, kitchenette, bar, two bathrooms, a 60; pool, a cook center/flower arranging area, a large terrace for sunning and dining as well as a  small lawn providing just enough space for croquet or badminton.
• Wrought iron gates and fencing, decorative tile, terra cotta pots and one special Gladding McBean fountain conversion from Eye of the Day, along with a distinctively Mediterranean featuring agaves, bougainvillea, roses, geraniums and date palms all contribute to the overall desired look.

Rick has spent almost thirty years as a landscape architect working in residential garden design from his office in Pasadena. The photos of the Bennett residence illustrate his thoughtful design acumen and constructive use of space even more completely that any description can offer.

“Integrity of space, integrity of architecture, integrity of materials”.  ~Rick Button

On most Sunday afternoons (though not so much in December and January) you would have a fairly good chance of finding us on our shaded back patio spending time with our trusty pizza oven. We will be stoking the fire with oak wine barrel staves, putting in or taking out one blistered pizza after another or checking on the golden chicken or vegetables we have put in to roast. As the temperature drops, we might even bake a pie or slow-roast some tomatoes, onions or grapes. Or all of the above, in consecutive order.

Life with a pizza oven is one of plenty, and the oven has often transformed the rewards of our garden into memorable feasts with friends and family. If you are one of the lucky ones and have your very own pizza oven, you’ll get a nice, smoky finish enhancing the flavor of these roasted tomatoes. This is a fine way to use tomatoes even if they’re not primo ripe; roasting them will intensify the flavor. If you don’t have a pizza oven, you can shrivel them in your oven at 250 degrees for a few hours until they are still a bit soft and have a little juice left. Then put them on your pizza to melt with Taleggio cheese and when it’s done, cast some basil and freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano over the top with lots of black pepper.

Ingredients:

Cherry tomatoes or (even better) Roma tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise, enough to fill a sheet pan in an uncrowded manner

A handful of fresh rosemary leaves, not an over-abundance, maybe a brimming teaspoon

Sea salt, enough to make a difference

Freshly ground black pepper, ¼ – ½  teaspoon

GOOD olive oil

Put the tomatoes, rosemary, salt and pepper in a large bowl and add enough olive oil to make the tomatoes shine. Toss them well to coat and spread them in a sheet pan, cut side up and put them into your pre-heated, just below “hot” pizza oven. Leave the door open and check often. You don’t want them to dry out in an oven that’s too hot. They should be ready in about two hours. If the oven starts out hot, just let the fire die down while the tomatoes roast, until it’s just glowing embers at the end.

Some of the many plants available to gardeners are uniquely suited to grow only in water (or quite damp conditions). These plants inhabit a unique microclimate so their needs are necessarily different than the majority of nursery offerings. To successfully grow them, you need to understand their whims and fancies.

Aquatic plants can be divided into three categories and each type has different requirements. There are water garden plants that freely drift about on the surface with their naked roots dangling into the water. Others are ecologically suited to root in the mud at the bottom of a pond or lake and send their leaves and flowers to float on surface where they can harvest sunlight and attract pollinators. The third group requires constant moisture in their root zones, but the plants emerge from muck to produce sturdy and ornamental aerial forms. Here are some of the most common, and most easily obtained of these three classes.

Free-floating species such as water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes) or water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) do a great job of cleaning the water of nutrients such as nitrogen that otherwise would support unsightly algal blooms and they are interesting and beautiful, but be advised that in California it is illegal to sell either of these may find them at farmers markets or back yard sales. They have become invasive in many waterways, so please grow them responsibly and when you have too many (they reproduce prodigiously), do not put them in the nearby lake or stream, but include them in your compost pile instead.

The most recognizable water garden plants are water lilies (Nymphaea species and cultivars). They anchor themselves in the mud (which means you need a pot to put them in) and send highly ornamental leaves and flowers up to the surface. Other, smaller, species with this habit include water hawthorne (Aponogeton distachyus), water poppy (Hydrocleys nymphoides), and floating heart (Nymphoides species).

A much larger selection of what we like to call “bog plants” that normally grow on the fringes of natural bodies of water is also available for our water gardens. These include dramatic foliage plants like papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) and cattails (Typha species) as well as flowering plants like iris, canna, and a fun group of lobelias just suited for the damp. In water gardens, they need to be planted in soil and perched with their rims just an inch or two below the water surface. All of these can be easily found on the internet from respectable mail order nurseries. They should come with easy planting directions, but if they don’t, that information is also widely published.

It’s hard to sum up the difference between Milan Design Week and Paris’ Maison et Objet. They are both huge, but I’d give the edge to Milan. There are definitely more interior designers and small retail buyers in

Paris while Milan has few small vendor type exhibitors but lots of small design manufacturers. Paris is for retail and Milan is the cutting edge of design.

Besides the exposition center at Roh the entire city has exhibitors tucked in nooks and crannies all over the place making sight-seeing a whole new sport. Nothing like going into an exhibit–say from Japan–with two dozen designers showing prototypes and small new manufactures looking to attract attention and walking out onto the street and going next door to a local restaurant for lunch or dinner. That’s another thing: in Milan, the party goes from 10am to 10pm with the partying spilling into the streets, especially in the Tortona district. Right next to our exhibit are the offices of designers like Fendi, Emilio ermanolia and other big names. It’s alive and kicking for sure.

Tomorrow I will visit the Brera neighborhood, probably the trendiest area of Milan for local shopping. There’s a gelato store there that has the best zabillione on the planet.

Arriving late in Milan after a full day of flying and being able to walk from the baggage claim through two doors and arrive at your hotel is a real luxury. No, I’m not in the Centro, nowhere near the action and have to travel each day by train a half hour plus to and fro but my room is clean and modern and after a long day of meeting people and walking the exhibitions it’s nice to have solitude. I’m an SPG man staying at the Sheraton. Whether in Rome, Paris, San Francisco or Milan there is a hotel if not in the airport, nearby.

I move heavy and large pots and other weighty things everyday, I don’t want to lug a giant suitcase all over Europe, too. I don’t need to travel fashionably; I’ve learned to launder in my room. Another advantage of staying at the airport is the other travelers are not there for a convention and all of the ancillary activities that many go for but working stiffs just like me.

Sitting in the bar with a dozen or so guys, watching Barcelona play Madrid, drinking beer and eating pizza and pasta doesn’t get much better. Everyone is here for work. A virtual global dining experience: beer, football, BO and camaraderie. An oil and gas guy from Norway, a

Frenchman from Nice here buying vales for pipeline work. A couple of Spaniards, another American; we’re all here to work.

Speaking of work, that’s me with Brent with Marcello from Terrecotte San Rocco. The buzz around San Rocco is exciting and there is a new color too: Ash. A light off-white, with a more grayish finish that the designers should really go for. More big pots. I love their scale. Come see them in person at our exhibit with Terrecotte San Rocco at Milan Design Week.

When a multi-pallet shipment arrives at Eye of the Day, it is “all hands on deck” to painstakingly inspect, unload, unpack and check in every item. The shipments are made up of custom orders and beautiful catalog items to stock our large showroom, and we spend a full day or more moving everything from the truck to places in the showroom where our clients can easily access them.

It is our mission here at Eye of the Day Garden Design Center to provide you with only the best quality, authentic European- and American-made pottery, statuary and fountains. That is why we always look forward to a shipment from our old friends at Campania International located in Pennsburg, PA. Campania was founded in 1983 and quickly became one of the nation’s premier designers, manufacturers and distributors of fine garden accents. They are continually setting trends and industry standards, which is why they are one of our handpicked producers of American-made concrete and stone décor. They offer a wide range of products in a variety of materials and styles from classic to contemporary.

We select items that will work for small spaces and estates alike. Our customers have a wide range of needs and styles and Campania has a great sense of the classic but also an eye for linear contemporary design. Come to our showroom to see the latest arrivals!