The Landscape Professional and Client Relationship, Part II

Principal at Arcadia Studio in Santa Barbara and a resident of Los Olivos, Carol Puck Erickson, ASLA,  has an extensive portfolio of residences and arid gardens in Arizona and beautiful installations throughout California, Puck was initially educated in the visual arts, which still informs her work. She is an avid bi-coastal hiker and amateur botanist who is intrigued by the relationships between the cultural and agrarian landscapes and the native environment.

Puck is also committed to the therapeutic value of gardens, as a founding member of the Santa Ynez Valley Botanic Garden and pro bono consultant for many school and community gardens.  She has worked with Eye of the Day on a large variety of projects over the last two decades and is one of our favorite landscape professionals.

EOD: How has your design relationship evolved over time with any particular client?

I have enjoyed working with clients on multiple projects, sometimes over decades as the gardens reflect an evolution in their owners’ perspectives on the twists and turns of their own lives. Working together, we gain an understanding of the role time plays in a garden and in our own lives.  Often, with their second or third gardens, people are willing to plant a bit smaller and also to simplify their approach to garden designs.  While others, coaxed into the out-of-doors by their first garden, become avid collectors and gardening enthusiasts.

EOD: How do you accommodate the client’s changing tastes over a span of time and still allow your own accumulated professional experience to show through?

I listen closely, very closely!! As the years have flown by, I find that often I am simply a translator and steward as my client churns out ideas with unbridled enthusiasm, often without recognizing their own insight into a space, or an observation gleaned from their travels. It is through my experience and design discipline that we can take these wonderful ideas and marry them to the environment of the new garden.

I am often surprised at how easily some designers seem to let go of their gardens and the evolution of those spaces, from both a horticultural and aesthetic perspective. When we work with clients we are not creating a garden image, frozen in time. Once the garden is completed, the real fun begins. The garden begins to build its own rhythm and dynamic as it flows from season to season and we are committed to continue that dialogue with our clients and their gardens over years, if not decades!  I think responding to the drought is a perfect example of how an on-going relationship with the client and their garden can make a real difference.

To view more of Puck’s work, visit Arcadia Studio.

MUSINGS UN DESIGN: SCULPTOR BOBBIE CARLYLE

We have been extremely fortunate to exhibit many of Bobbie Carlyle’s  bronze sculptures at Eye of the Day in our showroom and our outdoor areas for the last year.  Last month brought this internationally recognized sculptor from Colorado to Carpinteria to take part in our Art in the Garden and Water Conservation weekend.

About the Artist

This tiny, quiet blonde woman produces an incredible array of sculptures including wildlife, figurative, fantasy and historical figures. Bobbie spent much of her time during her three days with us working on a new sculpture, showing us how much quiet diligence it takes to create something physical from an idea.

One of Bobbie’s most well known sculptures is “Self Made Man,” a man carving himself out of stone, “carving his character, carving his future.”  This 14’ monument is a great example of  Bobbie’s vision.  She recently installed a piece in Los Angeles called “Seaswept” at one of the entrances of the new Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park, the former site of the Ambassador Hotel and we have the same beautiful sculpture here at Eye of the Day.

Our showroom and annex holds many pieces of Bobbie’s garden art: a tiny fairy sitting atop a mushroom, a young baseball catcher crouching behind an excited batter, a boy leaping to catch a frog and a life-size girl holding her day’s catch, a tiny minnow, and with her can of worms at her side.

Behind the Art

After looking at her website and then having the opportunity to see so many of Bobbie’s pieces, I was interested in finding out what would happen next in the process of creating a full size sculpture from the lovely little figure she was sculpting at Eye of the Day.

She first creates the figure in modeling clay in order to get the proportions and stance the way she wants them. A mold is then made first in latex or silicone backed with plaster to hold the shape. The clay is removed and molten wax is poured into the mold and cooled, after which the wax is removed and coated with ten coats of silica gel, dried and fired in a kiln in which the wax melts and the silica becomes a ceramic shell. 2200° molten bronze is poured into the now empty shell.  After cooling, the bronze is cleaned by sandblasting, welding, metal chasing. And there you have it… finished.

Curiosity quenched.

To learn more about the artist and to view Bobbie’s work, please visit Bobbie Carlyle Sculpture.

Morocco in Your Own Garden

California gardens, especially those in Southern California have long utilized the concept of outdoor rooms. Countries with warm, dry climates around the Mediterranean basin have been creating miniature oases outdoors for centuries. Taking a cue from them is one way to replicate both the feel and appropriateness of this style.

Moroccan gardens provide great examples of the restrained use of water to create a lush setting in outdoor courtyards and passageways. Even while reducing your water use in the landscape, you can create an intimate, yet luxuriant garden space by taking inspiration from arid North Africa. Gardens there are generally central to the dwelling, both to provide privacy and protection from the heat and winds.

One of the key elements of these enclosed spaces is limiting water use. The Arabic word for a garden of this type is riad and usually refers to the central fountain or ornamental pool. The fountain need not be large to provide a bit of cooling to the air as well as a sense of peace and luxury in a climate where water is scarce.  It is possible to recreate that feeling with a simple water feature created from a glazed pot and a small, efficient pump instead of building a large fountain.

Another feature is the exuberant use of color. Colorful pots, a painted wall or gate as well as bright flowers make for a vibrant and even joyful setting. Vivid glazed tiles, whether on the patio floor or the surface of a fountain, also contribute to creating an exotic paradise.

Plants can be used as well and they do not have to be those that require a lot of water. There are many that are drought tolerant, yet lush-looking. Large leaves give a more topical feel and species such as bird of paradise, aspidistra and pygmy date palm do well in containers. Succulents are a great choice; from cacti to agaves and aloes, they thrive on little water and their foliage provides drama and color. The Canary Islands is home to a wonderful group of succulents, the aeoniums, whose fleshy leaves grow in large, showy rosettes and would be perfect choices. Even the humble geranium (Pelargonium) is sturdy and produces flowers nearly year round. Assemble several plants in one container to provide a miniature landscape or group individual pots together, mixing and matching your color palette.

Look at Planted Wells blog for more Moroccan garden design inspiration.

Image Credits:
Moroccan Garden – Creative Commons, Chelsesa Flower Show Gardens by Rictor Norton and David Allen is licensed under CC by 2.0
Plant Image – Creative Commons, BCSS gloucester branch auction – The national agave collection by stephen boisvert is licensed under CC by 2.0 

THE DESIGN PROCESS SHOULD BE ENJOYABLE FOR EVERYONE
An interview with Stacy Fausett

Stacy Fausett is a highly respected Landscape Architect who takes great pride in what she does. She is quick to say that when she is asked to return and do further work for a client, she considers it a great compliment. We often see her at Eye of the Day, pen and paper in hand, walking the greenhouse and annex, taking lots of notes for her clients. She is looking for things that will fit into a particular design for her clients’ landscape and home. Stacy has worked to build long-lasting relationships with many of her clients, seeing them through a project, and over time moving on to new ideas in the same project later and then to other properties as they change homes. I asked Stacy a few questions about how she achieves these long-term client relationships.

EOD: How has your design relationship evolved with a client’s different projects?

SF: Obviously, having an established working relationship and familiarity allows me to skip the formalities of getting to know the client and then I can jump right into the design process. The familiarity is wonderful and makes for a fun project. It’s like working with an old friend.

EOD: How do you accommodate the client’s changing tastes over a span of time and still allow your own accumulated professional experience to show through?

SF: Each project varies with the style of architecture, the unique qualities of the property, and the client’s needs and desires. The client’s needs may have changed over time, so assessing these elements are the same as it would be for a new project. Having more years of experience behind me and knowing the likes and dislikes of the client allows me to make assessments and design suggestions. It is a very efficient way to work on a project.

EOD: What does it take to gain the client’s confidence in order for them to continue a long-term personal and professional relationship with you?

SF: It’s actually very simple to gain the trust and confidence of a client:

1. Listen to your clients: their wants, likes, dislikes,needs and critical elements susch as time frame and budget. Respect this information.
2. Do your homework and present quality, well thought out materials and design work.
3. Most importantly, do what you say you are going to do in a professional and timely manner. Organization and communication are key to a successful relationship in every circumstance.

STACY FAUSSET studied Landscape Architecture at California State Polytechnic University and has been practicing for over twenty six years. After many years of working for other Landscape Architects, she opened her own office in Santa Barbara in 2010.

When you see images of homes that feature window boxes overflowing with color, herbs and bees and butterfly-friendly plants, doesn’t it make you want to create a little garden under your window?

During an East Coast trip, Brent was walking the streets of Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood and.. looked up.  He noticed them near doorways as well: window boxes overflowing with color, herbs, and seasonal gourds.  Beacon Hill is famous for the flower boxes gracing the windows of most homes.  Their legacy comes from a time when homes were built on the edge of the street and there was little area to garden.  In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, most homes had a central courtyard where there might have been an outhouse, wood shed and animals, so the logical place to grow a small kitchen garden would be in planter boxes hung just outside the window in order to save space.

Window boxes have a long history beginning in Europe and then traveling to America with the early settlers.  Terra cotta planter boxes date back to early Rome where it was common practice to cultivate cottage gardens for food, medicine and religious uses.  Eventually window boxes were planted with decorative flowers.

Historically, planters placed below the window have been made from wire hay frames, wrought iron, wood and terra cotta.  And that brings us to Eye of the Day’s Italian terracotta clay window box or “Cassetta Balcone.”  These sturdy window boxes, made from Galestro clay by Terracotte San Rocco, are available in five sizes and can be used as regular rectangular planters, placed on the ground, but WHY NOT use them as the Beacon Hill Brahmins and hang them beneath your windows, filled with succulents,  herbs, and vegetables?

Garden Design magazine is bringing back their always-popular collection of Way Hot Plants–perennials, shrubs, and grasses plant aficionados love. See them all plus much more stunning photography, gardens, plants, and products in their current issue Early Spring, on sale now. Preview the issue and subscribe today: .