Bellagio Floral Designs & Botanical Art Installations





Bellagio Las Vegas

Online UC Berkeley Extension Landscape Architecture History Course

Garden, Parks, and Urban Open Spaces I is now available online.

"Examine the development of the built environment in terms of landscape architecture, architecture, urban design, and their interrelationship.  Topics include the influences of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome; Islamic achievements in Asia; urban planning during the Italian Renaissance; the gardens of Eastern Asia; the emergence and evolution of public parks and open spaces; and contemporary issues.  Emphasis throughout the course is on the evolution and growth of the profession of landscape architecture." (Source)

Textbook for course--Landscape Design:  A Cultural and Architectural History Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, 2001.

May 17-Aug. 9, 2011

$820

Aerial Views of Golden Gate Park--San Francisco, California

                           de Young Museum Garden             California Academy of Sciences  

 

   de Young Museum               Japanese Tea Garden               

 

                        Stow Lake                   San Francisco Botanical Garden                                    

Ikebana Exhibit at the Portland Japanese Garden

Portland Japanese Garden Ikebana Exhibitions

Portland Japanese Garden

Bowed Bamboo Garden Bed Edger

Stone & Asphalt Inclining Pathway

Zen Garden

Cut Stone Path Edge

Sand & Stone Garden

I am quite taken with this stark, yet serene Japanese rock garden or Karasansui.  Viewing the garden from above, ancient eastern art reveals its influence on western modernism.

Wisteria Covered Pergola

Cut Stone Curvilinear Stepped Path

Stone Bridges

L-Shaped Bench & Screen Design

Strolling Pond Garden

Tea Garden Fence Detail

Portland Japanese Garden

Linda Wise Sculpture--Eureka, California

Sculpture by Linda Wise

This is one of my favorite sculptures in Eureka by one of my favorite local sculptor-welders, Linda Wise.  She salvages discarded metal tools and other mechanical parts and uses welding to mold the pieces into sculpture.  I l-o-v-e love how it has been sited. 

I think what this horse really needs is a grassy field in which to stand.  Many of the original plantings in this bed did not survive the harsh coastal and concrete-planter imposed conditions.  I would love to see a mass planting of Mexican Feather Grass Nassella tenuissima and some repetition of clumps of natives like Iris douglasiana and a few plantings of Red Flowering Current Ribes sanguineum.  Another simple solution to update this planting median would be to plant California native Carex pansa en masse with occasional plantings of Wormwood Artemesia 'Powis Castle'.  Throwing a wreath around its neck in early May to acknowledge the Kentucky Derby would be a relevant and positive acknowledgement of North American culture.

Eureka exhibits many sculptural pieces in its streetscape, which really reflects, I think, its substantial love, appreciation and support for the arts.



street



gallery

 

Upcycled Post and Pallet Table

Upcycled Pallet Potting Bench



A twelve-inch salvaged wood post and an old, sturdy pallet with plenty of character were repurposed to construct a potting bench at Pierson Park Community Garden.  After salvaging these items and designing the table, it was built by setting the post in the ground, then attaching a small piece of plywood to the post with screws and then attaching the pallet table top to the plywood piece with long screws.

Pallet Table Construction Detail

Recyclart     Upcycling

Upcycled Pallet Compost Bin

Upcycled Compost Bin

A lovely eco-savy new addition to the Humboldt Botanical Garden is just up the hill and off the beaten path.  An ingenious design-build project by June Walsh, it is a series of three compost bins made of recycled pallets and gopher wire.

Now I'm wondering if pallets, gopher wire and landscaping fabric could be utilized for upcycled raised planting beds.