Tape is the only designer additive here

 image via Thea’s Mania

Of course Dumpster Style’s found objects (treasures?) can be used for another purpose, but the difference is, is that they maintain their original integrity. There is a romanticism in the purity of  these objects.  They don’t need to be masked, they can be used with minimal ‘design’ interference from well meaning and overly industrious upcyclers.

Can bottom shingles

image via Pinterest

Somewhat nutty, the roof garden below clearly has respect for what the objects were in a thoughtful and stylized way.  Originally from Apartment Therapy, I shared this one on Leaflets back in July and it spurred a lot of discussion.

Rooftop Dumpster Style Edible Garden

Image via Apartment Therapy

As for the Wabi-sabi, a quote from the very first page of Leonard Koren’s wonderful book Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers sums it up:

Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.
It is a beauty of things modest and humble.
It is a beauty of things unconventional.

And sometimes it’s just all about the dumpster.  Artist Oliver Bishop-Young hasn’t changed much about this dumpster…or has he?

Planted Dumpster Style

Dumpster Planter from artist Oliver Bishop-Young

 images via Oliver Bishop-Young

Click for more Dumpster Style on Pinterest.

The garden was a reinvention of an early 20th century estate garden on a historic property that had fallen to ruin.  In its previous incarnation, 2 full time gardeners lived on the property and cared for it.  They had access to a small greenhouse, potting shed and gardeners cottage which have been partially restored.  There is also coldframe that is in such bad shape it could qualify as a partial archeological site.

Fast forward to 2011.  The property has been sold again and the garden that I built for may not survive the new owners.  To me that makes the following photos (all by Rich) so special.  It reminds me that gardens are always ephemeral…one minute in one is never the same as the next.

Peony walk with rose arbors

Salvaged fountain

A view across the interior lawn

Curtain wall with perennials

The most obvious of the emerging trends is something I’m going to call Rough Refinement.  It is the juxtaposition of rough hewn elements with sophisticated design and often other more industrial materials.  These pieces would be at home in a naturalistic garden as well as one that is cool and contemporary.

Douglas Thayer makes benches and other furniture from reclaimed materials and concrete.  The two shown here use ipe reclaimed from Coney Island’s boardwalk.

Reclaimed Ipe and Concrete

Board by Design had some beautiful rocking chairs, but I liked these Japanese inspired lanterns fabricated from blocks of elm and powder coated steel the best.

Japanese Lantern

In a similar vein, architect Eugene Stoltzfus’ Hercules IV table would be at home on a patio or in a secret woodland garden.

Hercules IV table

Last in this trend is the continuation of recycled fragments and industrial parts that are turned into furniture.  Although this has been popular for several years, Arms and Barnes twisted the Rough Refinement idea adding the natural after the industrial with tables made specifically for growing moss that incorporated found pieces and new concrete.

Moss tables

The NY Times alluded to this as a fashion trend this week which I read after I wrote this piece.  Next up will be some furniture and object picks…

Wheel Barrow

The second in my duet of garden tools is a water trolley that is functional and designed to bring water to places where a hose and irrigation don’t reach.  Its from b grover limited home in Dallas.

Water Trolley

First, NY Spaces not only mentioned my garden on their cover, but a beautiful editorial was inside…

On the cover and inside!

A Potager

Then, at a dinner party, the hostess showed me a more local publication….love being included as a ‘Great Garden’

Great Gardens!

A nice local plug...

And of course…Horticulture, where I write the east coast half of Design Perspectives.

Suburban Solutions

You can click and enlarge to read any of the articles here.

Design Perspectives

A monthly column by Rebecca Sweet and I

Two designers on a single topic...

If this embaressment of riches wasn’t enough, one of my favorite blogs, Paradis Express gave Miss R a shout out.  It’s going to be a great season.

Being a hardcore Francophile–I speak French, have lived there and have visited Paris on more than one occasion–all I saw were so many missed opportunities.  Did we really need a fake Eiffel Tower or a press board Boulangerie?  Only one garden ‘got’ it completely, two others partially and the rest well…Je m’ennuyais à mort.

What was fabulous was Groundswell’s Allee of Pleached ‘Trees’.  Imaginative, over the top, timely and original.

Parts of Michael Petrie’s Monet inspired garden were fabulous too, especially the ironwork by Greg Leavitt and the shimmery backdrops that gave a nod to the artist’s obsession with light.

A floral designer, Susan Krabill,  paid homage to the underground ghoulish Paris…

and two of the obsessive types who make jewelry (Hollis Bauer) and objects (Mary Pressly) out of seed pods were pretty great.

So was this edible window box from the students at the Barnes Foundation Arboretum.

The rest well, I’ve already said my piece.

Founded by Jared Braterman and Chris Berthelsen the site consists of images of real and imagined green spaces and has interactive maps, participant uploads, photos of private and public gardens and articles about urban greening and gardening.

Over the winter I created a look book of built work.  It’s a hybrid between a coffee table book of garden eye candy and more serious text.  I want to do more collaborative design work with architects and interior designers, so the content and pictures are designed to peak their interest.   A soft cover version will be used as a portfolio piece for potential clients.  I’ve always had a ‘leave behind’ portfolio, but my secondary hope is that a book will hang around either office or home when brochures get recycled or filed and cd’s get lost in the shuffle.

Here’s a preview–it’s a little slow to load, but you’ll get the idea.  Let me know what you think!  I haven’t seen the finished product yet…the test print will arrive on Thursday.