Garden Large » History

Charles A. Birnbaum: On Olana and the Upcoming Symposium

Duncan Brine — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 22:35:08 +0000

Charles A. Birnbaum: The Value of View
- April 16, 2011 symposium at Olana, Framing the Viewshed: The Transformative Power of Art and Landscape in the Hudson Valley.

Frederic Edwin Church: Twilight in the Wilderness (1860) Cleveland Museum of Art

For more information please check out our Brine Garden page

In Scotland’s Search for Native Roots, A Push to Restore Wild Lands

Duncan Brine — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 21:40:25 +0000

In Scotland’s Search for Roots, A Push to Restore Wild Lands by Caroline Fraser: Yale Environment 360 – Annotated
- As Scotland asserts its identity and its autonomy,
  environmentalists are working to restore its denuded landscape – planting native forests, creating wildlife corridors, and reintroducing species that were wiped out centuries ago.
  by caroline fraser
- … beneath the superficially peaceful surface of Scotland simmers a longstanding discontent. Politically, the country is roiled by nationalism, fully engaged in “devolution,” the process of hedged independence set in motion a decade ago, when citizens voted in 1997
  
  …. On the ground, Scots are as restive with an Anglicized landscape as they are with Anglo rule. “Who owns Scotland?” cries Rob McMorran, coordinator of a group of activists known as the Scottish Wild Land Group.
- …Environmental groups are buying hunting estates to reforest; private landowners are experimenting with native planting; beaver have been reintroduced after decades of debate. Many such projects fall under the rubric of “rewilding”—the conservation method of restoring core wilderness areas, maintaining corridors between them for wildlife to migrate and disperse, and reintroducing top predators.

Gardener William Bartram: The Search for Nature’s Design

Duncan Brine — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:14:07 +0000

Terrain.org Blog » Micro Review: William Bartram: The Search for Nature’s Design – Annotated
(via Terrain.org )
- William Bartram (1739-1823) was much more than a botanist. He was an influential philosopher and thinker in colonial America whose unorthodox views of life’s interconnectedness filtered through his interests in nature and exploration…
- Correspondence included in The Search for Nature’s Design traces Bartram’s botanical adventures in chronology. His previously unpublished papers cover botany, medicine, geography, gardening, native culture, slavery, environmental protection, commerce, aesthetics, philosophy, and religion. Illuminated journal entries and botanical illustrations depict the natural detail of the 18th-century America Bartram observed.

Natural-Landscaping: Lorrie Otto, founder of Wild Ones

Duncan Brine — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 23:08:50 +0000

Local News | Bellingham woman is a warrior against pesticides, an advocate for nature | Seattle Times Newspaper
- To Lorrie Otto, the manicured expanse of green surrounding most homes is the root of environmental evil she’s spent decades trying to stamp out.
- She founded Wild Ones, a natural-landscaping advocacy group in Wisconsin, of which she’s still a board member. And she continues to be an advocate for natural landscaping and protecting the Earth.
- When Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring” came out in 1962, documenting the damage chemical pesticides did to birds’ eggs and criticizing government officials for unquestioningly accepting chemical-company propaganda, Otto’s campaign against DDT got a boost.
- “When my husband came home with a New Yorker under his arm and said they were serializing ‘Silent Spring,’ I remember dancing around the house thinking: Now everyone will know about DDT,” Otto said.
- “I was just one person,” she says. “Yet, I was the catalyst.”

Naturalism or Prettied-up Countryside? Is Rural Landscape is a fiction?

Duncan Brine — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:22:22 +0000

A native digs deep with relish…

“The English sticks have been subjected to a makeover, a wash and brush up. Dirt farms have turned into clean farms. Canals in desuetude have been redug and refilled. Cottages have been restored to a state of “authenticity”.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2010/mar/17/british-countryside-transformed

Vintage Gardens and Gardeners: Courtesy of gardenhistorygirl.com, administered by lovedaylemon

Duncan Brine — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:23:45 +0000

http://www.flickr.com/groups/684463@N21/pool

Enjoy and perhaps contribute to this grassroots compilation of a treasure trove of historical, American backyards.

Vintage Gardens and Gardeners

Group Pool Discussion 78 Members Map Join This Group

Slideshow

Snail Mounts: New, Old, Small and Large

Duncan Brine — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:39:00 +0000

gardenhistorygirl
- The Elizabethan Snail Mount
- The viewing mount at the Garden of Cosmic Speculation (see previous post) is of particularly illustrious ancestry, being a type favored by the Elizabethans who conferred upon it a typically emblematic meaning.
  
  Sir Francis Bacon’s garden (c. 1620) had ‘in the very middle, a fair mount, with three ascents, and alleys, enough for four to walk abreast; which I would have to be perfect circles…and the whole mount to be thirty foot high’
  
  A mount of this height had to be ascended by stairs (expensive) or by circular spiralling paths (cheaper), leading to the name ‘snail mounts’.
  
  The best surviving example, shown above, is at Lyveden New Bield in Northamptonshire, where twin snail mounds arise from a moated landscape surrounding Thomas Tresham’s haunting, never-finished Trinitarian retreat.
  
  (Highly recommended for a visit as one of the most intact Tudor landscapes.)

On Borrowed Time: The Mount’s Deadline Shifts to October

Duncan Brine — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:41:07 +0000

October climax set for The Mount – Berkshire Eagle Online
- By Benning W. De La Mater, Berkshire Eagle Staff
  
  Article Last Updated: 05/14/2008 03:00:18 AM EDT
- LENOX — An agreement between The Mount and its creditors has staved off foreclosure and a May 31 deadline that would have forced Edith Wharton Restoration Inc. to raise $3 million by the end of the month.
- Instead, the historic home of the Gilded Age writer will be open to the public all summer without a threat of foreclosure by Berkshire Bank. The new fundraising deadline has been set for Oct. 31.
- The Mount owes a total of nearly $9 million to its creditors, which also includes another bank and two individuals. More than $875,000 has been raised during its emergency “Save the Mount” fundraising campaign, and $240,000 of that money has come within the past month or so.
- “This relieves us of the month-to-month burden,” Travers said. “It’s a long window to raise the funds, but there’s no guarantee that we will be able to raise this money. It does give us time, though.”

The New Yorker’s Mount Drama

Duncan Brine — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:14:05 +0000

Table of Contents: April 28, 2008: Table of Contents: The New Yorker – Annotated
Magazine only, not online
- Restoration Drama
  
  Rebecca Mead
  
  Trouble at Edith Wharton’s house

Olmsted’s Park Legacy

Duncan Brine — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:29:27 +0000

Olmsted’s Legacy: Parks for American Cities : NPR – Annotated
- Listen Now [12 min 36 sec] add to playlist
- The Bryant Park Project, April 25, 2008 · This weekend marks the 150th anniversary of Frederick Law Olmsted’s winning the contest to design New York City’s Central Park. Biographer Charles Beveridge says Olmsted’s work became the template for urban parks throughout the United States.