Harkness Memorial State Park, East Garden

The East Garden at Harkness is perhaps my favorite garden in the park, probably because I don't get to spend much time in it. When I am in the garden I am usually mowing the grass pathways between beds or emptying the vole traps, and then I am expected back in the West Garden.

The East Garden, unlike the West Garden, was designed entirely by Beatrix Farrand and was not original to the Harkness property. Prior to 1918 the area of the East Garden was a turf tennis court, but Mary Harkness did not make much use of it and employed Farrand to design a garden in it's place. The East Garden was designed with Mary Harkness' interests in mind: she was an enthusiast of what was then referred to as "the Orient" and collected various artifacts from Asiatic countries--an interest that could today be called Orientalism, à la Edward Saïd. Farrand wanted to design a garden that could exhibit Mrs. Harkness' collection of Chinese vases and jade stones as well as provide an environment different than one of the West Garden.

The simple design of the East Garden doesn't convey how gorgeous it is. 

The East Garden, being small, makes use of space efficiently by incorporating a sunken garden, which is typically part English garden design. It is located in the center of the garden and retained with granite. There is also a small reflecting pool that was used to display Mrs. Harkness' collection of jade stones, as the bottom of the pool was inlaid with them. They have since been removed. Today, the pool is typically not filled as it is a drowning hazard to small children. 

View of the sunken garden and the mansion from the east wall of the garden.

The East Garden feels totally different from the West Garden. In contrast to the West, Farrand made heavy use of cool colors such as blue, green and purple and accented her palette with white, yellow and pink flowers. Heirloom heliotrope (groundcover and standard heliotrope) that have been propagated at Harkness since the 1920's are the most heavily used flower in the garden, followed by Lamb's Ear and salvia patens. At different times in the summer there are also poppies, snapdragons, daisies, catmint, dianthus and lavender.

View from the north end of the garden, overlooking the Long Island Sound. 

The East Garden's softer and more casual atmosphere is often overlooked in favor of the (relative) grandiosity of the West Garden. I tend to enjoy the East Garden more because it's smaller and the grass paths mean that no dust is kicked up, unlike with the gravel paths that constantly need to be scuffle hoed. It seems quieter and cooler to me in the East Garden, especially at the peak of summer. The memory of the scent of heliotrope stays with me even in the last gasps of winter. 

Harkness Memorial State Park, West Garden

Upon my return from Copenhagen (which was undoubtedly the best part of 2015, and maybe my life) I came home and immediately began searching for a summer job. I had willfully ignored the internship circus that plagues most undergrads while I was studying abroad, and was paying for it during my last days in Copenhagen as I applied for local jobs from my school's library in Denmark. Once I got home and the jet lag wore off, I started the search in earnest. 

Continuing my good fortune of being able to study abroad, I managed to find a job as a gardener at Harkness Memorial State Park, filling the last seasonal position for the summer. My only regret is that I didn't find this summer job years ago, when I was miserable at dead-end restaurants or joylessly babysitting. While my friends were living in hot cities and chipping away at lofty internships, I was enjoying my summer in the West Garden overlooking the Long Island Sound. Maybe upon graduation I'll regret not finding some résumé-building internship, but for what my summer was worth, I expect not. 

Harkness Memorial State Park was originally the summer home Edward Harkness and Mary Stillman Harkness. The Harkness' inherited their wealth from Edward Harkness's father, who was one of the early investors in Rockefeller Standard Oil Company. If I remember correctly, Harkness Park (or rather, the mansion, named Eolia) was the 7th home belonging to the Harkness'. It was purchased from Mary Harkness' sister in 1907, and bequeathed to the State of Connecticut upon Mary's death in 1950. It officially became part of the state park system in 1952. Now it is overseen by the Connecticut DEEP.

While the mansion is beautiful and deserves a blog post of it's own, the gardens are obviously the focus here. With 3 main gardens, there's a lot of ground to cover (literally) without even mentioning the entirety of the property, which used to be functioning farm as well as 9-hole golf course. Is it also worth mentioning the beach? Because there's one of those, too. 

The West Garden

The West Garden (formally known on tours as the Italianate Garden) is where I spent the vast majority of my time this past summer. The garden beds, paths and water features were designed originally by James Gamble Roger's firm, and planted with spring bulbs (hyacinths, daffodils, etc.) and red geraniums in unimaginative straight rows throughout all the beds. In 1910, the pergola was built atop several garden beds as a birthday gift to Mrs. Harkness. It has been said (by my bosses, specifically) that Mrs. Harkness didn't like the garden design or use of flowers, and particularly disliked the color red. In 1916, Beatrix Farrand, an acclaimed American landscape architect, was invited to Eolia for a consultation. Between 1918 and 1929 Farrand worked on various projects on the property, including redesigning the West Garden. 

Farrand, who preferred the British term "landscape gardener" rather than landscape architect. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrix_Farrand

Looking North towards the pergola; yews surrounding ornamental lawn.

Looking West at the water feature known at work as "Duck Baby" (the statue in the fountain is a small child holding two ducklings.) People love to photograph Duck Baby. 

Inside the pergola, looking West. Thick Wisteria covers the majority of the pergola, providing shade and a great place to take our allotted breaks. 

Plan of the West Garden, including the Boxwood Parterre and Alpine Garden to the Southwest of the main axis. These were added by Beatrix Farrand during the West Garden renovations. Beds H, G, and F were also added. The space had previously been used as a seating area. I don't know why the beds are lettered out of order, but I can tell you that it's really confusing for new seasonals. 

Looking down on the lily pond of the Alpine Garden. Growth of the conifers in the Alpine Garden has slightly changed the climate of the West Garden, as the taller trees now block cool air from the Long Island Sound, but also provide shade in the late afternoon. The West Garden is referred to at work as the sauna.

Beatrix Farrand was given quite a bit of freedom in redesigning the flower use of the West Garden, and used the same color-theory-meets-botany methodology that Gertrude Jekyll had invented and popularized via the English Arts and Crafts garden. The straight rows of spring bulbs were removed . Instead, Farrand used daylilies, asiatic lilies, nasturtium, coreopsis, brown-eyed susans, sunflowers, lantana, poppies, marigolds, goldenrod (considered a weed by boss, who begrudgingly leaves it in the garden) calendula, rudbeckia, snapdragons and yellow roses in wave-like, irregular patterns much in the same way that Jekyll did. Though it is unclear if Farrand ever met Jekyll, it was known that during her studies Farrand travelled to Munstead Wood to gain first-hand experience with Jekyll's most famous Arts and Crafts garden. Farrand's use of warm-colored flowers was intentional: Mrs. Harkness wanted to evoke a hot, Mediterranean climate in the garden. The oranges, umbers, and yellows that dominated the beds were offset by blue salvia patens, flaxseed, bachelor buttons and nigella jekyll, as well as white flowering tobacco, cosmos, irises, dianthus, phlox and baby's breath. Purple columbine spread throughout the garden as well. Finally, two large bushes of red crocosmia served as accents in beds C and E.

In keeping with the ideals of an classical Italian Renaissance Garden, the West Garden is placed topographically lower (though not by much) than Eolia, so that the garden can be seen when looked out from the home, and the home, which is quite imposing, can be seen from the garden. The "to-be-look-at-ness" of the West Garden is, to me, the main signifier of its Italian Renaissance inspiration. Though there are walls around the garden, these walls are often crowded with roses and ivy to hide the walls. In the past, before the conifers of the Alpine Garden were so tall, the garden gave way to views of the rolling lawn and Long Island Sound. 

Gratuitous picture of myself along the southeast wall of the garden, by bed E. 

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The Arts & Crafts Garden

Citing examples, define and describe the character, form and contents of the Arts and Crafts garden created by the Gertrude Jekyll & Edwin Lutyens partnership.     

    The Arts and Crafts garden is by far my favorite garden that we have explored in class. This type of garden is rich with color and actual plants, thus giving it an entirely unique and recognizable look, despite the design of individual gardens varying quite a bit.

    The Arts and Crafts garden is a product of several stylistic and social influences. From the Victorian period William Robinson and Reginald Blomfield came two garden authorities (a gardener and an architect, respectively) whose clashing opinions helped spawn the A&C garden. Robinson stated that gardens were to have hardy plants (if not native to Britain) in them that looked wild or natural, which was in direct opposition to the idea of using bedding plants or exotic, greenhouse-reliant plants in the garden. Blomfield, being an architect, believed that the garden should complement the house and that the design of the garden should reflect the design of the house, which essentially led to Blomfield advocating for the formal garden. The A&C garden did both of those things in a unique way thanks to Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens. Jekyll, a gardener and writer, and Lutyens, an architect, teamed up to create some of the most sought-after English homes and gardens of the Victorian and Edwardian period. It was Jekyll who did the garden design and managed to complement the architecture of the home by laying out a natural garden that consisted of herbaceous borders, shrubs and ornamental grasses. Jekyll, a trained artist, applied color theory to the gardens to make them particularly beautiful and harmonious. While Jekyll created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the U.S., the project that brought together Jekyll and Lutyens was Munstead Wood, near Godalming. As seen in the photo, the house and garden are close to one another and complement each other. Brick paths and balustrade terraces are softened by herbaceous plants placed in such a way that colors complemented one another and gave the garden a "natural" look. 

Munstead Wood

source:http://www.phaidon.com/resource/munstead-1.jpg

    The A&C garden not only arose out of competing styles but also a cultural movement towards the decorative and fine arts, which came as a result of the industrial revolution and the mass production of goods that came with it. The desire for originality that started the A&C movement was reflected in the A&C garden because each garden was quite different in design and use of color, but still distinctly an Arts and Crafts garden.

Lindisfarne Castle

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Jekyll#/media/File:Lindisfarne_Castle_and_its_Jekyll_Garden_-_geograph.org.uk_-_334038.jpg

Arts and Crafts garden at Barrington Court in the winter

source: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/barrington-court/things-to-see-and-do/

Arts and Crafts garden at Greywalls Hotel 

source: http://greywalls.co.uk/files/cache/39fadadeddfac29a08ec36ac13ee20d3_f357.jpg

Victorian Villa Gardens

Describe the form, content and style of the Victorian villa garden. Include in your answer the inspirations for this garden type.

The Victorian villa garden incorporated many different styles of English gardens for the purpose of conspicuous consumption—no villa was complete without a garden that represented the spending power of the parvenu and nouveau riche. Both social mores and technological developments had strong influences on the stylistic mishmash that was the Victorian villa garden.

Technological developments abounded in the Victorian era, but it was the glasshouse (colloquially called a greenhouse) that added to the design of the Victorian villa garden. While the idea of insulation to grown plants had been around since Roman times, the first glasshouse was developed in Holland in the 1800’s, followed by Joseph Paxton who built The Crystal Palace in London, putting glasshouses on the map for garden-owning Victorians. Glasshouses, being expensive structures to build and maintain, naturally housed expensive, exotic plants that also required much maintenance for their survival. Individual plants were used as status symbols in the Victorian garden, and the glasshouse was integral to maintaining those status symbols.

Southport glasshouse

source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bd/Southport_Botanic_Gardens_Glasshouse.jpg

One of the first orchids to start the orchid craze in England, Cattleya labiata.

source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattleya_labiata#/media/File:Labiata.jpg

If you were worried about a lack of status symbols in the Victorian villa garden, don’t be. Greenhouses were only one component as the villa garden has more to offer by way of conspicuous consumption. The past gardening trend had been that of Capability’s Brown’s landscape gardens. This was rejected by the Victorians in search of formality and acknowledgement of the ability of man. The garden became one of constructed, artificial nature for the sake of beauty and displaying art and architecture. Formal portions of the Victorian villa garden were included directly off of the house, which often included a terrace, works of art (such as statues), and formal elements such as parterres. Formal gardens opened up to pleasure gardens, which looked like natural landscapes blemished by—and clashing—bedding flowers in various shapes and designs. Fountains, patios and intently designed rockeries were also included in the pleasure garden.

The final element of the Victorian villa garden was the productive, or kitchen garden. Seeing how maintenance of the villa garden could be quite costly, it made sense to have a productive garden—but it was to be far off from the house. Sure, it’s necessary and helps offset costs, but no one needed to see evidence of this sort of consumption.

Map of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire
source: http://www.places-to-go.org.uk/Images/Chatsworth_map.gif

Green spaces and places of Portugal

After spending 4 days in Barcelona, I left for Lisbon and was absolutely enchanted. Lisbon is a hilly city covered with gorgeous tile-covered buildings and great weather. There are a lot of great vistas that also double as gardens to look over the city and nice castles with green spaces in them. However, the best spaces I went to were outside of Lisbon, in Sintra. There I visited the western most point of Europe and well as two castles and the town of Sintra itself. My favorite "castle" was Regaleira (it's actually an estate), but not because of the building. The park surrounding it was enchanting and quite mysterious with a ton of grottoes, underground tunnels, towers, terraces and hidden water features to be discovered, all built into the mountainside. I also visited the ultra-romantic Pena Palace (an actual palace) that was higher up the mountain than Sintra. This palace had only a few interior gardens but a magnificent view of the countryside.

A handsome peacock atop one of the walls of the garden of Sao Jorge castle in Lisbon.

One of the gates of Regaleira Palace. The Moorish Castle can be seen at the top of the hill. 

Terrace and walled towers, photo taken from an adjacent tower in the park.

Beautiful mossy fountain outside of Pena Palace.

Hanging Gardens of Barcelona

I went to Barcelona and Lisbon during the last week of April and it was a fantastic vacation. While each city had a lot of great aspects (sun, sangria, sao giao cheese, amendoa) that made them unique and fun to be in, they had two things in common: great weather and great gardens.

Barcelona in particular had a lot of fantastic hanging gardens. People's balconies were crowded with succulents and cacti, including a ton of Ghost plants/Mother-of-pearl plants (Graptopetalum paraguayense) which are my favorite. Other notables (read: easily recognizable) were Jade plants and Burrow's Tail. Hanging gardens are a great way to capitalize on a limited amount of space and sunlight, and succulents lend themselves well to hanging gardens because of how a lot of them tend to grow. The forgiving climates of both Spain and Portugal make it easy for both succulents and non-succulents to survive winters and persist in summers. 

Two sun-bathed balcony gardens in the heart of Barcelona. Thought: does having a garden on your balcony make it hard to use the balcony for non-garden related things? Plants take up a lot of space, even on balconies.

A really nice, packed-in balcony garden. The Burrow's Tail and Tillandsia are impressive centerpieces for this hanging garden. I recognize the tallest non-succulent plant from one of my mom's houseplant collections but I can't remember the name. 

geekin'

Lisbon will be another post since so much ground was covered there.

Urban Greenspaces in CPH

Describe the character and uses of the different urban greenspaces created in Copenhagen the 19th century and explored on our Field Study, and the ways in which these parks are relevant and beneficial to 21st century urban living.

The first place we visited was Ørstedsparken, which is nestled in the center of the city, butting up against the glass markets. The park comes from direct efforts of the city to create more urban green spaces for the growing number of Copenhagen citizens (circa 1872) as well as the long overdue decommissioning of the old Copenhagen fortifications that no longer served their original purpose.

            Ørstedsparken consists of several walkways around the small lake, as well as some hills with a bridge that bisects the lake, which is the lowest point of the park. The park derives its interesting shape from the old rampart that was part of the fortification, and the lake is a remnant of the moat that used to also serve as protection from the city. The park was created in order to give Copenhageners more access to parks in 1872 (as were many other parks; Ørstedsparken is part of a larger consortium of parks called the Fortification Ring) and still serves that purpose today, as it creates place for people to descend into a natural area to escape the city. Ørstedsparken is also a known meeting place for gay men who wish to meet somewhat discreetly outside of gay or gay-friendly local bars. As of 2015, a municipal law is in place that ensures that all citizens of Copenhagen are able to reach a green space or beach in under 15 minutes—on foot.

Map of Ørstedsparken

source: http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%98rstedsparken

The bridge spanning the lake in Ørstedsparken

source: http://www.bt.dk/krimi/to-anholdt-for-voldtaegt-af-mand

                        The next space visited was the Botanical Garden, which is part of the Natural History Museum of Denmark and part of the University as well. In 1870, around the same time the fortifications of Copenhagen were being taken down and decommissioned, the Botanical Garden (Botanisk have) was moved to its final location near The King’s Garden by Nørreport Station. The garden serves both educational and recreational purposes, as well as having a seed bank and museum. The Botanical Garden arose from a need for a place to store seeds, dried plant specimens, as well as living plant specimens, mostly for medical purposes, though its use has also included recreational purposes today.

            Both of these parks contribute to enforcing Copenhagen’s municipal 15-minute green space access rule. Parks within the city, but especially Ørstedsparken and the Botanical Garden, serve as places for residents to spend time in a leisurely way. While other parks, like the Kings Garden, serve as gathering spaces for large groups, these two parks are far more independence-based. This may be on account of having less grass that can be sat on, or the size of the parks themselves. On any (sunny) given day, people can be found meandering, eating lunch, or reading in both parks visited during our field study. Relaxation seems to be the goal of everyone who uses Copenhagen urban greenspaces. 

Botanical Garden in the winter

source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Copenhagen_Botanical_Garden_-_winter_2.jpg

Palm house

personal image