Philip’s Garden Blog

The Garden of La Foce located in the Val d’Orcia region of Southern Tuscany is considered one of the great gardens of the 20th century. The garden is indeed beautiful, in an incomparable setting; it is the story behind the creation of the garden and the events which took place there during World War II, however, which makes this garden so compelling. The story of La foce is of the restoration of a land and the spirit of its people, and of human decency and personal heroism  in a wretched time of war.

Newlyweds Iris and Antonio Origo seached for a place where they could make a difference, when in in 1923 with the impetuosity of youth the couple purchased La Foce. Located in the wilds of the Crete Senesi, La Foce was far removed from the Tuscan countryside of ordered gardens and tidy vines of Iris’ childhood. The Villa Medici where Iris had grown up was a remarkable Renaissance villa overlooking Florence; art, beauty and the aroma of luxury pervaded. In contrast, La Foce had few roads other than a rutted cart track. There was no electricity, no telephone and most importantly very little water. The soil had seriously eroded over centuries, and the forests decimated. The farms on the estate were all in great disrepair. The people had little access to health care and education; the land was a desert, its people wary.

Working together, Antonio and the people of the estate addressed erosion and added arable land, dug wells, ditches, added livestock and improved farms with electricity and lavatories. Roads were built to connect the isolated farms with the result that children could attend the school Iris set up (in a region with 80% illiteracy) and people could visit the dispensory (ambulatario) in times of sickness.

All energies and capital had gone into improving the farms, but the gift of a water pipe to a spring six miles away by Iris’ American grandmother meant that the house had an abundant water supply for the first time. Iris called upon her friend, the architect and noted landscape designer Cecil Pinsent to create the garden plan. Iris first met Cecil when he restored the grounds of her mother’s estate in Fiesole, and Pinsent employed a similar approach at la Foce. The first garden to be created was just off the Villa. Terraces were shaded by a wisteria clad pergola, and clipped box centered a fountain with dolphin supports resting in a cartouche shaped pool.

A few years later a larger terrace was linked to the house by geometic clipped box headed by twin pillars of travertine surmounted by urns. Pinsent’s use of strong form gave the garden structure, and evoked qualities found in Tuscan Renaissance gardens.

While Pinsent gave the garden bones, Origo added flowering plants. She learned along the way what would survive in the gardens conditions. Delphiniums, phlox, and the like had to be rejected, but lavender grew in profusion and roses flourished despite the clay soil. Stone steps connected the various parts of the garden. On an upper level a wide pergola clothed in wisteria created a bower.

Large terra cotta pots on stone bases planted with lemon trees studded the landscape

The lower garden is pure Pinsent with its theatrical composition of cypress hedges, clipped box and large trees of Magnolia grandiflora

I was moved to visit La foce after reading her remarkable memoir “War in Val d’Orcia”. Written as a diary during world war II, Origo recorded a dreadful period when the war itself came to La Foce. Origo opened her home to 24 children evacuated from Genoa and Turin and provided food and refuge for 200 partisans hiding in the woods and farms on the estate.  Origo writes:

So at last the old barriers of tradition and class were broken down, and we were held together by the same difficulties, fears, expectations and hopes. Together we found shelter for the fugitives who knocked on our door-whether Italians, Allies or Jews, soldiers or civilians-together we watched the first bombs fall on the bridges of the Val d’Orcia, and listened hopefully for the rumours of landings in Tuscany which never came. And together-when the Germans had turned us out of the cellar which had become our air raid shelter and had obliged us to walk to Montepulciano with all the refugee children and our own, as well as three new born babies - we came home after the allies’ arrival to bury the corpses in the woods and farms, to reap the harvest, to remove the mines still concealed in the woods and farms and in our own front garden, and then rebuild the shattered farms.

On the road descending from the villa one can see that La Foce has preserved and protected its agrarian character.

Just after the war Iris Origo recognized that  many children were in need: the orphaned, the abandoned and the malnourished. A permanent children’s home was established in what had been the nursery for refugee children at La Foce. She created a place that was not like an institution, but a place where the children could feel they were a part of a family. Iris worked tirelessly to find adoptive parents for the children. She was not able to find places for all, and those children returned to La Foce as adults with their respective families for Easter and Christmas. La Foce was home.

For English and American travellers on the “Grand Tour” of Europe in the 19th century, Italy and most especially Florence, was the desirous destination of choice. The flower of the Renaissance, Florence offered not only intellectual pursuits in art and architecture, but also the promise of  “la dolce far niente” (carefree idleness).  Life was considerably less expensive in Florence for the English and American expatriate with inexpensive lodgings and atmospheric villas, and the Siren’s call of wine, sunny skies and an agreeable countryside proved irresistable. The “Anglo Florentines” as this group camed to be called actually constitued many nationalities and backgrounds.  But it is the poets such as the Brownings, Keats and Vernon Lee; artists such as John Singer Sargent and the wealthy Bohemians who inhabited the historic villas in the hills above Florence for whom this group is remembered.

Iris Origo writes of the Anglo Florentines in her memoir, Images and Shadows: “If they had a villa, though they scrupulously preserved the clipped box and cypress hedges of the formal Italian garden, they yet also introduced a note of home: a Dorothy Perkens rambling among the vines and the wisteria on the pergola, a herbaceous border on the lower terrace, and comfotable wicker chairs upon the lawn.”

It was into this milieu that Lady Sybil Cutting, recently widowed from her American husband, announced to her young daughter, Iris “This is where we are going to live.”  “Home” was the Villa Medici in Fiesole, the humanist masterwork of Michelozzo for Cosimo de’ Medici.

Built in the mid 15th century, The Villa Medici was a radical departure from the enclosed medieval estate villas which preceded its construction. Commanding a sloping site above Florence in Fiesole, the villa incorporated a mathematical relationship between the house and its related garden terraces. Never concieved as a working agricultural estate, the property was for the singular intellectual and aesthetic delight of its occupants.

After Lady Sybil’s purchase of the villa in 1911, the garden was restored to its original design by Cecil Pinsent and Geoffrey Scott, revealing its rigorous geometry. The young architects were in the process of creating one of the greatest of Anglo Florentine gardens on the neighboring estate of I Tatti when the young Iris first met them:  “No picnic or expedition was complete without Cecil, no luncheon or dinner party, without Geoffrey’s stories” (Images and Shadows).

The restored garden was the scene for numerous visitors and tea parties, and Iris dutifully escorted her mother’s guests, gleefully regaling the gullible with imagined Medici murders and wandering ghosts. It was to the wild slopes in an Ilex wood above the terraced gardens that Iris escaped and made her own domain: “The great stone blocks of the Etruscan wall were as good for climbing, with their easy footholds, as were the low-branched olive trees; the high grass between the rose bushes was the perfect place to lie hidden on a summer’s day, peering down, unseen, at the dwarfed figures of the grown-ups staidly conversing on the terrace far below.” (Images and Shadows).

Iris expressed that as a child the talk of garden design and art was overwhelming. She longed to escape with a book or kept busy with the picnic hamper. She shied away from Edith Wharton, and the art critic and owner of I Tatti , Bernard Berenson, with his olympian pronouncements. Years later she found she possesed information which, once consciously rejected, now informed her as to what a great garden could be.  Cecil Pinsent, now a great friend, helped her to create it: the garden of  La Foce.

Connected to San Francisco by the Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito is protected from the marine winds of the
Pacific by the Marin headlands. Tendrils of fog never quite reach the tumbling gardens overlooking the bay.
Recently while strolling Sausalito’s many pedestrian footpaths, a resident affirmed the area  has seven different
micro-climates.  In a section of Sausalito with verdant, old gardens referred to as “The Banana Belt”,  
landscape designer Brandon Tyson has matched the Bohemian verve of the place with a garden for Linda Hothem
that combines original plant combinations, playful topiary and commissioned art.

A terraced slope secured by rock walls is planted in a  color story of orange and white. Vivid Calceolaria
“Kentish Hero” and mounds of Cuphea “Strybing Sunset” are contrasted with the fresh Iris “Frequent flyer”

In a corner of the garden, white flowering  and grey foliage plants predominate such as the fragrant Dianthus arenarius.

Pathways of mellow granite slabs are interplanted with Scotch moss Sagina subulata, 
Acorus gramineus and black mondo grass Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrecens’. Inky black grape
seed mulch (used throughout the garden) sets off the striking composition.

Restrained, dark colored borders backed by clipped hedges featuring Iris ‘Superstition’ with the black foliage
of Anthriscus ‘Ravenswing’ are on one side of the central lawn. Paired Japanese maples Acer palmatum disectum
‘Crimson Queen’ underplanted with  Echeveria ‘Afterglow’ add bronze accents flanking the steps to the lower garden.

Topiary, currently enjoying a resurgence in contemporary European gardens, add delight
and whimsy. A pair of signature topiary turtles command the central lawn. Equipped with
night spotlighting, the turtles are underplanted with Acorus sp. and black grapeseed mulch.

Espaliered trees in pots screen a sunny terrace. 

Comissioned works of art by artist Marsha Donohue reinforces the gardens themes and adds enrichment.

Assured, innovative, and with a great spirit of fun, this is a garden which has much to do with the happy
collaboration of those involved and the spirit of the region.

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive,
and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me. There was a padlock and chain upon the gate.
I called in my dream to the Lodge-Keeper, and had no answer, and peering through the rusted spokes of the
gate I saw that the lodge was uninhabited.” 
Exerpt: “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier

My brother Patrick  used to live on the street located below Tanglewood, a large uninhabited estate 
which revealed itself in tantalizing glimpses. One of the oldest homes in Sausalito, CA, Tanglewood was built in the
1870’s by a sea captain in a “Hong Kong Colonial” style. Pyramidal shaped roofs sheltered sweeping verandas which
took in heady views of the Sausalito harbor, Richardson Bay, and Belvedare island beyond. Exotic plantings collected
from the captain’s travels graced the property.

Neglected for years, In 1994  the estate was deeded to the University of Califonia Botanic Garden at Berkeley. 
 A kind of fantastic wilderness emerged with  flowering shubs popular in the 19th century assuming mad
proportions and the whole cloaked in verdure; a romantic place of moonlight and shadows. 

 Tanglewood, now leased as a private property by the botanic garden, is beginning to be restored.
I visited the garden last weekend on a tour sponsered by the Sausalito Women’s Club.

In the entrance garden shaded by large California oaks (Quercus agrifolia), alum root or coral bells Heuchera sanguinea,
and the Channel Islands native heuchera maxima, are planted with Geranium pratense “Mrs. Kendall Clark”.
California oaks do not like to be overwatered, and the selection of these perennial species, some native, enables the
garden to be relatively drought tolerant. 
All bloom in dappled shade and yet maintain that unique
atmosphere that is Tanglewood:  a wild garden of secrets and enchantment. 

Iconic designer Tony Duquette is recognized as one of the most original creative talents
of the 20th century. Discovered in the 1940’s by the legendary Elsie de Wolfe (Lady Mendl),
Duquette’s ourvre included celebrated designs for films, operas and the stage where he
worked with Vincent Minnelli and won a Tony award for costumes in the Broadway
production of “Camelot”.  A few of his interior design clients included Doris Duke, J Paul Getty,
Norton Simon and Elizabeth Arden for whom he designed an Irish Castle. His last commission
was the refurbishment of the Palazzo Brandoli in Venice for Dodi Rosenkranz.

Tony and Elizabeth Duquette built “Dawnridge” after their marriage in 1949. Set in a
Los Angeles canyon, the garden was conceived as an East Asian collection of pavillions,
pagodas and unique sculptures . Terraces lit by alabaster-like Chinese lanterns made
in resin by the designer were situated for al fresco dining. On the lower terrace, beyond
the swimming pool through nacre covered obelisks, presided Tony Duquette’s 28′ foot tall
sculpture “Pheonix Rising from Its Flames”.

In the 1950’s Tony and Elizabeth purchased 150 acres in the rugged Malibu mountains
above the Pacific and proceeded to construct an enchanted enclave of 21 houses, pavillions
and pagodas. Dubbed “The Empire” by Tony and Elizabeth, the garden property was
enjoyed by the couple and their many friends for 30 years until it tragically burnt to the
ground in the 1990’s Green Meadows Malibu fire.

Numerous pavillions graced the property.  In the photo below, Tony combined antlers given to him
by the Hearst ranch, and a cast resin onion dome salvaged from the Back lot of MGM studios. Branches
painted to resemble coral are reminiscent of the coral lavishly used at the Palazzo Brandolini.

The personal gardens created by Tony Duquette are intended to create an atmosphere
which delights. Plantings are not central here, but are well considered for the climate
and evocation of mood. It is the uniquely magical collection of garden rooms inclusive
with art which makes these some of the most original gardens conceived in our time.

Postscript: I first met Tony Duquette when the gallery I work for had a retrospective
of his work. His iconic jewelry enriched our 18th century busts, which were placed on
his biomorphic consoles. His signature lamps strung throughout the courtyard created
a scintillating  environment; an evening to remember.  Recently, Hutton Wilkenson, the
heir to Tony Duquette, Inc. allowed an unprecidented exibition of Tony Duquette’s exquisite
maquettes at our studio. Wherever Tony Duquette is around,even in spirit, magic is in the air.

Once it was called the Porciuncula river, and its meandering path from its sources in the mountains which
flank the San Fernando valley, through the Glendale Narrows and on to Long Beach where it meets the sea
provided water and sustenence for the many Gabrielino Indian villages on its changing banks.  Rapid urbanization
of Los Angeles in the first quarter of the 20th century and a series of devastating floods in the 1930’s prompted
the Army Corps of Engineers to transform the river into the concrete lined “Los Angeles Flood Control Channel”. 
The river truly lost its identity in more ways than its name.

In 1986, a non profit organization, Friends of the Los Angeles River, was founded. Its mission statement
“To Protect and restore the natural and historic heritage of the Los Angeles River and its riparian habitat through
inclusive planning, education and wise stewardship”.

Recently, Rick Magnus and Ron Harrison gave me a tour of a section where the riverbed no longer has concrete.

Noise from the Interstate Highway 5 which paralles this section is masked by the river which is now allowed
to flow naturally. Water percolates into the mud riverbed, replenishing the aquifers.

 Large carp are a delight to The Atwater fishing club, with a catch and release program

This May 17th is an opportunity to participate in a cleanup of the river’s banks and learn more about
its ecology. For further resources and information, contact the Friends of the Los Angeles River
http://www.folar.org/

On a recent trip through the California high desert,  I was struck by the rapid development of shopping centers and
housing developments, each with a strip of lawn and introduced species from more benevolent climes. The deserts
of the American Southwest have uniquely evolved over thousands of years with endemic plants adapted to the extremes
of climate and sandy, rocky soil.   A visit to Joshua Tree National Monument is instructive on what a garden in such a
landscape can be.  It is also gloriously beautiful.  Note: It is strictly prohibited to collect plant materials of any type from
the monument.  Purchase seeds and plants only from a certified nursery.

Winter rains transform the land with a succession of wildflowers (yellow cups Camissonia brevipes, and
Malacothrix glabrata, the desert daisy). Some plants remain dormant for years until just the right conditions.

The jumping cholla Opuntia bigelovii growing in “desert pavement” along with desert senna, Senna covesii. 
The desert senna, a member of the pea family, is a fine addition to the home desert garden. I would hesitate to
plant the jumping cholla, however, in places frequented by children and pets due to its nasty barbed spines.

The Mojave yucca, Yucca schidigera, had a myriad of uses for the Serrano. The fibers of the leaves were woven
into rope and sandals. The flowers, fruit and seeds were considered edible and the roots were used to make soap.
A veritable shopping center in one plant!

Desert Indian paintbrush, Castilleja angustifolia.

Desert mallow,  Sphaeralcea ambigua, is a superb choice for the home desert garden.
This will grow in disturbed areas such as roadsides and is a fine cut flower.

Calico cactus, Echinocereus engelmannii

Carolyn Presley shows her friend Ric around her property in Yucca Valley, CA .
She maintains this as a native reserve, with species seen at the nearby Joshua Tree National Monument.

Carolyn, Francis and Ric rest by Carolyn’s vintage milk truck, “The Bella Donna”.  And yes,
it runs just fine, thank you, with a restored motor. Things are not always what they may seem
at first in the desert.  Below is Carolyn’s collection of found objects. This garden epitomizes to me
living in balance with the desert, with its moods and beauty.

and at the Huntington Botanical Garden:

Irises are a bulbous or rhyzomatous native to northern temperate regions all over the world. Their distinctive flowers consist of three inner petals or “standards” nested inside three outer petals or “falls”.  But other than these characteristics, iris flowers vary enormously in terms of size and color.  Irises are usually propagated through division.  Divide every year and the intrepid gardener can achieve similar effects!

One the the most beautiful and evocative private gardens in the United States has to be the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller gardens in Seal Harbor, Maine. Established after a visit to Asia in 1921, The Rockefellers brought back  a treasure hoard in which to enrich their garden including a collection of imperial yellow roof tiles from the Forbidden City, Peking. These tiles grace the perimeter walls which enclose the garden.  The genius of the scheme was Beatrix Farrand, one of ten in 1899 of the American society of Landscape Designers, and its only woman member.

Concieved as a “giardino segreto”, the enclosed garden was placed away from the house with the entrance being a “moon gate” in the Chinese manner.

Originally tender bedding plants were placed out for the summer “Season”, but a visit with Rosemary Verey years later encouraged the planting scheme of perennial plants in lilac, mauve, blue, and white we see today.  One would certainly need the purse of a Rockefeller to reproduce this garden, but there are many design elements here which can be utilized by the intrepid gardener.  The enclosure and classic plan give this garden a “sense of place”,  and the strong bones would enable this garden to look good in every season.  To cut down on costs, water, and maintenence, one could replace some of these plants with hardier, more structural specimens, yet still keeping the soft colorway.  Delphinium, for example, could be replaced with Verbascum or any number of Salvia.  The lawn could be eliminated, replaced with crazy pavement, decomposed granite or pea gravel.

The atmospheric “Moon-Gate” could be incorporated as shown in this contempory garden by Jinny Blom.

What I most admire in this scheme is that the moongate is not a pastiche, but has been re-invigorated in a fresh and modern way.

The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden is on Route 3 in Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island.  A private garden, it can be visited by appointment one day a week during July and August. Telephone (207) 276-3330. Call after June 15th, on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

http://www.amazon.com/Made-Garden-Modern-Library-Gardening/dp/0375759476

A truly grass roots concern, this plan could only have become a reality from dedicated individuals from every part of the community who had this vision:
http://www.thehighline.org/.  The following are just a few of the schemes proposed:

In this environmentally friendly roof garden, drought tolerant perennials are placed in drifts of complimentary colors. White yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and ornamental grasses add texture.

Of late, water has been badly manipulated as an element in the garden.  With a disregard for natural laws, piles of stone tower over a flat plain to issue a water cascade; contrived “naturalistic” pools reside where it would normally wash away; and fountains produce a din as to preclude conversation.  Conversely, water in the garden is  excluded, as some feel it does not contibute to a water-wise approach, necessary in a future of shrinking supply.

The gardens of the Generalife in Grenada, Spain show how still reflecting pools and fountains, gurgling and in sprays, can create a rarefied atmosphere; a place of repose and refreshment in an arid landscape.

Today, Tom Stuart Smith and Brandon Tyson incorporate water in their gardens with a similar approach:

In this garden designed by Tom Stuart Smith, russet colored drifts of grasses are  startling in a field studded with clipped topiary standards. There is an evocation of time here; one is reminded of the classic ruins of Rome clothed in verdure so beloved of the 19th century Romantics.  It is as though a once formal garden, now “gone to seed”, has achieved a new kind of splendor.

          
This imposing biennial, Greek mullein (Verbascum olympicum) is native to Ulalag, Turkey, a region of great biodiversity and botanic interest. Certainly this mullein grows in a single season to olympic proportions.   The grey hairy leaves are indicative of plants endemic to arid regions. These  plants exhibit little but their  leaves for a year or two before it sends a stock up to 8 feet high, with many flowering branches. After summer blooming, the plant dies but not before it releases many seeds for future plants.

Greek mullein grows naturally in stony ground, well drained with little fertility. Give it a similar situation in full sun and it is easy to grow.  This plant has the potential for great dramatic effects in the garden when planted in multiples, as shown here in a mixed border at Great Dixter.  Plants can be purshased here: http://www.anniesannuals.com/signs/v%20-%20z/verbascum_olympicum.htmidal paniclerming a pyramidal panicle

In this striking border,  Noel Kingsbury,  author of Planting Design: Gardens in Time and Space  and Seedheads, combines spiky perennials with a backdrop of dramatic grasses. The contrast of the formal elements such as the classic urn, bench, and gravelled path with the naturalistic plantings in a blue and grey colorway with emphasis on texture is key.  You can create a similar effect with the following plants: