Landscape Architecture; evergreens to buffaloberry to amur-maple
Archimedes Plutonium
science
of it. I would have already posted my contribution to such a newsgroup
awhile
back when I spoke of beauty in landscape architecture as the beauty of
"rows"
and that specimen trees dotted here and there are not pretty but ugly.
That
Landscape Architecture beauty is found when trees or shrubs or plants
are
in rows. And that if the Golden Mean Ratio can be observed in rows would
accent the beauty even more. A rectangle block or rows of trees of 1 to
1.61..
And the trees of a Golden Mean Rectangle must be about the same size,
otherwise ugly.
I have one lot that is now near complete in achieving a Golden Mean
Rectangle
with two rows of blue spruce and concolor fir. A row of cedar-juniper. A
row of
amur maple and two rows of buffalo-berry (russian olive with its silvery
leaves).
crude diagram:
| j a s |
| u m p |
| n u r |
| i r u |
| p c |
| e e |
| r |
| + b b +|
| u u |
| f f f f |
| i f f i |
| r a r|
| + l |
| s o |
| p b |
| r |
The visual one sees of this beautiful landscaped lot is that of a
rectangle
shape of its trees. You see a large row of juniper and bluespruce and
fir going west to east and just south of them is a row of amur maples
that
becomes buffaloberry (russian olive with its silver leaves) and south of
them is empty for me to fill in and then south is another row of
buffaloberry and south of them is blue spruce and concolor fir.
The beauty is that all the trees are nearly the same height but the fir
and bluespruce are the tallest. And then in springtime I have the
silvery
leaves of the buffalo berry slashed against that blue and green of the
firs and blue spruce. Looks like an artist went in there and painted.
In the Autumn I am rewarded by the red of the amur maples with the
silvery buffaloberry and then the borders of the bluespruce with
fir. I am thinking of filling in the central interior with more
buffaloberry
and then some lilac. I have some lilac already, but I need a row.
My father was a Landscape Architect. I wonder if there is anyone
who has a Landscape Architect design that is similar to mine above.
I doubt it. The idea is rows for beauty and the Golden Mean Rectangle
and the contrast of blue of fir and bluespruce to that of silver from
buffaloberry and the red of amur maples. The beauty of it captivates
me more than a VerMeer painting.
Archimedes Plutonium, a_plu...@hotmail.com
whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots
of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies
res08
news:<3ED47035...@dtgnet.com>...
Archimedes Plutonium
res08 wrote:
> It sounds most intriguing. How about a photo?
>
Sorry to say I no longer do photos for the Internet.
A description in words should suffice.
I have a lot, a plot of land that is a nice rectangle of approx an acre.
And its east-west sides are longer than its north-side sides. Its sides
serves as a frame for a picture. Most pictures or paintings have
frames and what frames this land are bluespruce and concolor fir.
So you have a rectangular acre of land with bluespruce and fir
as running up and down the east-west side. Some juniper and if
I had my choice I would not have any juniper because I think they
are ugly when old. And I hate apple-cedar rust. But the endearing
feature of juniper here is that it is the only evergreen that will
volunteer starts. I have never seen any other evergreen volunteer
starts in these Prairie plains. Juniper is the maximum survivor of
evergreen on these harsh prairie plains.
So, I have the east-west side of this plot with evergreens, tall ones
at that. They serve as a frame. On the north-south side are mostly
hardwood weed trees such as mulberry and I will have to chainsaw
them out over time.
So, in the middle of these huge rows of bluespruce and concolor fir
are amur maples and buffaloberry (Russian olive sort of tree with its
silver leaves).
So, if standing and looking into the center of this rectangle that is framed
with bluespruce and concolor fir (some juniper) one sees a frame of
blue and green and the silver leaves of buffaloberry. A beautiful sight
and especially when the lilac that is intermittent was in bloom.
I believe landscaping must be done in rows and that single specimen trees
solo are not as pretty as rows. And I believe that the best landscaping can
not have
disproportionate sized trees. That they all have to be of about equal size.
Cannot
have elm with concolor fir or bluespruce.
In the Autumn I should be rewarded with the amur maple reds alongside
the bluespruce and fir.
So it is the combination of rows of beauty and rows to make beauty and then
the same-size idea and last of all to have color contrasts of blue green of
evergreens with silver of buffaloberry with red of amur maples and of course
the color of lilacs and the smell of evergreens and lilac in the Spring.
Landscape Architecture should be a enlargement of a master painting with its
frame border and then its colors in the painting itself. Actually, I believe
my
plot is prettier than a VerMeer painting because everytime I look at it,
there is
something different and changing to see. And just the work I have to do such
as
cutting out the weed trees.
Archimedes Plutonium
framing a plot of landscape architecture. Where the two longest sides of
a rectangle lot has blue spruce and concolor fir and in the middle is
amur maples with buffaloberry (russian olive with silver leaves)
I cannot think of a single painting or picture that looks better without it
framed. Likewise for Landscape Architecture. I believe good Landscape
Architecture must frame the lot. I suspect most architects forget to do
this
and the result is that the surrounding neighbors then becomes the frame
or the streets or the nearby buildings. Sometimes a frame is established
by various hedges and hedge rows. Lilac are nice for this but the trouble
with this frame of a hedge is that it is smaller than the interior trees. I
think
most landscape-architects fail in their design by not having a adequate
frame for their lot.
I mentioned bluespruce and concolor fir on one of my lot designs.
But please allow me to mention another lot I designed which is not
yet mature. Let me call it lot-2. Lot-2 is also framed with its two
longest sides one having chokecherry and the other having a lilac
hedge. Chokecherry is not noted for its beauty but I like them because
of their vigorous growth and that they supply me with yearly cans of
juice and cherry pulp. Unlike the interior of lot-1 which has amur maples
with
buffaloberry, lot-2 has a theme of apricot trees. I don't think enough
people
have emphasized the beauty of apricot trees. I have 2 rows running down
the middle of lot-2 and may put in a 3rd row. Apricot trees when young
are a nice green but all their new growth is a brilliant red and so it is
like having Autumn red color throughout the entire summer months.
And of course apricots organically grown are a delicacy. And I have
been looking for the best home for my strawberry beds and they seem
to do just fine under the young apricot trees. I do have some upright
junipers coming to height and so in the future when lot-2 is more
mature what I expect is a dense lilac hedge to the south side and
a dense chokecherry to the north side and in between to see these
pretty red and green rows of apricot with pyrimad juniper popping
up here and there.
The structure of that design is to have a frame and then have an interior
of a theme which in this case is apricots with some pinnacle juniper
rising in their midsts.
Archimedes Plutonium
is only speculative since I do not have the lot to carry out this project but
in hopes of acquiring one suitable for the research.
I was thinking of a lot to use blackwalnut and sunburst-locust as frame
and theme in a landscaped lot. where the frame of the lot is the blackwalnut
surrounding 3 of the 4 sides and interior of sunburst-locust next to the
blackwalnuts then in the center of the lot to have a stand of evergreens and
tamarack. I do not know if tamarack grows in this environment but the
soil would have to be plenty moist for the tamarack.
I also want to find out a question of what blackwalnuts like best for
neighbors. Whether they like the nitrogen fixing honeylocust nearby
or whether they like a evergreen that will condition the soil to more acid
nearby. I do know that blackwalnuts emit juglone which is acidic and
so I suspect blackwalnuts do not need evergreens nearby and would prefer
honeylocust.
And I suspect that locusts emit something themselves that wards off
plants and trees from growing nearby. One thing I have noticed is that
my best pear tree was living nearby to a mature locust tree which indicates
that the locust must have supplied the pear with some nitrogen fertilizer.
Archimedes Plutonium
Archimedes Plutonium wrote:
>
>
> And I suspect that locusts emit something themselves that wards off
> plants and trees from growing nearby. One thing I have noticed is that
> my best pear tree was living nearby to a mature locust tree which indicates
> that the locust must have supplied the pear with some nitrogen fertilizer.
>
I keep cutting the limbs of a locust except for high limbs and the locust
emits some fluid. So the locust does emit fluids and whether it has a fluid
similar to the juglone fluid of blackwalnut is something to be researched.
Whether locusts emit a herbicide-like fluid needs be researched.
Has anyone compared the nitrogen fixing of locust with other legumes
in respect to amount of fertilizer they can contribute to the soil?
Archimedes Plutonium
Archimedes Plutonium wrote:
(most snipped)
>
> The structure of that design is to have a frame and then have an interior
> of a theme which in this case is apricots with some pinnacle juniper
> rising in their midsts.
Apricots are almost as pretty as amur maples in Autumn but the thing about
apricots is that they give that red foliage color throughout the spring
and summer months and amur maples are lucky to display red color for
more than 2 weeks before some strong winds blow the leaves away.
I first became acquanted with apricot tree in my 20s when I returned from
Australia to find my father having purchased a new home which had an
apricot tree in the backyard. It was a large and mature tree and I do not
remember it as pretty nor as ugly. Some claim that mature apricots become
gnarled and
ugly. Which certainly is not the case for young apricots. Perhaps my variety
of coldhardy apricots is nongnarly.
I do find that apricots have some trouble with the wind and that branches keep
breaking off.
Also, I have just about given up on sandcherry Prunus tomatosa if memory
serves me correctly. I have 3 rows of them and although they bloom and bear
fruit they seldom have enough fruit to be happy about. And they are so
spasmodic in health. They seem to do well one year and then many die the
next. So as the sandcherry dies I am not going to replant that area with
something different.
I have found that currants and gooseberries are vigorous where those
sandcherries are not. And that I get a huge crop of currants each year.
Trouble
with currants is that they are a pain to mow around.