While NYC dips into temperatures below freezing again, I continue to work on designs for Summer 2011 and thought I would share an interesting trend prediction from Li Edelkoort's recent presentation - water. Not just aesthetically as in color palettes drawn from rivers, reefs, pools, oceans, mermaids and the like but also conceptually- as a symbol of rejuvenation.
She says it is now time to open the sluice of creativity and let flow the new ideas that we have held back for too long. Yeah! With gardening there's actually been a few years of fairly visionary new ideas - vertical gardens, hydroponics, skyscraper and rooftop farming to name a few- now its the creative turn of the entrepeneurs and manufacturers to turn these ideas into broader commercial solutions and the public to try them out.
Water in the garden is obviously subject to either circumstance, you live by water or your preparedness to create a body of water. There is however a wealth of ideas for a more common situation - the damp garden, why improve a soggy part of the garden when you can fill it with primulas, irises and other water loving plants instead. Go take a visual trip down by the water and there's more at Beth Chatto's Garden.
Last year at Kmart I picked up a water lily growing kit in their garden department and pondered whether I might try growing it in a container of water with things like umbrella plants on my window sill. I decided against it - but maybe this year.
