Photo by: Saxon Holt/PhotoBotanic

I was flipping through the latest issue of Garden Design the other day and The Late Show Gardens jumped off the page at me. It’s a garden show in Sonoma that starts with sustainable design as a no-brainer base and creates art from it. For example, plants that cleanse contaminated water and soil help shape thoughtful spaces. Peruse the whole shebang over at gardendesign.com, if you are not convinced, here’s a little teaser!

Photo by Mitch Maher

all photos via gardendesign.com

I should have known when I went to find a picture of Lovejoy Plaza on flickr that my favorite one would have been taken by Ken McCowen. To see more beautiful images of Halprin’s work taken by Ken, click here.

Halprin was that perfect combination of conscientious urban problem solver who understood natural processes. He did such an artful job of understanding the greater context of a place and bringing his interpretations of ecology into cities in an artful way. Lovejoy Park is a perfect example of this. He contributed so much to the American landscape; whether helping to heal the gash a freeway cut through a neighborhood in Seattle or protecting the land by leaving a soft footprint at Sea Ranch. He will be missed.

For more information on the Halprin Landscape Conservancy, click here.

• Sketches by Lawrence Halprin, via The Halprin Landscape Conservatory site.Click over there to see the rest of the project. P
• Photo by flickr member Ken McCowen

I haven’t, but I’m dying to! What did you think?

I’m a huge fan of Bill Cunningham, and he has a charming video here about the fashions he’s seeing on The High Line.

Speaking of fashion, check out the High Line Merch here. I love the Trina Turk green and white print hat:

Keep up with High Line news over at The High Line Blog and the ever-growing Friends of The High Line flickr group pool. This shot is from flickr member ljpsf.

top two photos from thehighline.org

Geraniums, a floral pop pillow, a darling bench, some shade, and even the red plastic watering can make this such an inviting stoop.

I’ll start: Here is one of my favorite outdoor spaces. I shot it at Sun in My Belly in Decatur Georgia. This is an EXCELLENT cafe/bisto restaurant that is decorated with Parisian flair:

After lunch at Adkin’s Park the other day, I felt compelled to take a picture of the awesome Clawfoot Container garden in front of The Key Lime Pie Salon in my neighborhood:

I don’t know what it is about where I choose to eat lunch, but after lunch at Red’s Eats in Wiscasset Maine two days ago, I came upon glorious windowbox after glorious windowbox. These container gardens have a lot to do with why Wiscasset is “the prettiest little town in Maine”! The one below is at a beautiful home store called smitten (same talented owner as rock paper scissors shown above). I was so impressed with the owner’s taste and merchandising skills; I highly recommend a visit if you are on Coastal Route 1!

Yesterday I spent a perfect afternoon at the Atlanta Botanical Garden checking out the Henry Moore sculptures. These sculptures sited throughout the property’s garden, conservatory, and orchid house were a perfect match of work and site. While I don’t pretend to be any sort of expert on sculpture, the relationship of scale to site, views to the work, and the context of placement in the gardens and the skyline of the city in the background were remarkable. Each piece was dynamic in that each view of it from 360 degrees made it appear to be a totally different work, offering a variety peeks through holes and crevices in parts of the pieces, and changing appearances from sunshine and shadows. Here are a few shots I snapped yesterday:

The exhibition will run through October 31, 2009. Tickets for adults are $15.

You can see the rest of my cruddy pictures here.