Hemerocallis: beautiful, and edible.
click here for the main listing of design notes
Tomorrow's gardens will need to be so much more subtle and profound than we are used to. As a global society and as individuals, we have to achieve true sustainability over the coming years and our gardens will be right at the centre of this way of living. Gone will be the days of single-use gardens: gardens for pleasure, or gardens for food, or gardens for wildlife, or entertainment. All functions must be achieved within the one space, and every space must link to the next to make a continuous whole. Cycles of time, energy and nutrient will span across all frontiers and the soil will be whole and fertile again. But only if we learn how to think, be, and act cyclically, holistically.
These design notes are my attempt to put into words some of the fundamental principles and psychology that govern all successful design processes and the spaces they generate. To be successful in a low-energy future, we have to have outdoor spaces that function on many levels, unconsciously, withl seemingly little effort, yet such spaces are hard to design. Most existing spaces that exhibit these qualities, have emerged over time, rather than been consciously designed, and this is something that we must somehow mimic.
These notes form inter-linking threads (in the manner of a pattern language) that can be assembled in any manner appropriate to the subject at hand. Working in multiple dimensions, rather than in a simple linear manner, is one of the signposts of holistic design. The results may be subtle, with an air of understatement, but the effects are far more profound.
I have listed all proposed notes in the main listing page, with those hyperlinked being currently available. these will eventually be available as a published work.
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