mexico – Soil Sages

Olla irrigation, from clay pot to garden habit

An olla is a humble irrigation device: an unglazed clay vessel buried in soil, filled with water, and covered. Its usefulness comes from the material. Unglazed clay is porous, so water can move slowly through the wall when the surrounding soil is dry enough to pull it outward. The method is old, low-tech, and still sensible at small scale. University…

Dream gardens unearthed

in Garden Design, Gardening History, Outdoor Gardening January 17, 2022 by Christian

A surrealist garden is not simply a weird garden. It is a garden where the familiar becomes unstable. A staircase rises into leaves and stops. A doorway frames nothing but sky. A clipped shrub looks too deliberate beside a plant that seems to have arrived from a dream. The effect can be playful, uneasy, beautiful, or all three at once.…