Thankyou for the planting suggestions…lets see how everything works within the space and the design!!
[http://plainfieldtrees.blogspot.com/2008/06/flowering-dogwoods.html]

I am thinking of the exercise as a little like experimental theatre SO maybe it is called experimental design!

i like the idea of different seasons having different moods. bleak and spectral in winter turning to something fresh and gleaming in the spring?

viburnums would be the ideal winter plant, white flowers and subtly shaded bark. perhaps white dogwoods too?

i dont know what species those daffs from ohio are but there are plenty white species that will grow here. as far as planting goes, a lot will depend on site conditions, whether its north or south facing especially.

if you have a site in mind, we can always get a rough plan off google maps. pics would help too.

But I don’t have a plan of the area so I cannot scale and place things – even conceptually!

But I have been thinking about the climate aspect. And how to approach the design of the Moon Garden seasonally. I rather like the idea of people sitting out or at the bar in coats – much like they do at ice bars…(Or bars at ski resorts)….so a sort of winter garden space during the coldest months. {Perhaps some aspect for shelter may even be a Wintergarden.) I have wonderful memories of Kew as a winter wonderland with snow/frost on the ground. I love trees when they are bare and sculptural over the winter…

So summer – green and white (as you suggest); autumn – ?; winter – white white white (touches of black/or other hue from bark); spring -…perhaps touches of blue or with irises…or white daffodils [http://www.tournorfolk.co.uk/fairhavengarden.html]or crocuses.

Or can I use the white white ones like these from Ohio? Do you know what the ecological consequences might be (ie.climate, soil conditions, insects)?
[http://ourohio.org/index.php?page=month-of-expectation]

These examples of gardens are all from Scotland & I expect in more exposed locations…but it will give you an idea of how I am visualising the different seasons as moods (excluding summer)!

VICTORIA PARK – [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victoria_Park,_crocuses.jpg]
See[http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plantprofile_crocus.shtml#early_spring-flowering_species]
[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victoria_Park,_Autumn.jpg]
HAZELWOOD – [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HazleheadWoods.jpg]

now of course the idea is rolling around my head. curses!

In the urban realm?? There is no natural, functional model that can be said to be the ecosystem/biome? [Although undoubtably under a strict definiton ‘the concrete juggle’is still an ecosystem/biome – but is it a healthy or sustainable one?] I don’t think it is helpful to demand sustainability (in any strict sense) from gardens which have been designed prior to the twentyfirst century.

There are examples of gardens which are more or less successful (and more or less sustainable). These can be studied. There are examples of urban design which are more or less successful (and more or less sustainable). These can be studied. These studies would tell you more or less what makes a garden or urban design scheme succesful and sustainable.

But none of these studies would tell you particularly how to design a successful or sustainable garden or urban design. However, each would consist of numerous lessons which could be abstracted in the art of garden or urban design.

I think the difficulty comes from the idea that for a garden to be sustainable it must ‘look like nature’? This is a proposition which probably deserves further discussion.

Back to the Moon Garden. The performative aspect of ‘singing’ is in the emotive interpretation of the lyrics and score. At this stage in the process of developing the idea of the Moon Garden it seem necessary to 1) consider the site as a garden which can accommodate the function of a wine bar….Then it will be necessary to 2) consider the site as a wine bar which is set within a garden.

These are actually two different design problems. I am sure Stefan would be more confident with the idea of designing the garden. While an interior designer would be more confident with the idea of designing a wine bar.

The next problem which would arise is how the two are melded into one. Is there a comprehensive overall organising idea. That is the Moon Garden.

In the instance of the Moon Garden other than saying the garden cum wine bar is located in London and intended to operate both day (as a lunchtime venue)and night – its natural ecology could only be best described as urban! It would be interesting to have a detailed landscape planting map of the surrounding area…..

Perhaps then it might be possible to have such goals as providing a continuity of habitat via a habitat corridor, or looking for cross-pollination opportunities etc.

I am supposing at this stage that if there were to be birds (because of the function of the venue) they would be caged breed-in-captivity songbirds. [But do I believe in birds in cages?]

If staff at the venue can set-up the space (including setting tables, lighting candles or similar)it is also reasonable that they might set up and care for coloured potted plants and birds during the day & remove them at night as an operational strategy. [Interior designers are more demanding and take more liberties with the occupants of their spaces than landscape/architects!!]

The book ‘The Moonlight Garden: New Discoveries at the Taj Mahal’ by Elisabeth Moynihan looks like interesting reading. I also found the following article on Ethel Anderson which may be useful to understanding Moon Garden design. [http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/aandc/gardens/gardens4.htm]

This approach is unfortuneately still part of the philosophy of public design.

Thanks Stefan for making it clear just how much BOTH architects and landscape architects have to struggle against inadequately conceived public projects and management regimes!

Here is an article on sound absorption by plants written in 1981. I suppose more recent studies you are aware of may contradict these findings. [http://scitation.aip.org/getpdf/servlet/GetPDFServlet?filetype=pdf&id=JASMAN000069000001000303000001&idtype=cvips&prog=normal] The information is not exactly in a form you could design to in terms of dB reductions, but it does give the designer some confidence (if current) that planting will assist in noise attenuation. Maybe there is an acoustic engineer cum landscape architect who could comment?

Similarly the use of running water within a space will have a masking effect on traffic noise.
[http://www.gardenadvice.co.uk/howto/design/soundbarrier/index.html] Not sure if this water curtain would do anything for sound masking. But it is an interesting design development which perhaps could be used intermittently with more tradition devices.
[http://infosthetics.com/archives/2006/09/water_curtain_textual_screen.html]

It seems that the horticulture industry could have some interesting contributions to future design directions also! [http://www.actahort.org/books/230/230_71.htm]

My own approach suffered from knowing far too many plants and their ecology (as a botanist) and even starting a nursery to introduce a wider range of plants for landscape planting.

I have asked the question as to whether landscape architects are the only designers who do not understand the materials that they design with. Is this part of a ‘god’ syndrome that ‘this plant will grow to be the form and size that I want because I have put it on my drawing’?

Starting with a design concept is a good solution whichever end of the plant spectrum that you start from. It is only a tool to make sure that the ecological, emotional, cultural or just plain wacky intentions work, so that they can be enjoyed for a long time instead of being grubbed out.

In most landscape plantings you do not get a chance to influence much after the planting let alone add the landscape equivalent of Dierama. You can though, for example, have fun and add scents to the most ordinary schemes so that people can trace it back to Phiadelphus Belle Etoile or a Sarcococca.

Ecological planting has its own dynamic and it is interesting to see it as based on a landscape aesthetic of woodland or heathland or prairie or……………….

Not so different to adding a bit of form and function to all the other elements of plant selection.