Workshops:
CREATING HOME OUTSIDE WORKSHOP
Description
As the difficulties in the housing market have homeowners renovating rather than relocating, Americans are working harder than ever to make their houses a place of comfort and beauty. Yet through this process, one of the most important aspects of creating a sense of home is often overlooked – the home we create outside our house.
In this fun, informative, and stimulating workshop, landscape designer, author, and lecturer Julie Moir Messervy guides homeowners and professionals through an easy-to-follow, six-step process to make any landscape a personal and pleasurable “home outside.” She combines insightful ideas with beautiful photographs, before and after images, diagrams, green tips and case studies, to illustrate that good landscape design is affordable, approachable, and attainable.
Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn the following six-step process:
- Lay of The Land – Examine the current situation and existing elements of the land including sun, wind, soil, vegetation, views and budget, then discuss ideas for what an ideal site would look like. Aesthetic preferences, activity options and favorite vantage points help determine important design decisions.
- Big Moves – Organize the spaces around a house using four basic layout choices and three different aesthetic arrangements. To add a more cohesive feel, identify a theme or “big idea” that pulls together the vision for the end result.
- Comfort Zones – Tackle the design by examining the four separate zones around a house: the surrounding zone, welcoming zone, neighboring zone, and living zone. Each of these areas features different activities and amenities that relate to outdoor activities.
- Making it Flow – Explore ways to enhance the flow of a property through three different types of motion: moving, pausing and stopping. Landscape elements such as gateways, paths, landings and seating areas all can be choreographed for coherence and flow.
- Placing the Pieces – Conduct an “energy audit” to determine where the energy flows naturally on a property and where it is blocked. Learn to place or frame focal points to disperse and concentrate energy throughout the property according to personal preferences.
- Sensory Pleasures – Discover how to bring beauty and harmony to a landscape by organizing a “home outside” by the natural elements of earth (planting design), water (water gardens), fire (thermal delight and lighting) and air (air quality and wellbeing outdoors).
VERMONT STONE WORKSHOP
L: Participants and Scottish waller Dave Goulder stand behind their work, a Galloway Dyke wall; R: The Moon Gate. Photos: Steve Jonas.
Gather in Vermont at Julie’s property to learn the art and technique of stone work with eminent Vermont waller Dan Snow, colleagues, and Julie. Dan and his crew teaches the art of walling, while Julie explains a different way to set stone, imparting some of the “secrets” of Japanese stone arrangement, as she learned them in Kyoto, Japan some thirty years ago. Participants think of a “big idea” that they want to recreate, select stones from a nearby pile, and set them.
Another bonus: qualify for the DSWA (Dry Stone Walling Association) certification scheme Level 1 test.
L: A workshop participant works to create the fieldstone terrace; R: Julie “gesticulates” to show stone relationships. Photos: Steve Jonas.
We work onsite for two a half days, take a field trip to see some of Dan’s and Julie’s stonework in the area. Picnic lunches are provided, along with afternoon swims in Julie’s pond, and a gala dinner on the final evening. Email info {at} jmmds(.)com for more details.
