The Garden with the Big Shoulders

Hey everybody--Great meeting last night! Sue thanks for bringing your girls--it was terrific to include them. We had a lightning speed business meeting due to time constraints--we really appreciate the library allowing us use of the meeting room, thanks so much to Deb Futa for helping out with this.
We tabled the minutes to speed things up--and had a quickie treasurer's report from Shirley. She told us the club balance and said she will bring the balance sheet and all the treasury paperwork to each meeting so anyone can look at it that wants to. We also now have our very own checks--so we are officially an entity now--at least from the Credit Union's point of view.
So on to business--the bulb order will be placed Friday Aug. 13--look on the website--www.vanengelen.com if you still need to shop--and get hold of me before Friday. Be sure to give me the item number as well as the plant name for clarity's sake.
It was decided that since we have our spiffy new checks, payment should be a check made out to "Dirty Hands Happy Souls" and then we will write a single check to Van E's for the payment.
And Cindy brought an example of a FABULOUS embroidered version of our Dirty Hands Logo. Her friend Jan (affectionately known as the "crazy squirrel lady") did a terrific job of translating the artwork into a stitchable design. Cindy will get a price quote from Jan, so we can bring her tees or sweats that we purchase ourselves and have her place the design on them. Thank you Cindy a million times for following up on this and making it a reality.
On to the Wavecrest trip--We decided we will meet at Cranes between 11:30 and 12:00. We will eat first and plan on getting to Wavecrest about 1:30 for our tour. The trip up will take you between 90 min and two hours. I will see about reservations at Crane's but I am not sure how workable that will be since we are all coming seperately and may arrive at varying times. I will get with Mary Ann Albert and we can conflabulate together and hopefully you will get some communication before we go so we can all get coordinated.
And if anybody wants to bring guests along on this trip--bring away. Its just meant to be a fun day out.
Now we have to think about our next meeting--I will send some emails out. Rob didn't bring it up--but our next meeting is the DAY after Labor day. This may not be good. We can cancel it, or reschedule it or something if necessary--folks need to decide what they want to do. We also didn't choose a site--I am thinking right now it would be at Shirley's but I didn't really clarify that. Yes--"Seat of your Pants Airlines" is still lurching along. Anyway--this topic will be ongoing as it develops and I will post information here--and send out blog alerts as needed.
Right now the plan for the Sept. meeting is BYOF (Bring your own flowers). Everyone can bring some cut material from the garden or the store (enough to share) and a container so we can make some fall flower arrangements. So we have some uniformity in the container size, lets say bring a coffee mug. Now this can be a big coffee mug like a latte cup, or a regular mug--or just something that is roughly the size of a coffee mug. Just use that of as your standard to measure the width of the opening that will accept the flowers. You will also want to have some clippers or a good pair of scissors--pruning secaturs would be good. I will put more stuff about this on the blog later--when we get the meeting figured out better. I am sorry to be so vague about this--right now its the best I can do.
As for the coming months, Sue and Mary Ann said they would begin to explore the possibility of a trip to Mckinley Nursery's Production field in Oct. Thanks to them so much for shouldering this responsibility. I really appreciate the help.
We also decided that a Lurie trip in November is something we would like to do--so this may take place in lieu of an actual meeting.
And speaking of Lurie and Shoulders.............
"HOG Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders"
Carl Sandburg

Last night Ben Futa explained how that imagery along with many other symbolic references are made manifest in Lurie Gardens. He told us how Lurie came to be--introduced us to some of the amazing people who designed and executed the space, and explained the fascinating history as well as the mechanical nuts and bolts of this most innovative garden.
Lurie is a roof garden--I was very surprised to learn this--it was literally sculpted into the site it occupies. The soil is only 4 feet or so deep at its very deepest, and the earth the garden resides in was all brought to the site by trucks. Given this fact, the naturalistic appearance of the area is even more surprising. This is due largely to the skill and vision of Piet Oudolf, who conceived the plantings, and Roy Diblik, who translated the language of the plants from Dutch to American-Midwestern. These two men worked in concert to fill the gardens with native and non native plants that offer different kinds of beauty in each of the four seasons. This is an important lesson we can take away from a planting like this--gardens are not just summer places. They are havens that can heal and uplift at any time of year--even with the snows of winter upon them. The garden is meant to be viewed from a great many vantage points, and Ben was able to show us how this works with his wonderful photographs. These illustrated how the gardens can be viewed from very close up to as far away as an upper floor of a skyscraper. He also told us about the importance of lighting in this space--it was lit by a theatrical lighting designer rather than a landscaper and functions equally well as a beautiful space at night.
And we learned about the three women who were the creative force behind the overall design that created such a unique and effective space. The design firm headed by Kathryn Gustafson tells the story of the city of Chicago in unique and subtle ways that many people will only ever sense unconsciously, if at all. The dark and light plates, which symbolize the past and future are bisected by the "seam" which is a wooden boardwalk that references the walkways built when the city was in its early days--a swampy forbidding frontier on the edge of a huge inland lake. Much has changed now--even the lake shoreline is in a different place--all due to the hand of the people who settled there. The large, simple retaining wall marks the spot where the shoreline once began--amazingly it is quite a healthy distance from where the lake meets the land now. The train tracks that crisscrossed the area are also referenced in the placement of planters and benches in what at first glance appears to be a neutral area with nothing in it.
The thought and care that went into the creation of this place is evident in so many other ways--ways that we would never know without Ben's wonderful talk to enlighten us. The entire space was tilted slightly to accomodate a view from a wing at the Art Institute that wasn't even a reality yet. The arborvitae hedge, which symbolizes the "big shoulders" in Carl Sandburg's poem is softly shaped to actually resemble shoulders--and the whole shape of the design may (in Ben's estimation) reference the trapezius muscle of the human back.
Gardens can be highly personal spaces--as our own gardens are. Public gardens can be personal spaces too--but they are personal on a different level. People experience the gardens but they don't create them as we create our own gardens. The skill and beauty of this garden design lies in the fact that a great many people can go into it and come out of it with an experience that is uniquely their own--and after having that experience they are different people. Who knows how many businessmen took time out from their cell phoning and texting to go buy some pots of Stella D'oro and get some dirt on their hands after being there????
Ben closed his talk by reading us a quote from Terry Guen--Head of Terry Guen Design Associates. Terry's firm helped implement the overall design of Lurie Gardens; troubleshooting problems and shaping the ideas of the designers into reality. She overcame what must have seemed like insurmountable obstacles to pull the design out of the imaginary realm and set it down on the earth. When reflecting on her role and the hope she has for the future--she told Ben this:
"Once the designer leaves, a place takes on its own life--much like a child leaving the protection and guidance of their parent. The parent is still involved in the child's life, but the child makes its own way, evolves, and grows. it's no longer the designer's duty to direct the children once they're 'grown up' "
We thank Ben so much for giving us such a unique perspective on this beautiful place.
The Salvia River Thanks to Ben for the photos!