Klyde Warren Park: How I Spent a Spring Day this Winter

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Glenn

It’s not unusual in the middle of the winter in Dallas to all of a sudden find yourself facing several days of spring-like temperatures and weather. Recently, on one such day, I decided head over Klyde Warren Park which opened about four months ago (in late October) and is the latest addition to the Dallas Arts District. For those of you who follow the Bonick Landscaping Facebook page, you know I’ve followed the design and construction of this park closely for the last three years and was happy to finally get a chance to go see it.

Although it’s just 5.2 acres, Klyde Warren Park is chock-full of things to do and was buzzing with activity. There were people everywhere; lounging and gathering around tables and chairs, socializing with their dogs in the dog park, watching their kids in the children’s park, taking advantage of the foosball, ping pong and mini-putting green, milling around and sampling wares from the gourmet food trucks…it seems a lot of people had the same great idea I had on how to spend the day outdoors.

Spanning the 1,000-foot east side of the park there is a beautiful promenade lined with white arches. On the west side are the reading and game rooms (that’s where you’ll find the chess tables, ping pong, etc). The trees on the west promenade particularly caught my eye as the trunks are covered in bright yarn, with all kinds of whimsical details. Along with the arches, another highlight of the park is the interactive, in-ground water features which are, in a word, fun. Kids and pets alike can’t seem to resist their draw.

One of the things I like most about Klyde Warren Park is just knowing the vision, persistence and hard work it took to create what is now and will remain one of defining features of downtown Dallas. Klyde Warren Park was reportedly conceived as a public space over Woodall Rodgers Freeway four decades ago. Four decades from now I have no doubt it will be as popular with Dallasites as it is today – and that is the real beauty of it.

Chihuly at The Dallas Arboretum

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Glenn

Last Saturday night was beautiful here in Dallas; warm enough in the early evening to stroll around the Chihuly Exhibit at the Dallas Arboretum and be comfortable in a wool sweater. And what an enjoyable exhibit it was. Chihuly’s larger pieces look like stop-action shots of fireworks. Or space aliens. Either way, they are fun and allow you to see the arboretum in a different light – literally.

The exhibit, which has been in Dallas since May 5th and closes December 31st, has been an unprecedented success for the Dallas Arboretum. An article in The Dallas Morning News indicated they expect to gross $4.5 million, but my guess is that the actual number will be higher since the exhibit was extended from its original closing date of November 5th. The exhibit also doubled the arboretum’s attendance records versus the same time last year, they have attracted more than 7,000 new members and bookings for corporate retreats and private parties have increased dramatically.

This started me wondering why more special exhibits aren’t developed for arboretums, and if they are why we haven’t seen them in Dallas? A brief Internet search leads me to believe that the Chihuly exhibit is somewhat unique. There are some other, much lesser exhibits, but they aren’t really designed to take advantage of a venue like the arboretum. The North Carolina Arboretum has a new exhibit inspired by Amy Stewart’s best-selling book Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother and other Botanical Atrocities but it’s really an inside exhibit. The Morton Arboretum has an exhibit titled, Vanishing Acts: Trees Under Threat. As much as I am interested in plants, that doesn’t sound exciting enough to capture the imagination and interest of the public in the same way as Chihuly – not even close.

I love the idea of bringing outdoor sculpture together with the ultimate outdoor environment. It would be great if there was a way for The Nasher and the Arboretum to collaborate on some kind of exhibit that involves both venues. Another thought would be for the Dallas Arboretum to establish a juried, annual outdoor sculpture competition and exhibit. Chihuly isn’t just a fun exhibit, it’s a great concept that shouldn’t end when the show leaves town.

Garden Up with Green Walls

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Glenn

contemporary residence with pool and vertical garden or green wall

Photo courtesy of greenovergrey.com

Green walls, vertical gardens or living walls are gaining popularity both inside and out and I love the idea. Like most ideas, it isn’t exactly a new one. The practice of planting ivy to climb up the walls of buildings has existed for centuries. The new vertical gardens are simply a natural extension of this concept. So far, they seem to be predominantly cropping up in city environments, but we predict you’ll see more and more of this trend spreading to the ‘burbs.

Vertical gardens offer a number of benefits. The most obvious is esthetics; they can make structures more attractive and add fragrance. They can create an inviting habitat for urban wildlife. They also help absorb sound and improve air quality indoors and out. Green walls decrease CO2 and increase humidity. (Although how much they improve air quality is a pretty hotly debated topic – as are some of the other pros versus cons of green walls.)

Green wall or vertical garden on a residential rooftop patio.

Photo courtesy of agreenroof.com

Other positive claims: exterior green walls reduce solar gain (the increase in temperature in a structure that results from solar radiation) thus lowering energy costs, they provide protection from the effects of UV radiation and acid rain, and help lessen the building’s contribution to the heat island effect (when natural areas are replaced with concrete and asphalt, they become warmer).

So what are the potential negatives to green walls? The biggest concerns fall into three general categories: 1) over-inflated claims regarding the benefits (don’t expect to save 20% on your energy bills!), 2) the debatable trade-offs that relate to sustainability – for example, a number of the grid planter systems on the market are made of plastic, and 3) the long-term sustainability of the walls.

Side-by-side photos of green wall on PNC Bank

PNC Bank in Pittsburgh Sept. 2010 and Feb. 2011

Of these, the third is not something you read or hear a lot about, but it is perhaps the most important. While properly constructing and installing a green wall or green panel (after all, green walls don’t need to be an entire wall) isn’t exactly a cakewalk, maintaining a green wall is the bigger challenge. If many or all of the plants need to be replaced frequently one has to question the sustainability.

The reality is, to successfully maintain a green wall on anything but the smallest of scales is best left to experts. It requires an in-depth knowledge of design, irrigation, plants, growth media, pest and disease management and fertilizers. Choosing the right system, the correct plants for the setting and understanding the science behind the technology are all keys to green wall’s longevity.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I love the idea of green walls and vertical gardens. I’ve seen lots of striking examples, the most dramatic being some of the commercial applications. (Although personally I also love the small, less ambitious and more maintainable residential efforts.) The key, as with any landscaping effort, is in getting all the variables right for sustainability.

Take a Walk – or Ride – on the Wild Side…in Dallas

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Glenn

Although this is primarily a landscaping blog, every now and again I go off on a tangent, usually about something related to Dallas and the outdoors. You may remember last October I provided an update on one of my favorite Dallas projects currently under construction, Klyde Warren Park (the name was just announced last month), which is a 5.2-acre deck park being built over Woodall Rogers Freeway that is slated for opening this fall.

Oak Cliff Preserve
This time it’s about one of Dallas’s best kept secrets which is hiding in plain sight – Oak Cliff Nature Preserve. Ever heard of it? Ever been there? It’s a 121-acre oasis with over eight miles of beautiful multi-use hike and bike trails just minutes from downtown Dallas. Go there and it will be hard to believe downtown Dallas is just over your shoulder (literally). Located near Pierce and W. Saner (backing up to the Hampton-Illinois branch of the Dallas Public Library), it is owned and run by the Texas Land Conservancy. One of Texas Land Conservancy’s key partnerships is with the Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association (DORBA) which first approached TLC back in 2006 about creating the now established multi-use hike and bike trails on the preserve. The preserve is mostly made up of natural woodland and prairie habitat.

Cedar Ridge Preserve
Travel just a little bit further outside of downtown (20 minutes) and you’ll discover Cedar Ridge Preserve. At an elevation of 755 feet, it’s a slice of hill country. Cedar Ridge Preserve is a natural habitat of 600 acres featuring about nine miles of trails with native trees, grasses and wildflowers, a butterfly garden and plenty of wild mammals, birds, insects and reptiles. CRP has been managed by Audubon Dallas since April 2003 by charter from the Dallas County Park & Open Space Program and the City of Dallas.

So next time you want to reconnect with nature, remember these two preserves, just minutes from downtown Dallas.

Off-Beat Gift Books for Gardeners

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Glenn

With the holidays approaching, I thought I would to a round-up of a few of the more interesting gardening-related books that have come out this year for anyone looking for gift ideas. It’s a short list and doesn’t contain any practical books on gardening – there are plenty of other sources you can turn to for that. This is just a short list of some of the more interesting and fun plant- and garden-related reads that came out in 2011.

Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation by Andrea Wulf (published March, 2011) is a fascinating look at the founding fathers (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison and Benjamin Franklin) from the unique and intimate perspective of their lives as gardeners, plantsmen, and farmers.

Fifty Plants that Changes the Course of History by Bill Laws (published September, 2011). This book details how plants have influenced human behavior and in turn affected the course of history. By chronicling the commercial activity surrounding the discovery and marketing of the foods and beverages we consume and the plants we transform, the author describes how those activities have impacted wars, politics, habits, social behavior and addictions.

Weeds: In Defense of Nature’s Most Unloved Plants by Richard Mabey (published June, 2011). ”A profound and sympathetic meditation on weeds in relation to human beings” (Sunday Times), Weeds shows how useful these unloved plants can be, from serving as the first crops and medicines, to bur-dock inspiring the invention of Velcro, to cow parsley becoming the latest fashionable wedding adornment. Mabey argues that we have caused plants to become weeds through our reckless treatment of the earth, and he delivers a provocative defense of the plants we love to hate.”

Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon’s Army & Other Diabolical Insects by Amy Stewart (May, 2011). This is a sequel to Wicked Plants which came out in 2009. Although it may seem to be a bit of a stretch, since gardeners are always dealing with insects, this counts as “garden-related” in my book (no pun intended) and in fact, Stewart provides some tips for gardeners like putting out rolled up newspaper or cardboard tubes at night to trap earwigs and dumping them into soapy water in the morning – ugh. The book is as creepy and as interesting as it sounds.