The Garden Spaces of Charleston

In general, most gardens I saw in Charleston (or anywhere else in the lowcountry South) seem to have small elements of formal design which are allowed to burst beyond the boundaries and completely fill any available space with lush, vibrant life.  This leads to some incredible spaces which truly are retreats from the hustle and bustle of the urban environment, despite most such refuges being just a little off of the beaten path.  As is the case with any older North American city, Charleston is a place where space is at a premium.  Such restrictions, combined with the penchant for intense growth, give the city gardens which mystically combine the courtyard with the subtropical forests she is surrounded by.  I think that I will leave the rest of the post in the hands of the pictures, and provide us with a gallery of cultivated Charleston, captions provided for highlights.  To see how things got this way, read up on the previous posts in the last week.

Even simple alleyways here are bedded and then seemingly left to their own devices.

Washington Park in downtown features Live Oaks (Quercus Virginiana) planted in an orderly fashion, yet encouraged to sprawl in their own individual habits of growth, almost like a natural oak savanna.

Here the Live Oak is allowed to grow to its own pleasure, nearly covering the entire street and turning it, with help from small strip plantings in the side yards, into a garden of sorts in its own right.

Some home owners take full advantage of the really long growing season, mild winters, and powerful levels of moisture and go nuts with the subtropical plants.  Here it is very possible to have a pretend jungle in your backyard and just let things go without it looking entirely out of place.

Many gardeners do apparently try to occupy space in this fashion, with some choosing to maintain a basic level of formality with a tasteful balancing of free growth.

And for sure, some of those Old World formal influences do remain here, complete with Boxwood (Buxus Sempervirens) hedges, symmetrical paths, Italianate fountains, etc.  Nevertheless, things remain relatively well covered and the best word to describe this space is not "formal" so much as "abundant".

And on other places were are reminded that this is indeed a colonial city with pleasant Georgian architectural features like the arched courtyard entryways lit by those period scones.  That said, I doubt very much that a gentleman of 1770 would have let his entryway become so dominated by greenery.  No, I think like the case is with the picture above, we have a fashion of development that built on the old culture and merged with the growing power of the land and the unrestrained decorum of the passing generations.

Wednesday Filler: A Western Intruder

Rising above some hidden courtyard, along with some disturbingly modern architecture, is a Mexican Fan Palm (Washingtonia Robusta).  In the foreground grows the native and rugged Cabbage Palm (Sabal Palmetto). 

In Southern California and parts of Arizona and southern Texas, Mexican Fan Palms get planted so much that one would think them native to such parts of the world (they are actually from Sonora and both states on the Baja peninsula).  They feature prominently in street plantings, and often form an urban backdrop in Los Angeles and San Diego, even more so to the extent than how the Cabbage Palm is used in Charleston.  With two native palm choices that nearly grow like weeds already in Charleston, I was amazed to find one at all, but snickered a little bit when I saw how hidden away it was.  Next post, the promised look at the green spaces of Charleston.

Fitting Big Trees Into Small Spaces

This can be done!  Now, yes, one should plant in favor of letting nature do its thing and not confine the wild to something as ignoble as pot, but when you don't have the room and want to dwell among more than just concrete, well, there are trees that can do that.  Even better, there are native trees that can adapt oh so well.  Take this lovely creature, since we are talking about the South and all:

You know, in most places they would try to clip the thing into a fine topiary to keep it off the windows.  Not here.  This was taken on Broad Street in Charleston, South Carolina.

 This is a Balcypress (Taxodium Distichum), a tree that around this part of the world gets very wet feet and often stands at the edge of rivers and lakes in actual open water.  Here it was, however, in the heart of Charleston growing practically out of the sidewalk.  It was not alone!

For those wondering, the palm is a Cabbage Palm (Sabal Palmetto), which can be found in almost every viewpoint in the city.  I think this was taken on Church street, but I am not entirely sure.

Here we have a Live Oak (Quercus Virginiana) forming a rather broad crown with such a tiny base.  Granted, the base was filling out its growing space rather impressively.

That adorable little palm growing next to it is a Dwarf Cabbage (Sabal Minor).

Clearly the people of Charleston, even with such limited space, preferred their skyline to be a mixture of artifice and nature.  Except for the some of the major streets, it seemed as if every plausible inch of the city was planted and then on a grand scale.  I have always noticed this a lot about any urban area in the South older than the past few decades; our winter home in Fort Lauderdale had a backyard featuring two seventy foot tall Royal Palms (Roystonea Regia) and a sixty foot Slash Pine (Pinus Elliottii) graced the neighboring yard.  The climate is just going to ensure that a giant scale is the default setting, and the locals don't seem to be too quick to put a stop to growth.  This is not to say that the North is lacking in such a mentality, but just that places like Charleston seem to promote a more organic approach to the city landscape.  I could probably write loads more on the topic, but I figured I would let the pictures do the talking here. 

Charleston: Casually Dressed-Up

If you read through some of the list of what blogs I follow under my profile, you might notice that in addition to so many blogs on botany, conservation, history, and politics, I also follow a few menswear blogs.  These are not just any menswear blogs, however, as they tend to focus on styles of dress associated with more past widespread use, styles of dress now largely relegated to the realm of politicians, academics, "preppies", etc.  Many of them are composed by people living either in New York or New England, where it must be admitted a certain decorum of daily dress still largely holds sway. 

In general, having traveled across the continent in every direction thus far in my life, I notice that formality tends to increase from a largely casual west coast environment to a largely still awkward with completely casual east coast.  There are exceptions, of course; Miami can swing either way in both extremes, San Francisco gets every bit as swanky as New York, Victoria and Mackinac Island take neo-Victorianism in fashion to whole new levels, etc.  By and large, though, its possible to see many east coast business types remain decently attired even after the work day is done.  As anyone can see these days though, dress for most people consists of little better than changing out of pajamas upon leaving the house.  Historically speaking, this phenomenon seems to have arisen out of my generation's penchant for the democratization of comfort.  Even 15 years ago I don't remember a lot of people going to the bank in t-shirts and sweat pants!  Back in the day "casual" might have even included a blazer and tie, articles of which are now considered to be practically the same as wearing a suit.

That, I suppose, is a broad topic for another day, and even another blog.  Whatever brought about this particular flourish of gnashing my teeth over mere pants, you ask?  Well, this would be because I found a photo I snapped in Charleston, South Carolina.

Broad Street, looking the Cooper River, downtown Charleston, SC.

I have no idea who these people are, and in no way wish to single them out as individuals for any particular reason, but they were unintentionally caught in a photo I was taking of the street.  I kept the picture because it was so representative of how many people dressed in the lovely city.  Amazingly, these people looked "average", as many more people did it up even more with formal business attire.  Everyone from children to the elderly looked positively amazing.  Sure, some people had jeans and shorts on, but even then almost no one wore a t-shirt.  Most of the women had dresses on, there were a lot of khakis and bow ties on the men, and all this was despite the fact that Charleston was having a very Charleston day of near 90 with humidity probably in the same percentile.  Remember, Charleston is about as close to the perfect definition of "humid subtropical" as one can get, complete with palms everywhere, crepe myrtles, Spanish Moss (Tillandsia Usneoides) dripping from every tree, and amazing centuries old Live Oak (Quercus Virginiana) proudly shading cemeteries and private gardens.

Washington Park, Charleston, SC.

I have to admit that I felt a bit under dressed, despite the fact that my Canadian body was well-clad for the climate (I had on khaki shorts and a linen shirt covered in a pattern of hibiscus flowers).  No one stared or made passing comments, probably because it was, simply, summer in coastal South Carolina.  In fact, people there in general were polite and friendly, if tranquil.  The popular image of the modern South tends to forget such charming civility found in her older cities in favor of wanting to deride everyone south of the Mason-Dixon line as a redneck.  Charleston certainly looked every bit as impressive, if not more so, than experiences I have had of New York and Boston.