gardenhistorygirl

• The Elizabethan Snail Mount

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• The viewing mount at the Garden of Cosmic Speculation (see previous post) is of particularly illustrious ancestry, being a type favored by the Elizabethans who conferred upon it a typically emblematic meaning.

  Sir Francis Bacon’s garden (c. 1620) had ‘in the very middle, a fair mount, with three ascents, and alleys, enough for four to walk abreast; which I would have to be perfect circles…and the whole mount to be thirty foot high’

  A mount of this height had to be ascended by stairs (expensive) or by circular spiralling paths (cheaper), leading to the name ’snail mounts’.

  The best surviving example, shown above, is at Lyveden New Bield in Northamptonshire, where twin snail mounds arise from a moated landscape surrounding Thomas Tresham’s haunting, never-finished Trinitarian retreat.

  (Highly recommended for a visit as one of the most intact Tudor landscapes.)

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Treetop walkway at Kew Gardens | Travel | guardian.co.uk

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• Treetop walkway at Kew Gardens (9 pictures)

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• Thumbnail view

• Read more

  Stairway to heaven for tree lovers at Kew gardens

  One hundred and eight steps up, tree top walk way provides new striking view of Londo

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  The 200m-long walkway was designed by the architects of the London Eye

• Photograph: Linda Nylind

October climax set for The Mount – Berkshire Eagle Online

• By Benning W. De La Mater, Berkshire Eagle Staff

  Article Last Updated: 05/14/2008 03:00:18 AM EDT

• LENOX — An agreement between The Mount and its creditors has staved off foreclosure and a May 31 deadline that would have forced Edith Wharton Restoration Inc. to raise $3 million by the end of the month.

• Instead, the historic home of the Gilded Age writer will be open to the public all summer without a threat of foreclosure by Berkshire Bank. The new fundraising deadline has been set for Oct. 31.

• The Mount owes a total of nearly $9 million to its creditors, which also includes another bank and two individuals. More than $875,000 has been raised during its emergency “Save the Mount” fundraising campaign, and $240,000 of that money has come within the past month or so.

• “This relieves us of the month-to-month burden,” Travers said. “It’s a long window to raise the funds, but there’s no guarantee that we will be able to raise this money. It does give us time, though.”

Cuisines in Bloom – New York Times

• Published: May 4, 2008

• DUKAGJINI BUREKTORJA

  (718) 822-8955; 758 Lydig Avenue (Wallace Avenue), Pelham Parkway; $; Article: 5/18/05.

  This Albanian place may be the only restaurant in the city devoted entirely to bureks: savory pies that are the Balkans’ answer to pizza. They are convincingly good, stuffed with meat, spinach, or feta cheese, the crust hovering between puff pastry and pizza dough.

• EL ECONÓMICO

  (718) 601-5577; 5589 Broadway (231st Street), Kingsbridge; $; Article: 5/18/05.

  This Dominican restaurant doesn’t look like much, but the line of regulars at the counter testifies to the quality. The specialty is a changing roster of rich stews like oxtail, eggplant and sancocho, the classic brew of pork, pumpkin and root vegetables. Boiled yuca is served with house-made pickled red onions.

• ROBERTO

  (718) 733-9503; 603 Crescent Avenue (Hughes Avenue), Belmont; $$$; Article: 5/3/06.

  This longtime Italian favorite near Arthur Avenue has an epic menu of homemade pasta dishes like fusilli in cartoccio, with clams, mussels, shrimp and fresh tomato cooked in foil on the grill; and fresh grilled salmon topped with caramelized onions.

• WORLD OF TASTE

  (718) 584-5228; 2614 Jerome Avenue (193rd Street), Kingsbridge Heights; $; Article: 2/27/08.

  This restaurant’s full name is a mouthful — World of Taste Seafood Deli/Vietnamese Food — but the space is humble and spare, tucked almost underneath the tracks of the No. 4 train.

  The specialties include New Zealand green mussels with ginger scallion. Meaty summer rolls are loaded with noodles, sliced shrimp and a generous helping of fresh mint. There are also many variations of pho; a warming and prodigiously sized bowl of pho bo is as good as any in New York.

   

  Compiled by Kris Ensminger
  E-mail: eating@nytimes.com

Garden Rant: Championing natives—worldwide – Annotated

• Monty Don’s Around the World in 80 Gardens

• Don had an epiphany of sorts after doing the series—not a terribly surprising one. This is what he says in a recent interview with the Daily Mail: “Gardening with indigenous plants and working with nature by tweaking it is so much more interesting than imposing on to the natural world,” and then: “The interesting gardens are related to geographical/historical/ personal context.”

Antiques Fair for the Garden Set at the New York Botanical Garden – New York Times – Annotated

• Antique Garden and Furniture Show and Sale in the New York Botanical Garden, Friday through Sunday.

  The fair, with 37 dealer booths, specializes in antique garden furniture, ornaments, sculptures, architectural elements, garden books and prints, and is timed to coincide with the garden’s first spring blooms. Weeping cherry trees, daffodils, tulips, violas and fritillaria are all in their glory.

• Not everything in the fair is antique, defined as at least 100 years old. “We want everything to be 50 years old but allow newer material if it is interesting and properly labeled,” Ms. Sweeney Singer said.

Table of Contents: April 28, 2008: Table of Contents: The New Yorker – Annotated

Magazine only, not online

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  Restoration Drama

  Rebecca Mead

  Trouble at Edith Wharton’s house

At Botanical Garden: What Darwin Saw Out Back – New York Times – Annotated

• By CORNELIA DEAN

  Published: April 25, 2008

  

  Damon Winter/The New York Times

  Orchids on display at the New York Botanical Garden recall the varieties Darwin studied and the role they played in his future naturalist theories.

  Multimedia

  

  Inside Darwin’s Garden

  
  
  

  Cambridge University Library

  Darwin studied more than flowers. He was intrigued by what Dr. Kohn calls the “behavior” of plants — how they move, respond to light, consume insects and otherwise act in the world.

  “Darwin’s Garden: An Evolutionary
  Adventure” opens Friday and runs through June 15 at the New York
  Botanical Garden, Southern Boulevard and 200th Street, Bedford Park, the Bronx; (718) 817-8700, nybg.org.