Susan Durisek’s blog

This past Saturday’s Inside/Out featured some interesting garden spots for vacation visits.  A new sort of discovery, looking at a garden’s bird’s-eye layout, can be a  fast and fun cyber-adventure, revealing features you just can’t see from the ground.  Take The Arboretum on Alumni Drive, for instance.  If you download Google Earth at earth.google.com, and enter the coordinates 38 00 50.00N, 84 30 19.40W  in the search bar, you may be surprised at the pattern revealed in The Arboretum’s pathways.  Next try 34 04 34.28N, 118 28 28.65W, which is the Getty Center near Los Angeles, California; clicking on the little blue squares will open photos submitted by viewers. Also in the area, at 34 02 43.34N, 118 33 52.83W is the Getty Villa.  Here’s more about the Getty complex, which was part of Saturday’s feature that was cut for space:

The Getty   getty.edu    The Getty Center  1200 Getty Center Drive  Los Angeles CA  90049  310-440-7300:  The Getty Villa     17985 Pacific Coast Highway   Malabu CA  90265  310-440-7300The Getty has two very different faces overlooking the Pacific Ocean in southern California.  At the Cente, is a future-gazing sleek, contemporary landscape designed around a canyon about a decade ago by artist Robert Irwin; another at the Villa, employing the peristyle and reflecting pool architectural tradition looks back in time with a nod toward ancient Rome.  Each suits its setting well, ruled by interests in art, architecture and design collections set in motion by J. Paul Getty and his belief in the civilizing force of art.  You can discover what a chadar, or sort of stone-step waterfall looks like, trace a path through a floating azalea maze, or catch the scent of wormwood, mint and oregano in sunny Roman gardens.   

 You can also try flying around the globe to the gardens at Versailles - France, that is by entering coordinates  48 48 09.20N, 2 07 06.53E.   Dole’s garden in Hawaii, at  21 31 29.79N, 158 02 14.71W is amazing, too.    What interesting garden views can you find? Add a comment, and share them for others to enjoy.