Welcome to Iowa Public Television! If you are seeing this message, you are using a browser that does not support web standards. This site will look much better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device. Read more on our technical tips page.

Iowa Public Television

 

Home » Video » P. Allen Smith | Installation of the Stone Plinth at the...

<p><strong>Note:</strong> If this video does not play, you may need to download the free <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">Flash</a> video plugin for your web browser.</p> <p><a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" target="_blank"><img alt="Get Adobe Flash Player" src="graphics/plugins/get_flash_player.gif" border="0" height="31" width="88"></a></p>
  • P. Allen Smith's Garden Home

P. Allen Smith | Installation of the Stone Plinth at the Garden Home | PBS

Duration: 02:27
Program: P. Allen Smith's Garden Home

Gardening and lifestyle expert P. Allen Smith give us a tour of the west lawn of the Garden Home where a stone plinth and statue were just installed. This video is from season 11 of his public television series, P. Allen Smith's Garden Home. You know, I have to say that one of the most relaxing areas at the garden home retreat is the west lawn. It's so simple. What we did with the design is just plant a double row of Wisteria trees that created an allee with a particular wisteria called wisteria floribunda, or the Japanese wisteria. It has those really long flower panicles, or they're actually called racemes. You see, they've been trained in a lollipop-like shape, and they frame the view to the porch on the west end of the house. Now, recently, I added a plinth and a statue that draws your attention down this allee, or axis, and creates a Focal point for this garden room. Charlie Bates is an old friend of mine, an excellent stonemason, and he shows us the many intricate steps in constructing a plinth and the different tools that are needed to shape the stone Well, first, looking at your project, what size the stone you need. We're using limestone, where you want to make sure it's big enough to get what we want out of it. So we can cut down to the thickness and check for any cracks, because when you get started carving, if you hit a fissure or crack, it can come out, break your piece, and you've got to start all over. That's primarily what you're looking for. We worked ...

Tags:

Post Date: March 2, 2012