Re: help, my garden will be open to public in June
- To: j*@shastalink.k12.ca.us, "m*@ucdavis.edu"
- Subject: Re: help, my garden will be open to public in June
- From: P* H*
- Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2000 13:23:49 -0700
Sean has some great suggestions. As an educator, I naturally have
thought how to make a visit to my garden a learning experience — a
garden tour is essentially a learning opportunity for visitors.
Certainly, I have learned much from visits to others' gardens, though I
have not yet had a public tour of my garden. If I did, I would try to
reduce the number of individual (and possibly repetitive) questions from
visitors and answer them in advance with a handout, booklet, flyer or
whatever. Also a plant list, which is a good thing for your own use.
You could write down things like:
• A brief history of your garden. What did it look like when you took
over and what has happened since? Many gardeners have photos in an
album, but you might not want to have people leafing through a personal
photo album. You might duplicate some photos for a booklet or flyer.
• An overview of your gardening philosophy, design/aesthetic ideas, etc.
What are you trying to accomplish with this arrangement of plants?
• Any special plant collection here? If you have a particular genus or
family of plants that merits special notice, list what you have.
• Your favorite five plants (in your garden) and why they are special to
you.
• Success stories: A set of problems you have dealt with and solved.
Every garden has problems that are unique and problems that are common.
• A seasonal timeline: What happens in spring, summer, fall and winter?
What are the stars of the garden each season (or month)?
• A list of your rare, unusual or hard-to-find plants and where you got
them.
• A list of butterfly and bird species attracted to your garden (specify
what plants).
• A list of consultants or other people you worked with whom you can
recommend. Who turned you on to a certain plant? Who solved an
irrigation or soil problem for you? Who did your fence? Your rock wall?
I don't think putting an informative pamphlet together is pretentious or
showing off. I think it's being helpful. Also, this frees you up to
simply be the genial host and observe people's reactions to what they
see. You don't want to spend all your time writing down or otherwise
giving information for people.
Also, I am very conscious of the viewing angles in my garden. Certain
angles are better than others and you have to let people find their own
sightlines, but you might have some spots marked or suggested for the
best look (foreground to background, color combos, etc.) at your design.
Often, people put a bench in these spots, but how many of those can you
have?
Good luck and have fun!
Paul Harrar
Nevada City, California
Sunset Zone 7
2,700 ft.
