Re: THE 13 DEADLY SYNDROMES OF GARDENING

Claire made a great point:
>
>Some design is good but the landscaper makes a design, puts the compenents in
>place and stands back to have look.  Then he is finished.  We are never
>finished.
>
>There are people who buy into this process but they are not gardeners.

I was so put off by Owen's guidelines that I avoided reading everyone's
responses for several days -- thinking I was the only one to object to his
approach.  I should have known better ; }

Anyway, I wanted to add that not all landscape architects take Owen's hard
line. When we moved to our half acre of eden seven years ago, I really
needed help planning a yard for a 30 yr old house that had never been
lanscaped.  I interviewed four landscape architects and the one I chose is
a good friend to this day.    One of the reasons I chose her is that we
wanted help in defining areas and elevations, but we wanted to do the labor
and choose the plants ourselves.  She had absolutely no problem with our
approach and in fact, since she is a gardener herself, she was delighted by
our hands-on attitude.

This year, I had her do a plan for our front yard.  I gave her a list of
plants I wanted and a sense of the atmosphere I wanted and this time asked
her to suggest where to put the trees and shrubs (my weakness is that I
focus on plants 4 ft tall and shorter).  She not only did as I asked, she
gave me a short lesson on creating a unified look to the garden, which is
fine since this is the "street" view and I don't expect to fuss with it
much (famous last words).

The point is, not every landscape architect is as hard line as Owen is (or
seems to be) and we need to recognize that.

By the way, Owen is a highly respected landscape architect in Southern
California and writes wonderful articles for local publications.  I've
never seen him take such a firm stand on an issue before.

Nan
**********
'''''''''''''''''''''''
Nan Sterman
San Diego County California
Sunset zone 24, USDA hardiness zone 10b or 11

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index