DO solve all drainage problems first.

DO consider the planned use of your property to guide in placement of various elements (cooking/dining, veggies, ornamental planting, play area, utility area, etc.) so that they function well and relate to each other.

DO consider ease of mowing when designing bed or border shapes.

DO research mature plant sizes so they don't outgrow their space.

DO make walks a generous width and put them far enough away from the house to leave a reasonably sized planting area.

DON'T use lots of squiggly shapes for beds or borders. If you want a curve, make it a large, bold curve.

DO choose plant characteristics, such as size, form, texture, foliage color, flower color, bloom time first, then find the plant that most closely fits the description.

DO make your landscape personal; include a favorite plant from your childhood home, for example.

DON'T forget about fragrance. The smell of spirea, for example, under a window can be awful, whereas the scent of lilacs wafting in from the bedroom window can give you pleasant dreams on a warm spring night.

DO go bigger than you think you need to. If you think you need a 3 1/2 foot border, go to 5 feet. If you think you need a 18 inch container of annuals, go up to 24 inches.

Patty

DO get the bones right. Hardscape comes first, plants second.

DO know ahead of time the amount of money/effort required for upkeep.

With only the information that your audience will be women jan it would be difficult to suggest how you might pitch this, although you do say it should be "fun and informative". I watched the "Vagina Monologues" recently that was "fun and informative" but this may not be what you mean. Women garden and men cut the grass Venus/Mars. This could be fun. Do make sure that Mr feels as though he is in charge. i.e let him buy the John Deere lawn tractor designed for an estate 500 times larger than your lawn. Do use this extravagance to your advantage.

Ah yes, the power of tools. My 36 year old electric 14" blade hedgeclippers died. I borrowed the neighbors 22" electric trimmers. I felt like I was welding a lite sabor. The dh got a gleam in his eye, bought me a pair just like them and you know, I think my days as chief hedge trimmer are over.

I digress. My do/don't would be: If you have moved into a place with an existing garden, don't do anything except edge and weed only what you know are weeds, thru 4 seasons. See what you have.

WOW! You guys are awesome. The info you've shared will make a great handout. I only have an hour for the presentation and it needs lots of 'punch' and that's what I'm finding here. Keep it coming.
I have lots of books, some magazines and my Master Gardener materials to back up everything I plan to share.

Thank you all very much.

Jan

Leave room for your personal experiences.
Share your own mistakes so that they don't have to learn those the harder way.

Please don't perpetuate male/female stereotypes in your presentation. You'll likely offend a good deal of your audience; many won't find that sort of thing funny.

I agree with foxesearth -- contrast your list of "do's" with some "don'ts" that you learned from personal experience, if you have 'em. You can begin by talking about general rules in theory, and then show examples that reinforce why those rules exist.

Oh I have to agree with deeje! at a seminar at New England Grows one time I went to hear Tracy Disabato Aust and she said something like..."ladies, listen... maintenance is a really good thing for YOU to do."

nice!, I was insulted and I was in the maint biz back then.

I would have been insulted, too. I once said something to the woman who works in my local hardware store about having been working in the garden, and she said "oh, you were cutting flowers?" Meow.

Well, there goes the fun element of the talk. My post was intended to show how one might use these stereotypes exactly as such but let's keep it straight and narrow shall we and have everyone dropping off, ever so politely. yawn.

DO learn what soil, sun exposure, climate, wind exposure you have before you start choosing plants. Wishing you had full sun or acid soil doesn't make it so, and while you might fool yourself, you won't fool your plants.

Ink - you are a funny guy!

Stereotyping the sexes is both a reality and a fun topic. People normally do fit into a stereotype - sticking your head in the sand will not make it go away. Saying something sexist and meaning it in a derogatory way is one thing, but having fun with it is quite another.

The many "dh" comments on this site are very sexist and usually do not apply to me - a male. But I still enjoy the comments and understand that they do apply to 'many' males. I am never insulted.

Lighten up!

Nothing to worry about -- I have only praises for my DH and the work we share in our acre and a half. We bought it as a blank slate and love that it is something we both enjoy doing.
My audience is from our county and I probably know most of them through other workshops I have conducted or participated in. I'll come back and let you know how it went, but it is still two weeks away.

Jan

We need to know who these women are. Who are you talking to? Gardeners or non gardeners? That makes a big difference on what you say so it will be relevant. I assume you are talking to a garden club. I have plenty of answers for that.

Saypoint's points are really important. I'd also add:

DON"T think you necessarily need wall to wall shrubs around the foundation of your house.

DO take into consideration berries, fall color as well as bloom.

DO try to vary texture. (BTW, when I work with groups or clients, texture seems to be the most difficult concept for people to get.)

I don't have a problem with lighthearted teasing about sexist stereotypes, but the comment that implied that women don't do their own garden maintenance was not a stereotype, just sexist. IMO

Wow Jo, you read all that into "she said something like..."ladies, listen... maintenance is a really good thing for YOU to do."? Is "guys...maintenance is a really good thing for YOU to do." equally sexist? Could Tracy's remarks (more likely if you have read her books) have been aimed at encouraging her audience, presumably ladies, to take care of their own garden instead of hiring someone else? If you are looking for a sexist stereotype connected with flowers stand outside a florist shop and watch the way men carry their purchase compared with the way women carry theirs. The attention span of an audience, any audience, is short and a bit of fun as Jan implied in her question, will bring it back from dreaming about cabana boys, icecream and even Tracy Disabato Aust.

"Could Tracy's remarks (more likely if you have read her books) have been aimed at encouraging her audience, presumably ladies, to take care of their own garden instead of hiring someone else?"

What would make you (or Tracy, for that matter) think that they would NEED encouragement, or that they DO hire someone to do it? Is it because they are "ladies"?

If nicethyme was insulted, that tells me that there was something in her tone or manner that was provoking. This might be a topic for another thread.

Just to put you all at ease with these argumentative posts, here in our mostly rural farming communities, where the whole county's population is just over 20,000, women take great pride in the work they do in their landscape and gardens.

Men and women alike shop the farm stores and garden centers, and I've yet to find a gardening tool that is made to fit the hands of men only, or women only.

Of course, there are folks who hire their landscaping and maintenance done, but they are not likely to be in my workshop.

Go ahead and continue this lively repartee, its good for the literary folks who can debate anything that won't matter one bit after they've slept on it.
Gotta go, the garden's waiting........

Jan

DON'T plant so near the border of your property (particularly with perennials since they grow faster) that will require your neighbor to prune regularly and very often if you don't want to have a hostile relationship with said neighbors. This is even more important if you are in a neighborhood with small lots but still important even if lots are large.

Remember that they have a right to landscape their own yard and they may not want you to be doing it for them.

This is being posted here by someone who has a neighbor who has planted Pampas grass (a 6 to 10 ft wide plant) right on the border next to a fence which it will probably uproot in a year or so at the rate it's growing. Also, a tall and wide climbing prickly rose bush has been planted on the border. What fun and nice thoughts I have of her while I'm getting stuck by thorns pruning a very large climing rose bush planted a foot from the property line. I have to do this every week during the Spring. Oh joy, oh joy! Have to prune during the rest of the year also but not quite as often. (Just venting here hoping it might be on topic.)

Tracy's remark was to an industry group. New England Grows is the professionals' trade show for the north east, like MANTS in Balti, CENTS in Ohio, the GIE... She knew she wasn't talking to hobby homeowners. It was a condescending remark, first implying that we wouldn't know to offer maint as a service and that it was good work for women to do... I thought "excuse ME! as opposed to who?"

I did think at the time, that it was a regional thing for her to not understand... In Ohio, women were niether common nor respected in the landscape crowd. My internship at a large company there - I was the only girl on crews out of 90 employees. Contrast that to being 1 of 4 female crew leaders at a company on Nantucket Island at the time.
I figured it to be a cultural thing, she evidently didn't know her audience in Boston.

Hey Elphaba, you've got lots of company. So do I: one neighbour shares morning glory at the back fence and a huge conifer at the front, while the other grows an evergreen clematis that has found out that the sun is over my way.

Have you considered asking your neighbour to do the maintenance for you? As in "your rose needs pruning on my side" or "your pampas grass is breaking the fence." Depending on your relationship this could be done via verbal request, friendly note, or notarized letter. I haven't tried it yet, but I swear I plan to ask the conifer neighbour to clean its debris out of our gutters... one of these days.

Just for the record, this is what I find insulting "Go ahead and continue this lively repartee, its good for the literary folks who can debate anything that won't matter one bit after they've slept on it." A totally unnecessary comment wasn't it?

karni - I have spoken to the neighbors, kind of a long story, we'll see if something happens. They are very very nice people but have a very very busy lifestyle. They shouldn't have such an elaborate perennial garden on such a small lot if they aren't in a position to maintain it closely. I didn't get the impression that they were willing to "give up" anything. They seemed like people who "want it all" even if they can't "take care of it all". Think I will add something else:

DON'T set up an elaborate abundant garden unless you have time to maintain it or pay to have someone maintain it for you regularly (biweekly). You don't have to fill every nook and cranny of your yard. Remember landscaping the "emptiness" is important too. Need the diversity of plants AND "space" for a really beautiful garden IMO.

As I said I would, I've come back to let you know how the program went.
There were 17 ladies in attendance, all with their own landscaping issues.
I prepared a short outline and stuck to it about halfway through the one hour we were allowed. They had so many questions, we basically used the rest of the hour for a Q&A session.
It was fun and most agreed we needed another hour, as the first had gone by so quickly.
Many of their questions and comments seemed to come from the great list of "DO's & DON'Ts".
Thanks to all of you for your input.

Jan

Glad it went well!

Which dos and don'ts did you eventually decide to go with?

one word....chill. enough tension in this world without ultra sensitive people worrying about comments made in jest.

DON'T accidentally overspray Roundup on your neighbor's encroaching invasive plants.

I'll not list them, but I used most of the do's and a few of the don'ts. I actually turned some don'ts, into do's, for a more postitive spin.

Oregongirlie --- it sounds as if you have had experience with Roundup. Did you spray, or your neighbor?

Thanks, again, for all your help!
Jan

When I used teach classes, I handed out a little Needs Assesment Survey. One of the questions was, #12. How many hours per week do you think you can realistically devote to maintaining your landscape? Then, #13. Re-evaluate question #12, and be really, really honest with yourself.

I think C. Colston Burrell has a good site needs survey in his book "Perennial Combinations'? I can't quite remember. It's great if you can give them a checklist to take home so they can use it to do their own site assesment.

No one ever puts enough consideration toward maintenance.