Happy New Year to you, Ink. And to everyone who lurks, mostly lurks or largely contributes, also.

2009 looks like it will be another rocky one, but credula vitam spes fovet et melius cras fore semper dicit.

Happy New Year to you - and everyone else too.

Speaking of time passing - one of my gifts for Christmas was from a secondhand bookstore - a book called I know a Garden, by Marion Cran, published in 1933. It's an interesting read. I thought of this forum and some of the debates here when I read, this in the Introduction:
'...it [layout of the garden] is, in the end, the least part of the charm of a garden, which is a thing subtler than design - deeper than cultivation - vested in the personality of the owner.'

And this particularly appealed to me as a description of gardeners: '...who are painting their pictures upon the Earth in their day, with whom we may share the thrill gardeners alone know, the sting of pleasure which makes our eyes go bright and hearts sing... and causes the ignorant and the outcast to call us mad.'

Ink - are you faamiliar with her writing? I may go looking for her other books. They sound interesting.
'

Thinking out loud. A New Year approaches. In my lifetime I have watched our country come full circle. Well remembered are the pre-teen war years spent pulling weeds in our victory garden. Every scrap of paper and metal was recycled then.

As the years passed I watched an improving economic climate which led to ripping up the land, paving it, creating suburbia; the so-called good life. Tossed upon the land were chemicals which enriched company CEO's but poisoned the environment.

The new year of 2009 quickly approaches and we face deja vu again. Victory gardens, recycling, illegal chemicals from abroad, cloning, plant gene manipulation under the control of a few companies bringing them prosperity.

Been there. Done that. History repeats itself. It appears that my generation has clearly stilled the voices of reason.

To quote T.S. Elliot-

"and that's how the world ends
not with a voice
but a whimper."

Wow nandina - what a downer for the new year. Don't you have a Message of Hope about to enter the White House? Aren't you joining (or at least encouraging) the 'Yes We Can' army of the best and brightest who will reportedly soon be sprinting into public service jobs that will help your country emerge from this current economic and environmental morass into a nation more aware of itself and its natural environment?

Already change is happening - the Robert Redford led environmental coaltiion has successfully delayed(and hopefully stopped) the Bush administration's plan to auction off pristine wildlands near Utah's Arches and Canyonlands National Parks to oil and gas speculators (see the Natural Resources Defense Council site for more info if you're interested).

I too wish everyone a happy, healthy and HOPEFULL New Year, and look forward to continuing to read on this site and others thoughtful discussion about both landscape design concerns and the broader 'gardening' issues that effect everyone who calls Earth, home.

Life can be boring in a static environment. So I wish for one and all a new year filled with insights of new and interesting things. And I hope that you choose to share with us.

As a sometimes lurker, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and a challenge everyone to think of a new vision for their future.

For a variety of reasons 2008 was a terrible year for me and I'm glad to see it end. But a positive outlook is in my nature - I can't countenance the opposite - and I have great hope for 2009. I too miss many of the regulars who used to meet here over the years and it's good to see at least a couple visit sporadically. Happy New Year to all and may 2009 bring you whatever it is that makes your world turn smoothly :-)

I grew up in a suburb of Boston. There is no way that you can convince me that the environment, aside from some specific isolated places, is not MUCH BETTER in terms of animals, surface water quality, habitat, air quality, and forest growth in that area now. Yes, there are more houses, but the lake now looks like water, the black & yellow haze is gone, there are deer in my old yard (never saw one until I was 18 and far away), hawks and ospreys are everywhere everyday, the tree canopy is much bigger, Foxes and coyotes are everywhere.

Here on the Cape, there used to be a black stripe across the sky during the summer that came up from NYC. I don't know the last time I saw that.

Look around and think back. I think you'll feel a lot better. It is working, not that it is perfect. It is MUCH better!

Here's to a thoughtful New Year
{{gwi:54741}}From SF Japanese Garden

I find it sometimes helps to just get outside and appreciate the local environment. Even though it is almost January 1st, the fall color around the town of Berkeley is gorgeous right now, with showers of gold from the Gingko trees, and all the Liquidambars and Japanese Maples are just glowing oranges and reds. The sky started out overcast this morning, but ended up cloudless and such a pale blue contrast with the deep blue of the bay and the classic view of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge and Mount Tamalpais across the bay. It felt really good to see all this, and then spend the whole afternoon rambling around the Berkeley Botanic Garden, where the plantings are wonderful in every season.

It helped blow the cobwebs and doubts away to admire the impressive silhouette of the Monkey Puzzle Trees, or the fiery reds of all the various Aloes blooming, as well as the first flowering California native shrubs such as Ceanothus and Manzanitas, and the delicate blooms of the Ribes sanguineum, set against the smooth coppery red trunks of the Madrones. Seeing all this beauty made me realize the economic worries shouldn't overwhelm the gift that living here really is. Here's hoping that all of us can find some joy and wonder in the coming year, and mutual optimism can overcome the tidal wave of bad news lately.

And if you can't find the joy where you are this winter, here's hoping a quick getaway to someplace warm is a possibility, it is absolutely wonderful weather right now in Cabo San Lucas, BCS, Mexico!

A quiet observer here. Thanks for taking the initiative in posting, Ink. Any discussion you start I follow with interest. Sometimes provocative, always interesting. The NE forum lost a lot of valued posters a year ago, but new people have wandered in. One thing that brings the geographic forums together is the swaps. I wonder what would happen if someone on this forum posted to some of other forums and invited them to check this forum out? I know for a fact that there are some some wonderful designer/horticulturalists on the New England forum, even if they are not professionals in the field.

I wish everyone here a verdant year.
\Marie

Nice one Miss D. Neither one of us ever made it to Japan but you seem to have made your own way (how typical) into the Japanese garden. Andrew is also interested in the Japanese way but I don't know how we connect on it. I shall be googling Cabo San Lucas in minute David thanks for the tip, the weather here is far from ideal. And talking of sharing, weren't you going to share a thought pls?

There is no doubt that a garden is the antidote to trouble in troubled times, woody's Marion Cran sounds like she could animate a few winter evenings by the fire. Winter is great for armchair planning and if all else fails post your thoughts here on the LD forum although I cannot promise quiet observation only.

It is hard for me to really imagine what professional life or even amateur gardening is like for those of you in frozen tundras this time of year, as I've never lived where things weren't growing 12 months of the year. Even though we have the same short days, colder(if not nearly as cold) weather and most plants slowing down or going dormant, it is also a season of rebirth, especially in the wilds around us. I think many Californians get swept up into the low energy of it being winter, but it doesn't keep one from gardening or designing/installing gardens, in the way that winter and snow must do back east and up north.

It must be a whole different way of life to have seasons so markedly affect both hobbies and professional practice. So my thoughts on Tony's theme are this: I feel especially blessed that I live and work where I do, and endeavor to never again complain about landscape design/installation work here in a California winter!

Wishing a great New Year for everyone up takes the time to drop in on this forum, and hoping 2009 will be better than the final months of 2008!

And Tony, if you can't get to warmer climes over the next few months, check out the new book by Raymond Jungles on his own recent work, or the landscape architect Bill Bensley based in Thailand and Bali. Both are lovely escapist books with wonderfully creative or even over the top designs using tropical and subtropical plants. Plenty of things to get your mind off the cold and dreary winter skies.

Tony,
I'm still jonesing about a trip to Japan. I checked in with the same school that was offering the seminar but they have not updated their website or information for 2009.
Don't know if they are offering the curriculum this year. Have you heard any news on it ?
I think it was fate that I didn't get accepted into the program 2 years ago.
As it happened, right around the time we would have left for Japan , I suffered a collapsed lung and had to have most of it removed.
I am now only half the blow hard I used to be. ( but I still try )

Just finished up on an Asian inspired small courtyard garden in S.F.
For the patio surface I used a concrete color and an expansion joint layout that emulates the look of tatami mats . ( I like it )
The stone work around an existing koi pond is modern in layout. Influencing my design was the work by Shodo Suzuki.

Also had a chance to do a roof top Asian inspired sanctuary/ meditation garden in the City as well as a exhibition garden with a zen like feel this past year.

Hope that 2009 brings us all some good gardening projects.
I sure could use a couple.
Work is pretty slim for me right now.
Hope you are doing better than I in that department.

Konnichi wa

Happy New Year everyone!I am a newbie,a chinese girl,Sorry, my english is poor,cant reply on time, I didnt know feet isnt meter,scale of texture pic and cad pic,often is wrong.
Now,thank everyone help me so much,I know some.I plan to New York as student next year,hope everyone care for me some,thanks very much.
Yin

Happy New Year to all who post and lurk here. May 2009 bring you some degree of fulfillment from your garden.

Michelle, when I saw that photo on your web site, it gave me a brilliant flash of insight into understanding how a focal point can work to enhance our appreciation of a garden in layers beyond the superficial object itself. I'm not expressing it very well, but I was very impressed that someone preconceived and executed that specific scene.

Winter always seems cold to me, but when I read about others essentially shutting down for winter, I am jolted by the reality that weather is relatively mild where I live. If you are shivering in the cold, I invite you to take a virtual walk with me through my neighborhood. Caveat -- the photos have nothing to do with design and there is an overbearing emphasis on my favorite genus, but maybe it will warm you up a bit anyway.

Cheers to all,
Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: Out for a Walk in Point Loma

Happy New Year, Merry Xmas, Happy Kwanza, Happy Hanukkah, and Boxing Day!

Business is slow this time of the year, but snow plowing is up!

I haven't posted here in more than a year, but I do check in now and then. I wish you all a happy, healthy and wealthy new year -- we're going to need it!

Like Laag, I grew up on Cape Cod, and on every drive into Boston, I remember the awful grey lens hanging over the city. The lens has been gone for a long time now, and that, (and January 20) gives me hope. There will be a lot false starts for alternative energy, but at least it will be a beginning.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year to all, the sun is shining it is 15 degrees, the snowdrops are showing their little green noses and I go to see my first great nephew for the first time. Good Start fot the New Year.

Happy New Year from a lurker! It made it up to 50 degrees 2 days ago and I was able get out in the yard and even mow. I almost feel human again! The winterscape is beautiful but so very cold.

Nice to see lurkers emerge... hope to see it more often in 2009!

The link below is to one of my favourite pieces of writing. It has absolutely nothing to do with gardening, being rather about change and how each of us is a part of it. A bit of a counterweight, in my view, to Nandina's current outlook, though both views are true and Nandina's should be frankly acknowledged and is of course making itself felt.

But this piece might go a little further toward feeling like it's a Happy New Year...

KarinL

Here is a link that might be useful: Hetertrophic flagellates

Happy New Year everybody, I've been on computer diet but still check in now and then. The year seems good so far, cold and bright, and I went skating on a bog this morning. 2008, for me and many others, was burdened by fears of unknown dangers - may this year bring us clearer vision and the ability to sort things out.

A thought provoking piece of writing, Karen. Thanks for posting it.

Some were upset by my dour thoughts posted above. DH and I are out and about the southern back roads very often. Small town after small town; mills shut down, little strip malls out of business, vast cotton farming fields growing to weeds. The inability of retired northeners to sell their homes and move south has cut deeply into the southern economy. There are some fabulous housing buys here for those able to take advantage of them. All this, of course, affects the landscaping business. It is going to take a creative business plan for designers to weather the storm. Location, location, location is going to be the key to survival. Lagg sits in a little pocket of the country which has always seemed to ride over economic downturns.

Last week I stopped by Parks Seed while driving through Greenwood, SC. Its inventory was greatly reduced from prior years. As many of you know Parks, Jackson & Perkins and Wayside Gardens have joined forces to stay competitive. I was pleased to see that the employee parking lot was overflowing with parked cars. That's a good sign.

Food shopping the other day I noticed a young couple. He was in a wheelchair and she was applying for a job. I stopped to talk with them. Wounded in Iraq he was waiting for the VA to give him additional treatment but the wait would be at least six months. Just another part of a broken web needing repair in this country.

I would love to be optomistic. This New Year is starting off with hope in a new administration. Time will tell. In the meantime, dig up the front yard. Plant vegetables. And above all. remember that those in the landscape business can solve problems, help to control landscape budgets and have tons of creative ideas. Give them a chance!!

Happy New Year everyone! 2007 and 2008 were less than stellar for me...but I'm hopeful for the new year.

I know what laag means about the environment being in better shape...I saw a red-shouldered hawk feasting on some critter in my neighbor's yard yesterday. I was born in 1960--I can remember when seeing a raptor was an amazing thing, because they were so devastated by DDT. Now they are commonplace.

I got laid off a month earlier than normal...but I have high hopes that I'll get re-instated in March. And if I don't...well, there' still the back yard and goddess-knows how many tons of white landscape rock that need to be dealt with. (If anyone one has any decent disposal suggestions for old icky white landscape rock, I'm all ears!)

Hope to be around GW more in the coming year, now that I've climbed out of my hole.

Let's see, an economy that runs on building, maintaining, and servicing second homes and those that use them is a protected pocket? Not the case at all.

Happy New Year everyone!
It's nice to see so many here.

The best thing about 2009 is that it's not 2008!

Interesting comment, Laag. Your area is very familiar to me as I grew a business there through two recessions so am in tune with its quirky characteristics. In fact, I go way back to before WWII. Before the bridges. Before most of the roads were paved. Back to the days when everyone had a lobster pot out in the bay, the living was frugal and many summer shacks were built from lumber floating in on the high tides. It is an unique pocket which I still say will survive this recession a bit better than some other parts of the country. Will be interesting to see if I am making the right call based on past experience.

It would be interesting to hear people's takes on what the recession(depression?) is doing in their part of the country. I would have assumed that established practicioners in a fairly wealthy market such as Cape Cod would be able to ride this out better than most, which is not saying that it still won't be painful and belt tightening. Here in a similar type of market, (varied economy, mostly moneyed clients, and no extreme job layoffs to date) of the San Francisco Bay Area, I get mixed readings talking to other landscape designers/contractors/nursery owners on how the market is looking. There does seem to be a general drop off in volume of new work, as well as much tighter and generally smaller budgets for work that continues to come in. Even designers who only work with secure/wealthy clients are telling me that they are hesitant to spend money now. I have seen a once lucrative market for spec home/garden projects dry up completely, no one is building anything now or purchasing properties to rehab at the moment, as the real estate market is in such chaos here. My friends who are in real estate sales all say that the only movement is in foreclosures and short sales, although I do see regular sales happening in my town of Berkeley that are neither, but sales prices are probably down at least 30% over the peak.

I suspect that even bigger issues might come into play here in the San Francisco Bay Area than the recession and lack of financing. We are facing forced rationing if this rainy season doesn't measure up to at least normal amounts, and we are also overdue for a major earthquake here on the Hayward Fault. Either of these events will offer both pain and potential gains if they occur. I like to think that I am as prepared as possible for the earthquake with a major structural remodel to update my house 3 years ago, but water rationing will necessarily push me away from the subtropical plants that I have favored in combination with the mediterranean/drought tolerant/succulents/California natives.

How are things looking in your respective areas?