Woo hoo! Thank you for the heads-up! I just downloaded. Have only read the first couple of pages, but I can tell I'm going to LOVE it. :)

I can relate to feeling like I have no business in the garden. More often I realize that I needed a staff. Not just me and mom doing what was left alone to its own for the past 20 or so years. Most of the trees have an emotional connection for my mom; my dad planted them and they used to sell the fruit at our fruit stand or the local swap-meet back in the day (now there is the farmers market but that takes yet more time and energy to join) Finally after 6 years and countless loads out I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. But that just leads me to more things to do better or change. I set goals, and regularly miss them because a new garden misadventure pops up to deal with. For example, we have guarded several peach trees because mom thought they were also good ones. We have half a dozen peach trees, most of them planted themselves I believe. Some of these peaches are now getting ripe-small white ones, mom picked a bunch of peaches and spent a day at the sink peeling and slicing them up and when she was done had 3 quarts canned. She called to tell me she was done with those little peaches. I thought I would try canning a few too, maybe it was more being 89 that made it take so long and get so little. It has nothing to do with age! Those peaches bruise if you look sternly at them, have 1/4" of good flesh and taste...mealy blah. Now we both have a crook in our backs and I have a few more peach trees to make in to fire wood. They are beautiful in the spring, so I may leave them for now, but remove all the fruit once it sets. Funny, even the worms do not like those peaches. I do have a list of a few new trees to replace them with, peaches that do well here and that do not all ripen in the same week. Guessing much like Florida, there is no off season, no time to sit back and think of the next years garden projects or look at how wonderful the past season was. It is warm out, weeds are growing, fruit is waiting to be picked, something needs water and more needs pruning. The more you have in the ground, the more there seems to be to pay attention too. On the other hand, we can add living space to our homes by using the garden area. Places to sit on a hot day or zones to soak up the sun on the cold or the best spots for catching the sun rising or setting. If we were stuck indoors in the snow, we would loose those spaces for months at a time. I am off to re-stack the wood pile, seems I need more room, to reach the roots of an offending peach tree and to fill buckets with small mealy peaches. I might even have time to stop and smell the roses

Hello Ginger: No I do not have a garden of my own As of yet my attitude is without a firm Identity to nurture a strong character and goal orientated qualities. Im still in the self exploratory stages of development. During an earlier age this was hindered and now Im accepting changes.. A garden would then be shallow of the emotional and soulful qualities that are magnified by ones certainty of Identity giving a strong place in society.. In order to fulfill the need of artistic expression, Im still in the backwards stage. Finding the human experience in stones and inanimate objects and places. Along with how the senses are able to mimic these experiences in order to trigger the remembrances of acquired memories from loved ones, friends and the fears of future events. Without a formal education in garden design and styles or landscape architecture Im using my own experiences to fuel an imaginative mind. Gardening at home will come with time. As of now Im finding that the Japanese garden style has a well codified tradition of accounting the human experiences starting with Shinto. For this reason Im here on the Garden web to find a profession that will balance my Identity . To accept the teachings of an established group of professional tradesmen has been my failure and Im working on why this is so. -Note- Japanese garden forum is my place for self analyzing. I dont feel this is appropriate for Garden Restoration since Im not restoring any garden of my own and wish to learn the academic approach of others. I will keep my thoughts to myself after this introduction and share observations that relate to this threads topics INKognito has the ability to make me want answers with originality. He is persistently gentle and rephrases a thread into new forms always keeping core principles alive. Answers that I would otherwise grasp for with babbling or going into tangents are now gathering some resemblance of logic. Many can quote books or try to rehash already proven theories into their own words but Im guessing hes looking for originality of thought and how to apply this with real life situations with paying customers and people of personal dedication towards idealized landscapes and our role within. Edzerd, Mike Y, Peace love,Agnes Wa ,karma37 popny and many more are molding my dreams into a focus. Sometimes you need to listen to the collective advice from strangers before your wise enough to figure the answers on youre own.. Many people here are volunteering their time as masters of their trade,art,business etc to help bring the answers we seek while their peers are too busy to be with us. In this respect I express the great full appreciation for those willing to be teachers on a public forum. I favor all styles of gardens but absolutely reject the notion that garden design comes first.. I am inclined to profess how I would use the natural or urban environment given, to choose architectural style and materials of the home as the most practical method. After this I would try and figure how the perceived boundaries both natural and political effect a gardens inner ratios and flow. I love clean lines and open views. I love the secrecy of a small courtyard garden adjacent to my bedroom. Where a man can enjoy privacy and the comforts of bed and kitchen. In this space one can create a garden that is truly romantic and passé. When old this space can be accommodated into a solarium for comfort. All the ornamentals that make up the nursery industry can take the wayside until my home is in accord with the community and its local building materials. I feel modern structures and their art is the most exciting field for gardening. Here one can meld any garden style from the cottages of tenet farmers to controlling the Landscape as in Versailles. Modern methods and materials like glass and concrete, flat roofs no longer make me angry or frustrated. That is why Im here. I always thought the Quakers, Puritans and Shakers were the role models of clean lines good design and the right proportion of colors with gardening. I feared France, Italy and England for their control and geometry. Now I can accept change and am willing to learn everything. Modern architecture is where the design of all cultures will inevitably be showcased and we will have to accept as with my love for traditional Japanese Gardens the historical restoration of gardens will be left for small communities having the wealth to live in a lifestyle no longer practical for most. Plants I Like!!!!!!! Kind of weird for others to perceive. I like plants in the moment. Something like wow thats really cool. How did you think of that?! Thats when Ill remember the name of a plant. -Monotropaceae (Indian Pipe) Placing this woodland flower in a very small Kare-San-Sui garden lacking color in the Zen form mimicking the monochrome ink brush scenes. You can go as deep as you want. -Schizophragma hydrangeoides (Jap. Hydrangea-Vine) When the vine is trianed to grow vertically up a 4 stone wall then having it grow along the top as a cap. Very aristocratic looking for historical stone architecture like American Gothic. I like all ornamental shrubs and trees. The guideline for me was how my great grandparents understood the difference between foundation plantings to hide the cement blocks during the turn of the century and homes with stone work and wood siding not needing foundation plantings Save the Azaleas, Rhodos,Yews,Junipers,Roses, for the perimeter of the property and woodland Border and bring back the Paths,courtyards,arbors and cutting gardens closer to the home. I hate those shrubs around the house and think they are better used as in the manner of windbreaks and massing of color from afar. Sorry got a little carried away. You would understand if you never wrote anything until such a late period in life. I never had to hand in an essay. The teachers from the previous year told next years hes to stubborn to teach. I got away with murder! Never read or did homework. I feel so happy to think again. And maybe it was for the better. O.K. I want to choke myself.this was way tooo long. Wheres the gag order on this forum? Thank you Ginger and Misee..Now comes the studying. This will be a new approach.

Welcome, Carrie. On a smaller scale, many local town historical societies have properties where they maintain gardens with varying degrees of historic accuracy. Here in Old Saybrook, where I live, the Hart House garden is mostly laid out in a way that it might have been when the Hart family was in residence, and the volunteers who plant and maintain it try to use only plants that were in use during that period. If you contact historical societies in your area, they can tell you if they have gardens, and being history nuts, will probably have a good idea how accurate their restorations are, and will likely be happy to share information with you. Jo