I'm just a home gardener & not sure if you are talking about community projects or what. But I'll throw in my 2cents. There is a park in San Fernando that took forever to get done & it is the ugliest park I've ever seen. I drive by it going places all the time & 1 time in over a yr I've seen 1 person walking with a stroller in it. It has wrought iron fence around it with stone pillars which is nice, It is locked up at night. It covers just this corner so isn't more than 1/2 of a normal block. The problem is almost no trees, hot looking & mostly different kinds of grasses that look like allergy center to me. Other parks in area are busy even when the grass was more brown than green. But they have trees. Apparently the object is just to walk through it & leave. Cement sidewalk is nice & wanders around but grasses are so tall someone could jump out & rob you, or gang could be hiding. I can't imagine what they were thinking. If they had put some grass, some benches cemented in ground & few trees the place would probably be busy. What is value of park no one will go & enjoy. It is mostly brownish, grayish, blackish looking. Not my vision of a park. Kids would probably get hurt on those grasses as some look very sharp. City of S.F. also changed MaClay St & nobody likes it. It was been changed to 1 lane each way & has huge planter sticking out into the street with same grasses. A few are attractive but most look so hot & dried up looking, maybe they are dead can't tell. So you get to weave down the street going from 1 lane to 2 & back down to 1. I thought it was to put in sidewalk cafes or give area a homey feeling but don't see that happening. They have banned most trucks. Maybe they hired new people because right before both projects there were the most beautiful flowers in the median, oriental poppies in all colors had me going on MaClay just to look at them. At times they have done beautiful landscaping so at 1 time they did know how. Near Brand Park it used to be lovely. So are you talking only to Master Gardeners about something they do or community projects or what??

Hi, demikaz, $80.00 an hour for a gardener's time may seem high, but it depends on a lot of factors. Namely, how much experience the gardener has, what his target market is (high end residential, commercial, etc.), and how much he values his time, if he's doing all the work himself, etc. I have some container gardener friends who charge up to $100.00 for their design and install time, plus mark ups on plants and materials. Shop around. If you're just looking for advice, paying for an hour of a garden coaches time might be a good investment. Or ask a Master Gardener to come give you a consult. That wouldn't cost you anything. The Master Gardener program is a great place to get a basic education in plant culture, physiology, ecology, and other areas, from disease and pest identification and treatment to design to pruning, etc. It is basic knowledge and not meant to be a degree program, but many Master Gardeners love plants and gardens and have been doing it all their lives. Others are retired and want to learn more about gardening so they can start and better care for their own gardens. I'm a registered landscape architect, a garden designer and coach, and a garden writer, and have taken supplemental horticulture courses as well as our area's Master Gardener program. As a landscape architect, most of my career I focused on site design. When I switched to specializing in garden design, I figured the more I could learn about the cultural aspects of plants and gardens, the better designer I would be. The MG program was one such resource to take advantage of (and now I'm looking at becoming a certified plant professional - the learning never ends!). :) Some MG are garden designers by profession. We're just not allowed to advertise the fact that we're MG for commercial gain. Usually, the MGs who've been in it for a while are the most knowledgeable. A 10 year veteran would be a good bet for a consult. Our program allows residential consulting is one way we get our volunteer hours in. Yours might, too. Call your local extension office and ask for someone to come out to you place. But from your post it seems you want someone to take care of your grounds. Have you called landscape maintenance companies?

No Barbra! It's supposed to be a hidden garden, unlike mine. BUT after I get the vines growing on my front fence and the side fences are privacy fences since my neighbors don't like my dogs, I will have a hidden garden. I don't like them (the neighbors) either, but then that is another story. And I've planted 3 vetivers right behind my front fence, and I have another one to plant, so within a year or two I will have a hidden garden. In the meantime, I'm just one of the Hummer Homes. And Barbra, you might want to consider some vetiver to put on your fence side so you don't have to see your neighbor. But I do thank him for my baby Mocha. Call next time you are in town. I'll be traveling some, and then in February I'm flying to Hawaii to spend a week with Stacy. Shawn gets back from Iraq around March 5 to 10, so I'll go out and visit with her and the baby. Shawn will be gone for 15 months by the first of March. See you soon, and hope to meet Pam. ALSO, our MG Plant Sale is March 14 so mark your calendar. Later. Great Gardening, Linda

I googled and found someone who said that Garden Web lost their archival info. I got the impression that it is lost for good. I searched under kitchens typing "granite countertops" and got no matches. There should be a slew of matches. There were many knowledgeable people--some experts-- who gave freely of their time to answer questions and if this person on Google is right, all this very valuable info is forever gone. Did these people throw their arms up in disgust and leave this site? If they've gone, I want to know where so I can follow them.