Oh, it held such promise, didn't it? Design Your Own Garden in eight easy online lessons. Barnes Noble is in the book-selling business. When they didn't have enough left of the book on which the lessons were originally based, they substituted. Last time it was P. Allen Smith. The lessons were not revised to reflect the differing texts. You can take the course without buying a book, it's actually somewhat of a stand-alone, and the original book, 'Garden Blueprints' by Becke Davis is still available. Naturally such an offering attracts would-be gardeners who have lots of basic questions. The instructor is patient and gracious about such. Many of the BN courses are worthwhile as a springboard for personal study, less for direct instruction. The only investment is an optional book and as much time as you're willing to devote. So many take the 'Building Your Own Website' course over and over that they devote a special section to non-beginners.

Cricket, It would have been wonderful if you could have made it. I think we are just on the cusp of these practices being much more widely implimented; even on an institutional and municipal scale. Locally, St. Ambrose University in Davenport, is doing some very creative things to address some very old, lingering storm water issues that have plagued their campus (and everyone down stream from them) for years. I also hear about good things at Grinnell College. The folks in Iowa City are starting to also make some inroads. I keep hearing about their "Peninsula Project". The concept is quite simple: use gravity to transport the storm water already collected by your gutters and coax it into an area where it has a bit of time to soak in. The tricky part (as with any garden) is making it visually appealing throughout the entire year. I constructed three entirely different types of rain gardens to experiment with planting schemes -- the technical stuff is pretty straightforward. One of the planting schemes was a recommended planting design straight out of the book. Without a doubt, in the "looks department", it comes in dead last -- not ugly but it won't bubble your hormones either. In talking with the architect and his associate designer after class, we all concluded that the designs coming from the "experts" use far too many different plants. When one limits the pallet to perhaps five or six different plants and creates drifts, the effect is much more pleasing. I can show that principle when comparing my own gardens. Anyway, the best information on this topic will not be found in books but rather in a very nice, 32 page booklet put out by the University of Wisconsin. I ordered these and handed them out at class. However, the very same booklet is online in PDF format, which anyone can download for free. It is non technical and easy to understand with lots of great pictures and diagrams to help one understand. It was created expressly for the average home owner. IronBelly Here is a link that might be useful: Rain Garden manual

OA, pretty cool, the only thing to change is the size of the cells. If you go to the top, and put your curser on one of the lines at the edge of the cell, and drag the curser, it will enlarge the cell so the words don't overflow into the next cell, plus if you have a more wordy description it will now fit. I am glad you knew how to do an attachment of the excel like this, I could not figure out how to "show" it to you all. thanks! PS, the excel in the example that I use is just a guide line for me, you can adjust it to your own personal needs.

With the exception of Sketchup, most professional CAD programs have a huge learning curve. I just cannot imagine attempting to become proficient with one successfully online. They also tend to be pretty darn expensive as well so keep that in mind wrt what software you select (avoid the free stuff offered online - this is very much a case of you get what you pay for!!) Personally, I'd look into what horticultural ed programs are available in your area and see what CAD classes they offer. I think what you will need to do is decide how important this skill is in your design career and proceed accordingly :-) If you intend to be a professional designer and generate a lot of drawings/plans, then look into a professional caliber software and a class to support it. (DynaScape or VectorWorks are the CAD programs used most frequently in local hort programs). When I got my degree maybe 20 years ago now, CAD was not an option and was rarely taught outside of architecture or engineering programs. And since I had learned hand drafting way back in the days before CAD existed, I just kept on producing hand drawn plans. Very time consuming and without the ability to make easy and quick changes. And very limited in producing elevations, perspectives or more pictorial renderings without a lot of artistic ability. But certainly doable :-) And cheap!!