I did look at the English Garden school stuff - and wondered about the RHS courses too - but I suspect I might have the same sort of experience there - or almost anywhere - at a higher cost (not that the U of G course was cheap!) I think the real issue is a course designed (so to speak :-) for someone who intends to practise for hire is going to put more emphasis than I need on the graphics stuff. Whereas what I want to explore is the 'conceptual stuff' as, ultimately, it relates to my particular piece of paradise. I think books etc. may be the way to go for me. I'm already a voracious reader of all things garden and have learned a lot that way. In the past 4-5 years have largely moved away from reading books about growing plants to books about design, garden history, and garden 'biography' (i.e. the making of specific gardens or memoirs and biographies of people who have been influential in the development of gardens and gardening.) There was no assigned text as such for the course but one book was referred to fairly often in the module materials, so I got that one. It was Landscape Design, A Practical Approach by Leroy G. Hannebaum. I thought it was a very good book - very clear and easy to follow. It was a picture in there of an isometric drawing of a garden plan that inspired the 'I want to know how to do that!' moment for me. I like the Hannebaum book much better than the Booth and Hiss book I bought a couple of years ago after seeing it recommended here a few times. I doubt I'll ever use the full isometric thing on my garden but I do expect to use elements of the approach when I 'play' with my plans on paper, so it was something I'm glad I tried. Basically I followed the brief instructions the Hannebaum book provided, with the aid of a couple of rough sketches from the teacher. In case you're wondering what mess I might have produced :-), this is it: Not great perhaps but quite fun to have produced. (I never did get the hang of that neat printing so don't look to closely at the labelling!) I would be interested in a recommended reading list from a few of you folk. And I might venture to post a picture of my spring plans - when I get around to producing it! If I do that, please keep in mind that I might argue/disagree with any comments you have but that's because the way I absorb and integrate information is to debate about it - it helps me clarify why I don't like something or what it is that I don't understand. The last time I got into an argument with you guys about my garden, I didn't know you and was in a different psychological place with respect to my garden - and my gardening knowledge. I would hope that, if I post something about my garden for comment again, we can deal with argument back and forth without assuming dire intent on either side :-) OK?

Marian - the paper size is 11"x17" for the course but I gather in 'real life' it would be at least 24"x36" or bigger... Mary - I have noticed the ads for the English Gardening School in the RHS magazine. And there are the RHS courses too... I guess one advantage of the U of G courses is you can just take the courses that interest you and they can count towards a certificate/diploma or not, as you like. So there no feeling that you didn't complete a program if you want to stop after just one course. The Internet format was ideal for me; it's just that the course content wasn't quite what I was looking for. I'll have to look around at options and then see whether I'm still in the mood to do something more once the gardening season is over for this year. Saucy - The reference to the clematises is in the verbal description of the plan. You need the plant list key to find them on the drawing (and the drawing posted here is too small to read the numbers anyway! :-) GB - I was going to consult with you about what ones to use but ran out of time and just named ones I was familiar with! The transparent house was interesting. I had to 'build' it from scratch with only the floor plan outline, the height of the walls as provided by the teacher, and the fact that there was a 2' roof overhang! It's not quite right I think on the back part of the house but good enough for the purpose of the assignment. The whole isometric drawing thing is actually quite simple to do - if a bit fiddly and tedious! You follow a straightforward process using fairly crude shapes for the plants (drawn to scale based on mature height and spread) and, when you put it all together, it produces that rather astonishing drawing - with zippo artistic talent required on my part! Since it was all done at a scale of 1/8" = 1' small details were killers to work with. It took me two days to draw that table and tuteur! Rotating things 30 degrees when they're that small and have so many lines (all those chair legs etc.!) is hard on the eyes... And since the technique produces a 3-D effect, I kept losing track of what was bottom and what was top as the little image seemed to have a life of its own and 'morphed' a lot :-) And tilting everything at 30 degrees started to 'get' to me - when I was reading something after working on the drawings for a while, the text of what I was reading seemed to be on a slant! But it was mostly fun - and good mental exercise :-) But now it's time to mess around in the real garden! I do hope to get out and measure things next week and do a proper scale drawing of the front garden and the changes I want to make there. (I suspect I may end up just 'winging it' as usual if spring gets underway quickly sometime soon and I run out of planning time....:-)

Too many books out there to list. I have some oldie but goodies, like Arnold Schwarzenegger's Exercise book (from the 1980's I think). It has a beginner's section, which covers the range of basic exercises to do before you work up to working out at a gym. I have an old Jane Fonda's workout book. It's excellent. And if you've ever seen any of her exercise tapes, she usu. had a section in her workout tapes (which were aerobics) of floor work. Don't forget that you can do the same resistance exercises usu. with or without hand weights. So even though a book might have hand weights being used, you can always do them w/o the weights. Another thought: The U.S. Air Force has a recommended routine. This used to be given to patients by doctors for working out. Amazon.com has a book on this, as well as other floor workout/resistance workout books. Don't forget about using exercise BANDS. They are perfect for traveling and add resistance. Any book on Pilates would be good, I would think. I have basic Pilates tapes, and there are a number of the exercises that do not use exercise balls or any equipment at all. A plus is that these are not time consuming. Good luck!

I didn't think to do that, but I imagine it's about the same age as the house: 100 yrs old. Its twin is on the other side of the walkway by the new compost pile and is probably feeling surprised right now and wondering its fate. There was also a massive elm that died a long time ago, but I think they grow bigger. One limb heated the house for two years. That's the wood compost I now use. We cut that ourselves and couldn't move the pieces they were so heavy. By the driveway is another huge liquidambar (sweet gum) that was planted in the teens or twenties for Arbor Day. They were giving them out for planting and the original owners' kids planted them. Now I park my car under its shade, but worry about limbs falling. They look small far away, but are really heavy. There are quite a few of these beauties in the neighborhood from that time. The original landscapers and builders really thought about shading the house in summer and solar gain in the winter. They chose unusual species and natives as well. Such forethought is generally unheard of today, but it wouldn't be that difficult or expensive to incorporate these ideas that worked so well. I'll need to replace the awnings now that the tree won't shade the front rooms.