I would suggest that non garden designers can train their eye to what they like and and what appears beautiful if they spend some time really looking at gardens and individual plants, and even more importantly, the natural surroundings to get ideas for their own garden. It might be as simple as clipping photos of appealing gardens from magazines, taking digital or 35 mm photos of appealing natural areas within your region, or driving the neighborhood to find examples of gardens that appeal to you. The next step might involve trying to analyze the characteristics that you find appealing, and don't just concentrate on the particular plants, colors, etc., but instead think it through in terms of the feelings it gives you; i.e., is wide open and spacious, enclosed and contemplative, restful, dynamic, exotic, familiar, etc. It also helps to really be honest with yourself about what you want your garden to be. Is it just for you and/or your family? Are you trying to compete with the neighbors, or is the potential status of a new garden an important consideration? Also it is really important to consider the longer term costs of maintenance and time required to keep the garden going. As well, try to think longer term in what you want the garden to be and do, which really affects how closely to plant things, what initial sizes will best suit your requirements, etc. I always try to elicit responses to these less obvious concerns before I start a design. I also prefer to work with clients who are referrals from previous clients, as they are more familiar with my work and are already self-selecting. I also really like to take potential clients to see my gardens and ask questions as to what appeals or not in each. I also find that opening my client's gardens on garden tours is a good way to get exposure to potential clients, and recommend garden tours to the public as a way to get more exposure to all the variety of designs and designer approaches. Visiting historic gardens/houses and botanic gardens is another approach to see and define your preferences from the enormous pallette of plants that can potentially be used in your own garden design. It may be heretical to say this, but a garden is an artifical construct, and does not have any specific rules as to what makes it work for any one person. If you are philosphically drawn to using natives and trying to create a garden that is not so dependent on constant work and resources to keep it going, you will not be happy with a formal garden of boxwood and roses. If a garden that appears similar to the untouched surroundings is not your idea of a garden, you won't want to hire a designer that specializes in the minimalist, naturalist approach. My favorite clients are the ones that feel a garden is both a refuge from the daily grind, and should be beautiful in its own right. I also enjoy the opportunity to incorporate art or influences from foreign travel into the garden design, and especially enjoy it when an initial non-gardener gets involved with gardening as a result of their newly created garden. Just coming off a garden tour this past weekend where over 1000 people came through a small 2000 square foot garden in one day, after viewing 13 distinctively different gardens and styles, it was interesting to question visitors about what they did/didn't like about the various gardens. I'll confess that I find it a little disappointing when the average visitor only sees the plants currently most showy in bloom, to the exclusion of all else. But there were certainly enough visitors who also "got" the larger picture, and were intrigued by the constrasts of the architecture brought out into the garden and contrasted with the abundance of riotous plantings to soften it. To have others notice the attention to details of matching flower and foliage colors to the house colors, and asking questions about the mix of hot and cool colors, dry and tropical plants, were the visitors I spent the most time conversing with. It was also interesting that out of over 150 different species of plants in the garden, there were only about 5 or 6 that elicited the most questions. As the garden and house will also be featured in a future issue of a national garden magazine, it will be interesting to see what the garden editor and photographer will see. After having the garden photographed by several other nationally known photographers, it is also interesting to see that each photographer captures different things. The end result, is that I do enjoy sharing my art with a wider public, and also learn that I can't please everyone, and shouldn't even try. It is enough to hear the client tell me that they enjoy their own garden more all the time, and to get their suggestions for how they would like to see the garden evolve, or give me thoughts on what they'd like to do diffently on the next project...

OK Melissa, we can do our daylight countdown together. Naturally, it doesn't help my light-afflicted cause by staying in bed till 11am but, in these days of unemployment, I am loving my pillow. I also need to work harder (ahem) although the next skip arrives soon for the final death-throes of my home garden.Buy the lilacs, Melissa, and the paeonies. What else is money good for? Sherry, while you are 'fixing' your back garden gravel and paving, I will be doing the very same. I save 2pound coins in an old teapot (!) and am now up to almost 300 (6oo pounds! riches) - the new garden funds. Loving the blog too (although, once the gardening days get longer, I am betting the blog entries get shorter) Elemire, medlars: gorgeous flowers - weird fruit, weirder 'bletting'. Schisandra though - me too. Think we need two if we want the long strings of berries. Have been fancying this for my north wall for some time. Sandersonia....ah yes, I have also had it twice - each time for only one year. I tried to dig it up the second time but forgot exactly where it had been....and you remember those tiddly little rooty things to plant - totally invisible! Now consigned to the growing list of plants which I have failed with - along with gardenias, red echinaceas,cercis canadensis, zephyranthes, azaleas,phlox, hebes... Annececilia: pruning apples - although there are many, many books out there, you really cannot beat hands-on teaching. Until you find a good course or get a knowledgeable friend in, wait. The trees will not die if they never see a lopping saw or secateurs again. Sadly, in the UK, we have grubbed up many ancient orchards (philistine farmers, landowners) yet there are still century old apples and pears, blooming and fruiting, all over England. Pruning, training, shaping, mmmm, as an inveterate meddler, I LOVE these jobs. They should be approached joyfully, without fear and anxiety so dispense with worry, clear your head, sharpen your tools and jump in with confidence. Look upon it as a great experiment and take photos, if you can, of the bare branches. Step back from your work often and look again. When you have looked for a good while, make a cut, any cut. Then step back and look again. You can practice renovation pruning on some of the old gnarly trees and shape some of the younger ones into pyramids or standards. If you still feel anxious or uncertain, then wait and read and look some more - you have lots of time and apples (unlike cherries or peaches or plums) are obliging. Oh yeah, cross the weeding off the list - this is another futile, tedious job which we never really get on top of and it just makes us feel guilty. Those weeds are some creatures livelihood. Holley - yes, yes, yes - a greenhouse. Your life will be changed forever. I am in my third year of owning a greenhouse and, even though it takes up a QUARTER of my entire garden, it is a most wonderful investment (mine was free on freecycle so check those sort of things first - who cares what it looks like as long as it works. As for raised beds - my whole garden has been laid out on rubble with NO soil at all. Raised beds are the way to go - not so much bending, you can choose your soil, you can sit on the edges (for hours)and the soil remains friable because it does not get trodden on and compacted. You will never look back. Kim - aaaah. You have given us a few laughs and plenty good advice. Glad to raise a smile for you.

Carol after I was able to look everything over in the daylight most of it looks ok. Lost one bean plant of a variety I only had 4 plants of. I was hoping to increase the seeds of it. The one variety I only have one plant of survived. Really I was fortunate with the hail and wind. The highest clocked gust in the storm last night was 30 mph. Tuesday night the highest gust was close to 60 mph. Last night 6 miles south of me a site clocked a gust at 80 mph. Again part of the same storm my moisture came out of. This morning I did a line locate 17 miles SW of Elkhart where the wind and rain combination snapped off 6 power poles in a row. We have a gas transmission line close to one of the poles so had to locate it so they would hit a gas geyser while setting a new pole. And this afternoon I traveled through an area 20 miles plus SW that was wiped out with golf ball sized hail again part of the same system. After hearing and seeing the damage that occurred elsewhere from that same system I'm very thankful and grateful for the moisture and the lack of severe damage. You could tell by looking when the cloud was headed this way and then the cold air coming off it that hail was in it. It seems the hail damage seemed to be heaviest on the north side of the system and the wind the highest on the south side. I'm not sure why. The middle of the system basically hit us. We received another tenth today. Have chances over the next 5-6 days of receiving more. I hope more comes. The good thing is a lot of area that was in severe drought status received some very beneficial rains. I saw an area this evening that received what I did last night and had another large one this evening. The highway was covered with water and the fields are rivers. It is hard to believe that just two weeks ago I was line locating in that area and it was bone dry. Carol I'll try to take your quota for a while. I can still use more. My garden will be in great shape as I have kept it deep watered well most of the summer. The other areas can sure use more. We need to build our subsoil moisture back up. Scott I have finished the pecans I purchased from you. My doctor said I should eat lots of nuts along with the other things I've been eating. They were so good I snacked on them till they were all gone. Tried buying some out of the store a few weeks ago and after eating yours they are like eating a store bought tomato. Would like to buy some more if possible this fall/winter. Jay

Thanks Mike, I do understand the seeds won't be true, I don't mind. I figure, more chance of a small tree with seeds from one than with seeds from a known-larger variety however. H2O2's benefits for germination of seeds (not just plumeria) has been documented very well, both in this forum and in many other places including academic research - just Google. Certainly it's not a requirement, but I like to increase my chances when it's easy to do so. The boat method I'm less sure about, but I've read enough people using it that I figured I'd try - after all, this is fun for me, I'm not farming plumeria for any other reason. Kind of like the whole "bury an egg" method of rooting a cutting, which sounds really strange to me but so many people swear by it and have great looking trees to show. I have a few more of these seeds and may try potting some in media as well. Yeah, my timing is bad for getting seeds just now, I'm aware. I do appreciate your insights though, and look forward to spring! Daniel