If I understand your background, you have 5 years of retail nursery experience, have gone to college and have a degree, but didn't specialize/get a degree in horticulture or landscape architecture? If so, and from what you've indicated as your horticultural/landscape design interests, it sounds like you are somewhat limited in skill set to planting designs for existing garden beds rather than knowledgable about all aspects of garden design, including non-planting hardscape issues. Nothing wrong with that, but it tends to limit the scale of projects you can realistically take on, and what your perceived worth is in the market. Right out of school, I'd also suggest there is real value to be had from getting experience working for an existing more experienced firm, and absorbing the lessons to be learned about pricing services and materials, running a business, etc, rather than immediately doing it all on your own. You could always continue to do the self employed thing as a weekend job while gaining experience with a firm. I certainly agree with you that there are a lot of landscape installers, (I hesitate to even call some landscape designers or contractors), that don't raise the caliber of the profession. I don't much like Leyland Cypress for general landscaping myself, but find that fast growing and inexpensive plants may also have a suitable place in some situations. As far as positioning what you do as fine art, you may really have an eye for planting composition, but it is also about experience gained over time about how your designs hold up, and maintaining them to remain looking good as they grow. I would have to add that it is almost impossible to have that degree of experience and a maintenance perspective in just 5 short years. I'd suggest taking lots of pictures, returning at different seasons and following years to track progressions, and build up your knowledge set with more experience of how your designs mature/hold up. If your portfolio supports your opinion that you are an artist at what you do, and your client satisfaction supports you with recommendations and referrals, you may be on your way. It might be worth your while to do a display garden in a local garden show venue, or have your garden designs featured on a garden tour to get more exposure. I admire your enthusiasm and energy, but would also advise you to pay a bit more attention to reviewing what you write/blog for spelling/grammar/syntax, etc. before you push the send button; because your writing is also part of how you'll be perceived professionally. If it seems rushed and full of errors, some might judge your design work as rushed. Good luck with your career, and the shopping carts full of nursery plants is an interesting point of departure on your blog. It would be more interesting to have included progress installation photos and initial/ 6 month follow up shots of those plants in one of your designs. I hope you continue to find your own voice, and absolutely nothing wrong about being opinionated and passionate about what you do. Just be able to back it up, and document/follow up on your own work so that you'll have more experience. As an example of a really opinionated blogger writing about garden design and faux pas, check out Billy Goodnick on the web, he's got his own blog and has also written garden columns over many years in Santa Barbara, California. You might find him entertaining as an example of a similar passionate voice.

I grew up in Sebastopol, CA, near Santa Rosa. It was covered with apple orchards, mostly Gravenstein. The main highway through town is named Gravenstein Hwy. Years ago, nearly every jar of apple sauce (Apple Time), bottle of apple juice, even the dried apple bits in Apple Jacks cereal came from Sebastopol. 20 years ago the Washington apple growers got together and bought the Vacu-Dry processing plants in Sebastopol and shut them down, effectively shutting down the apple orchards. Every spring they still have an Apple Blossom Parade for nostalgias sake, even though the apple orchards are untended and out of production for the most part.

Robin1190 - Sorry to hear about your experience. What did you end up doing? My husband and I are going through a similar experience; trusted the builder, they drafted the plans, we were never shown a topo survey or a story stick, but we were explicit about not having steps to the outside from the house or the service door of the garage, discussed it in several conversations and there were none on our plans so we felt we were heard...until we saw the foundation already poured and were told we'd have 4-5 steps into our front (side) door and about the same from our sliding door onto our patio (we told our builder "no deck") and 2-3 steps out of our garage service door. A huge problem because we have a narrow lot, a side entrance and the stairs prevent access to the back yard and the lake! Even if we make the stairs so you go up one side to the door then down the other side to the lake what a foreseeable royal PITA for carrying coolers, lake toys, etc from the garage to the boat. Sorry, I don't mean to go on and on...it's just so hard to see something you work so hard for be executed on so poorly and not be able to "fix" it. How did you resolve the matter? Take legal action? Any reimbursement or no charge from your builder for excavation and foundation work? Would you have any pictures of your walkway "ramp" from driveway to front door?

We finally got started planting behind the raised bond beam! Talk about a lot of work! We had to build a retaining wall behind the curved portion of the wall with Castlerock, and those things are heavy! I haven't planted anything along the new sundeck, but hope to start that today. We also still have four Pygmy Date Palms for behind the raised bond beam, that we have to plant. Two will flank either side of the CI Date Palm for some added privacy. Here is a close up of the area we planted: I'm super pleased with the look of the ferns. We're lucky in that we only get about 1 hour of direct sun there a day, and it's from about 5:30PM - 6:30PM. Hopefully these Kimberly Queens will thrive there. I looked forever, before finding these bowls for the lower portions of the bond beam. There is a really good nursery, showcased in Southern Living, in a nearby town. They're my go-to place for hard-to-find Texas plants, and they have awesome decorative items. The bowls look amazingly like Oklahoma Wister flagstone! I've planted this combo before. It'll be white in the back (Angelonia), Liriopi in the middle as a perennial, and eventually the purple Scaevola and New Gold Lantana should spill over the front. With the Blue Plumbago in the back, the color combo should look nice. In about a month, it should be totally full. All I'll have to do is change out the annuals each season for color. The fence is in. Now all we have left is the flagstone inlay and the flagstone on the steps and we're done!