This was a great thread to read after having moved back in the summer - some very good advice. I was very conflicted about moving but I think it was clear to me that moving the garden wasn't going to happen. As it was I did take well over 100 perennials I potted up as they emerged in the spring (they were mostly splits of plants that really needed it). To be honest this was really too much...I spent a whole week moving car loads of plants before and after work and was already completely exhausted from moving the house. The new tenant at the place asked the landlord if she could contact me about the garden but in the end I said no. Of course a big part of me wanted to still be involved with that garden but I knew I needed to make a clean break and focus on my new garden. This fall I planted about 1300 bulbs and cant wait to see them if this winter ever ends.

bump for Dougald. Thank you for introducing me to this book, Dougald. There is no email address on your GWeb profile page, so I hope you see this add-on to the thread. I'm in process of reading the book. It is not one you read quickly, so I read a chapter and think about it. The addition of rocks and mountains is something I'll have to think about for a long time. It is the way they also incorporate water into the garden. Since things are always symbolic of other things, I trust it will be in line with the Chinese style to find a suitable work-around in my garden. It won't be classical, but it will be as close a substitute as my location (and budget and capabilities) allow. I'm at that chapter about Chinese landscape art--paintings or scrolls, not actually in the garden--and that is where I'm lingering for a while. It must look natural even though contrived. What for me to do! I get the ideas of "borrowing views" and creating long views, multiple changing vantage points with openings in the shrubs and trees, always framing a lovely prospect. Some architecture....provided by my Teahouse wall, the new latticed screen going in to break up the western sunlight and block the glare of two noxious street lights uninvited to the scene. Of course there are no large expanses of land here. Mine would be no imperial site since it forms a personal and private garden on a city lot. By Friday afternoon, the tall latticed 40 foot wide screen will be installed, and I can proceed to prettying up the last section of my walled garden. I am adding no gates....that is mentioned in this book too...but instead I am locating objects or features which will be framed in the two gateways and serve to invite one into the garden. Of the two views through the openings in the latticed screen, one is of a crape myrtle (now in bloom) beside a pole with a bluebird nestbox on it. I will be able to see the comings and goings of the bluebirds building their nests and feeding their young, from the low deck off our bedroom. The other opening serves to reveal the darker territory beneath a sasanqua (camellia) where I recently located a white (plastic) tiered fountain. This fountain will not have water but will have ferns and tall spraying liriope planted, with pots of small hosta nestled in their midst. A Limelight hydrangea will provide more greenish white flower balls in that vicinity as well. This ungated opening near the door to the Teahouse is also visible from the deck off the back of our house, be it from the spot off our bedroom, or the area behind my kitchen. The entire back of our house--when the remodel is done--will be a wall of glass. It gives me an uncompromised view of the garden through the latticed screen....and privacy from all outside eyes. Except maybe for the small aircraft which pass overhead. So thank you Dougald. I hope you see this. The book is delightful.

So, without naming names, is your sister's candidate the one who was the current governor's campaign manager or the one who is the former governor's brother? I'm interested in hearing from both of them. But on another note, if you're interested in community activism related to gardening, I've been thinking a lot about something I read in the Des News last September. This is what I wrote in my blog about it: The Deseret Morning News published an editorial on Sept. 15 calling on Salt Lakers to participate in planting one million trees by 2017. The county and a number of cities have endorsed the effort. I hope there is some plan in place. They need something like the Sacramento Tree Foundation, which did great work when I lived out there. It had partnerships with the local electric utility to provide free trees to homeowners as a way of conserving energy. They would make the homeowners attend a class on tree planting and care, or they would send an arborist to a neighborhood to do a demonstration for a bunch of people. They would even mark the spots on your lawn where a tree would do the most good in terms of energy savings by shading windows. Maybe I should start such a foundation.

If sight-seeing in Paris doesn't wear you out (or even if it does), it's great to pack a picnic lunch and go to the Bois de Vincennes and visit the Parc Floral, perhaps France's largest botanical garden. (they do sell food in the Parc) If you like dahlias, they have HUGE displays of them in September. (to others: if you're there in mid-late May, there are INCREDIBLE displays of iris, and the Pinède [pinetum] area is full of hostas and astilbes for late May through July) This is what Parisians do on the weekend! Very un-touristy, but very cool. Giverny is a half-day trip IF you take the earliest bus you can (even if you are on your honeymoon, wink wink). If you go later in the day, it can be so crowded it takes twice the time to see. Have a great trip. I'm sure we're all jealous.