It is one of the technical rather than one of the aesthetic issues involved in landscape and garden design. The technical issue is, in fact, that you can and must facilitate the design through the client. I like the panning for gold analogy. It could be only a matter of shaking out the sand and gravel from that pan that is handed to you to find if there is any gold there. Or, you can be proactive in determiming what goes into that pan before you start swishing it around. You have to use your clients dirt, so to speak, and he has to put it in the pan. He might not have put much into that pan and it might not have much potential in it. If you swish that around, you won't have much to show him. No one wants to pay someone who can't get any more gold out of the pan that he can on his own (garbage in = garbage out?). Instead, you have to use your experience and knowledge of the subject in order to get him to the gravel that is more likely to have gold in it. Then you have to get him to put it in that pan before you swish it around. Then you will at least show a bit of shiny color in that pan. Now you have his attention. He wants more gold, realizes that you know something about how to find it, that he is an essential part of the process, and that you are competent in controlling that process. Other than that, we would be doing nothing but arranging flowers or drawing other people's visions. There is not a lot of value in that. You won't get paid much if no one sees much value. The second part is What Rhodium hit on. Efficiency affects cost. Cost affects whether or not you can get a design job because the client has to value your design work at least as much as the amount of money you are asking him to give up to have you do it. It may be ideal to have a ton of color renderings, construction details of everything in the design, and a whole lot of design spec's. That can, in many instances, push the dollar amount beyond the potential client's value on the project - sometimes less is more.

I say make a plan or drawing first.I was just starting with a small vege garden and wasn't thinking of design, so just went with square/rectangular boxes Dopey me! My DH is a woodcarver/worker and I could have done some spectacular stuff! I will in my expansion! He's not off the hook this time! LOL. Anyway, do the design (really try to do the wide paths to save your back!), then just do one bed at a time! Maybe cover the rest of the area in compost and cardboard to start getting the soil into shape as you are developing your first bed or 2? That will make your next one even easier! I'm going on 10 years with the origional hardware cloth wire. Be sure to get the heavy duty stuff if you're using it for gophers! Chicken wire does NOT work! It's holes are too big and it will rot out in a couple of years! I keep my herbs separate from the vege garden proper. When I started the herb garden, I had discovered this board and the cottage garden board and made it much prettier than the basic vege garden. I have also lined the vege beds with flower planters to soften things a bit. Lastly, don't think of it as such a chore! Enjoy the ride! Nancy

I already got yelled at for posting web sites over here the garden police think that's promoting business so I cant tell you where to get md80 but you might try a google with WoodRich. There are no nails you cant countersink. Any kind of sander is going to get it's pads torn up if you run it over the top of a few nails. J.

When the Sears repair guy showed up, he mentioned that my new tractor, Craftsman 917.20381 had smaller tires which could handle chains (I had already bought and installed them but the tractor still couldn't pull a cart up a fairly steep hill). My old tractor(917.271141), with the deck too close to the tires, could not handle chains because the tires are larger... this fellow also told me that my new tractor did not have adjustable height feature (even though there is a lever with six settings and a diagram showing height). He told me this when I complained that the #6 setting, which should be the highest was actually the #1 setting (the lowest). I had wanted him to change the height of the deck since what came out of the factory was clearly wrong. Your thoughts on this? I have not yet brought this issue to the attention of Sears, but I intend to.