Mother Nature can deliver some seriously unpleasant surprises, unfortunately. If I let the Old Girl do her thing in my yard I'd be infested with the many seedlings brought in by wind and birds - and rain. And the weedy things will win. English ivy. Barberry. Blackberry. Etc. However - I'm a huge fan for self-sown material that has adapted to my site: poppies, various bulbs, the energetic varieties of Geranium, Euphorbia, (Oxalis...I whisper that one as some can be real pests), Hellebores. If you are a fan for a minimalist garden (and they can look terrific, no doubting) then your grass idea will work beautifully. If you prefer a wider range - some judicious planting to help the scenery along could be useful. Main point would be - get to know your local weeds and thug plants. You might have a real love of ragweed and dandelions. Your neighbour, trying to grow a great lawn, will have a very different view of the matter... Get to know what you have to pull before it swamps your yard and lifts your foundations.

This is a private garden, but when we were there as a group we all signed his guest book, there were entries from near and far away. I'm not sure what the protocol for visiting Ken Gibson's garden is but if one was to contact one of the contact people of the above Rhododendron society I'm sure they could give you more details. One thing I should mention if heading up that way it's a good thing to be prepared for rain, umbrella, raincoat, boots etc. especially this time of year. The day we were there it poured off and on but the Rhodo's were still magnificent. Sorry, I don't belong to the above society so can't give you any specific info. A......

Chisue, My son, my rosy-cheeked American son, has volunteered right next door for many years. He started at 12, riding a bike from Houston to Austin for the MS 150, which is actually 189 miles over 2 days. He had to raise $350 in pledges. He continued that for 6 years, most years raising over $1000. We, his PARENTS, only ever pledged $100. When he was a freshman at UT Austin, he raised $4500 for the American Cancer Society, so he could participate in the Texas 4000 bike ride from Austin, Texas to Anchorage, Alaska. So, yes, he got a wonderful adventure on his bike rides. He also (with his team of 20) stopped in every town they stayed in and visited with children in the hospital with terminal diseases. He'd be in Haiti now, and is frustrated that he cannot help. But he's in graduate school, and he teaches two classes. The teaching funds his studies, and he can't just abandon them. So, of course, he won't. DO NOT discount the young people of our country. I've seen many more noble souls than selfish ones. I also get really ticked when people lump all young people together. You only hear about the lazy, self-centered ones. As a parent of a 23-y-o, I know far many more good young people, than I know lazy jerks.

Dear Desert, i was in the trade for years, and underneath your uncertainty, I hear a very understandable and natural fear of spending a pile of money and being given less than you wanted, or something you don't love, or getting stuck in a contractual relationship that feels more like a bad marriage! Letting a stranger inside your tenderest dreams of home is a leap of faith - but it doesn't have to be blind faith. I am rarely in favor of using in-store design services for general concept and/or whole house projects. Good in-store designers can help tremendously in matching what they offer to your well-defined scheme, but the fact is that their job, established by the people who sign their checks, is to keep you in the store for everything they offer. Nothing in the world wrong with that model, so long as you understand its benefits and its limitations. So here are Mother Bronwynsmom's steps toward a happy life with your designer, which I believe to be equally important, no matter what the size of your project is: 1. Make your book. The first thing that does is to educate YOU in the nuances of what you love and want, and also what you don't like or want. (This should be easy for you, because you already know a lot about your own tastes and desires - you just need to refine your way of communicating it.) Pack it with samples and photos and drawings that can serve as visual clues to color, texture, style, sense of space and light, and specific objects. Write all over it. Stick in some things you hate and write helpful things like "Yow!" and "Yuck!" and "NO NO NO." 2. Figure out your scope of work. What exactly do you want a designer to do for you, and what are the limitations of the scope? This is critical both to you and to him/her. Make notes as though you were going to write a Request for Proposal, which outlines what you are asking your prospective designers to do. This can be informal, but it should be as specific as you can make it, so that any designers who don't like to work that way will eliminate themselves. 3. Establish a budget. This can be a range, with an upside limit. Without a knowledge of your budget, a good designer can't help you work out how to spend it to get the most bang for the buck. Be brutally honest about what you can spend. So many people are afraid to do that, because their worry is, "If I tell him how much, he will spend it all, and how will I know if I'm getting my money's worth?" (We'll get to the references in a minute...) 4. Make a list of designers to interview, and make appointments. If the job is small, offer to come to their studio, which is a nice gesture toward someone whose essential living usually comes from the use of time. It also gives you a sense of how they function in their own space. If you go to them, take lots of photos of the places you want transformed. And make sure you understand whether or not there's a charge for an initial interview. If there isn't, don't ask a lot of specific questions about what he/she recommends - we've all been burned by clients who interview ten designers, get all their ideas, pay nothing, and then take all the ideas and do it all themselves, and it makes us wary... 5. Here's the key at this point...Pay Attention to Your Instincts. Look for warmth, respectfulness, gentleness with what you're unsure about, and first-class listening skills. If you don't have a strong positive feeling about this person, then don't choose him or her. Does she seem tired or bored? Does he sneak looks at his watch? Does he rush to tell you what you should do? Does she make you feel that you should know more than you do? 6. For everyone you are considering, get, and meticulously check, references. Three is best. And ask not only about the work, but about whether or not the designer stayed responsive through to installation, whether your questions were taken seriously and answered clearly, how well schedules were maintained, whether the trades subcontracted to do things were reliable and respectful of your house, and how well the designer spent your money. It's like dating. Weed out the unpromising ones. You want your designer to want to work with you, and to do the things you want done. Don't go home with him if you don't want to see him over the breakfast table! If you do all these things, you will know at some point in the process who is right for you, and then you are ready to start on a lovely, rewarding experience. Once you have made a choice, and it's time to talk turkey, be confident. It always amazes me that competent, mature people are sometimes intimidated by design, as though it were somehow a mark of human value to be able to do it. It isn't... :>) Ask everything you want to ask, don't agree to things you really don't like. DO be prepared to accept things when your designer explains why her idea about something is right. And don't hesitate to be honest about things you don't know.