Garden Design Quick Start Guide

  Doubt the drought? Perhaps you should if you live in San Diego. This graph shows the rainfall received in San Diego since July 1, 2021. The region has received approximately double the normal amount during this time. The media will not tell you this. California continually goes through cycles of wet and dry years. It is completely normal. If we had more rainwater retention capability this would never be an issue. But too many misinformed busy-bodies prevent our ability to capture this water.

Timber! Watch a profession tree removal crew remove a troublesome Canary Island pine tree that stood jus outside our door.   https://youtu.be/NTLXQ6C7I14

Container gardening made easy...  Watch video to see how it's done... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaW5wuPvMEc

  We had a baby! Last week we found this monarch chrysalis on a tire on our Prius. To allow time for the adult butterfly to emerge the car has not been driven. Today, much to our delight, our new monarch butterfly came to be. We love this. Our garden is thick with Asclepias milkweed plants that monarchs love. Please contact me if you want to learn how to do this in your garden.

Can you dig it?  My daughter’s garden in the Chicago area is a marvel of color and texture. It appears that she has been influenced by some of my 25 years in the garden design and landscape contracting professions. Here are some recent photos.  She follows the ideas found in my book: ‘Garden and Landscape Design-a Quick Start Guide.’ It has several concepts that you can use to make your home’s gardens delightful. Some important ideas are seen here.  A key concept is to have as little lawn as you can tolerate. Cut the grass! Reduce the size of your lawn. Instead, create wide sweeping planted beds. Fill them with lots of “set and forget” varieties. Well known author and TV gardening expert, P. Allen Smith, calls these “workhorse plants.”  When you have less lawn you will have less maintenance. That is very important. Your lawn is by far the most maintenance intensive part of your yard. There is no debate. When you consider the time required to mow, the amount of water...

  Container garden do-over. The 6-inch New Guinea impatiens we planted in March did not thrive. The leaves soon started turning brown. I don't know why. So...we replaced them with 4-inch sun impatiens. Here is the YouTube video. They are similar to New Guinea impatiens and tolerate more sunlight, perfect for our location. The video is five minutes. It includes a time-lapse that speeds up the 18 minute project to just 77 seconds. Please subscribe to my channel if you like it. That helps a lot. https://youtu.be/sdSYpVSQ74s

Here is an idea for you to get better photos of your landscapes and gardens. Please look at our Photo Finish Photography page for more. Contact me if you would like help photographing your gardens.