A very good Gardening Blog

Yes, yes, I know this Blog, my Blog is about Landscape Design, but no matter how you cut it I am tied to the World of Gardening. Even though I have been highly critical of gardeners when it comes to design because; well . . . . . . even though they are usually lousy designers you got to appreciate their love for what they are doing. Besides there is a good reason for this. A good/great Gardener is really passionate about plants. Usually going beyond passionate, bordering on fanatical.

Don't believe me? Go to a plant sale, or a plant auction, or a charity event where they offer plants and watch the vigor with which the crowd goes after that special herb being offered at $2.99, you wanna see enthusiasm? I'll show you enthusiasm.

So where an I going with this . . . here's where I am going. It is in this fanatical quest to grow the newest, hugest, finest, rarest plant. To grow that which cannot be grown in your zone-to push the envelope in what can or cannot be planted, is exactly where gardeners fail as designers.

Designers should look at how all the overall spaces relate to one another, how people flow from here to there, how the hardscape lays out, how we transition from one level to another, etc., etc. A good Gardener will look for an empty plot of ground, remove the sod, and then amend, amend, amend the soil. To grow the latest and greatest in their collection-more plants, more color, more foliage. More plants!!!

Another way to look at this is Gardeners start with the specifcs (an individual plant) where a good Designer needs to look at the big picture and slowly work down to specifics. I cannot even tell you how many times over the years I've seen beginning Designers, or Gardeners making the transition who get lost in even the simplest design problems because they look small 1st, and get stuck in these small details, unable to move on.

So what does this have to do with Hanna's Blog, well this. Even though it focuses on Gardening-it does it very well, she has a great writing style and like good informational Bloggers she throws a lot of links in her post, and hey! how many people can put Squeaky Fromme and Thomas Jefferson in the same post?

If there were more good landscape Design sites out there I would talk about them and link to them. Are they out there? Let me know if I'm wrong. My friends love to tell me how often I am wrong, you guys might as well join in.

The other reason I am linking to Gardeners is I appreciate their passion for plants and the outdoors, plus I need to look out for all Aesculus glabras out there.