The University of Minnesota conducted a survey of over 1,000 folks and this was the answer to where Americans get advice for their gardening problems;

Their neighbor.

That’s right . . . their neighbor.

The survey of 1,000 Minnesota gardeners published in the January–March, 2008 issue of HortTechnology showed that although respondents viewed the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum as more credible than garden centers, 78% of respondents indicated that they were most likely to turn to neighbors and friends for gardening advice.

If you read the entire article you will find that the real motivation for the survey was to find out if gardeners were using university sites, and or arboretums to answer their horticultural questions.

What his also suggest is that the friendly local landscape designer is not the 1st one called and I for one am not shedding a tear over this.

Memories

I remember back earlier in my career when I let homeowner’s drag me all over the yard. Like walking their dog looking for a good place to do some business.

I hated that, I really hated that. The thought of being drug around the yard looking at every teeny-tinsy little problem.

Every little brown spot of lawn.

Every shrub with a broken branch.

Every bare patch of grass.

Ahhhhhhhhh! Enough to drive me crazy.

So if Americans want to ask their neighbor about their bare patches, broken branches, dead geraniums, and wilted tomato’s have at it.

This is all little stuff, end-of-the line stuff, minutiae. We need to start with the big picture and work our way down.

It’s big picture time when I hope those homeowners are calling the professional. This is the time when big mistakes, big dollars and big time can be most influenced.

The report really doesn’t get into what kind of advice is being sought. The depth, or area . . . so I am speculating on they types of questions homeowners are asking homeowners.

Questions, where to?

I can say this-I look at university sites all the time. Especially Ohio State(here web garden, and fact sheet list) and Cornell, (another Cornell page worth a look), tremendous information and it’s all right their for you to absorb. I also refer back a lot to my pics from several trips to Longwood Gardens just outside of Philadelphia, PA.

[ This area of Longwood suggest ideas for the home landscape. ]

If you’re a professional what sites do you use for reference? Are there pics you go back to for information or inspiration?

Finally; if you’ve been in the business for awhile do you still get asked about the brown spot in the grass? or some other crazy such question. You know the ones I’m talking about.

If you’re a homeowner reading this . . . who do you ask for advice? The neighbors? The local garden center? How about the big box employee(just kidding)? My Blog!?! . . . Do you look at university or arboretum websites? Have you found them helpful?

Thanks to LandscapeOnline.com for posting this article. Noticing the accompanying picture . . . I think they could have done a little better than using an image from a commercial for NFL apparel. Just my .02

Say you wanted to do something a little different, a little clever, a little off the wall? I mean why not, you are a professional Landscape Designer? Aren’t you?

Well at least some of you are. Professional(s) . . . that is.

So here’s a website that is so simple and easy to use it’s almost ridiculous, in ease and use ridiculous . . . that is.

[ Here's an example of one of my installs, now "old", think of the possibilities. ]

Here’s another example of a close up of one of my waterfalls:

[ I like the look of this, I'm thinking a promo piece for designing or building waterfeatures. ]

Of course if you are really into the self promoting thin you can always do . . . that’s right! One of you:

[ Up close and personal with a 'couple ears" ]

So there you go after shots, waterfall shots, promo shots of yourself(not sure what the above image would be promoting).

How about making the before; old, ratty, and nasty, then the afters-nice color shots.

Let’s see your images

I’m sure there are lots of possibilities. Drop us a line with yours, or better yet send those “oldies to me and we’ll post them here.

Please only appropriate pics . . . if you know what I mean.

Addendum: 051308-I just took another look at this post . . .  wow! Was I ever asleep at the wheel. Typo city. My apologies to all who had to wade through that.

These old stone-smashed, gnarled fingers ain’t what they use to be.

It’s been awhile since we posted on one of my most favorite subjects-stone.

I thought I would remedy that with this image of a waterfall and stream bed of one of my former design projects. The job was installed in 2006 and I snapped the picture early last week.

[ Edge stone buried in help sell realism. ]

The taller flanking stones help frame the waterfall, making the falls appear ‘deeper’ than it actually is.

Those buried edge stone, variable depth, meandering stream lines, and plants that will grow(and filter water) and fill in-blurring the edge lines “all” help sell the naturalism of this project.

The goal is to get the observer to think that just ‘possibly’ this scene is “for real”.

Not a leaf stirring:

frightening,

the summer grove

I really like art work from the 50’s back, or should I say I really like the illustration work from the 50’s back.

It is that type of illustration work that drew me to this simple little book called Perspective by Victor Perard, ca 1954.

Here’s the book cover:

[ I love that zooming airplane! ]

It’s great isn’t it? 50 pages or so introducing the reader to the World of perspective drawing. The book is full of quick line drawings(mostly ink, some pencil) teaching the rules for one and two point perspective.

Here’s an example of a ink study and qucik tutorial on circles in perspective:

[ Great texture and line on the tree foliage, scrubby plants, and tree bark. ]

Do you ever wander around a used book store? Well if you don’t you should, and if you do, then do look for this one and pick it up. Even if you are well-versed in perspective the book will give you a few ideas for shrub, tree, and background textures in your drawings.

Used book stores:

This is another one of those things that should be mandatory for a landscape designer.

Never pass up a chance to wander through a old book store or an antique mall.

Places like this are chock full of ideas, stuff, images, ah-ha moments for designers. Go in with an open mind and just go with the place.

You’d be surprised at what may hit you. The vast differences in stuff/material/literature is good for creative connections, especially of the odd sort. Odd sort as in two things that have no business going together creating a possibility for a solution you need, to solve a particular problem.

As for books, again creative connections. The putting together of two things that you never thought went together. How about an example. I once found a book on elocution(ca 1900) that had a set of images depicting certain emotions e.g. angst, shock, joy, etc. I scanned those images from the book and have used those them in Powerpoint presentations to advance a thought/idea/motivation.

Wandering/perusing/browsing is time well spent. A time in exploration and using different thinking patterns and thought processes away from the desk or drawing table. Believe me that is time that is always well spent.

I also suggest taking some time when you’re really busy . . . why? To bring the heart rate down, the constant find-a-solution time down, It’s a great break, and who knows what you’ll find . . . maybe even the next ah-ha you’ve been needing . . . solving that problem sitting back on your desk.

p.s. never forget your pad/moleskine/pda-whatever to jot those great ideas down.

Happy hunting!

I have more of these type(s) of books to share and will do so every now and then.

Some odds and ends I have been wanting to share, and a few comments about them.

Adding a Blog

It’s been awhile. Quite awhile actually, I can’t even remember the last time I added a Blog to the list over on the WCI Links page.

Well then, I guess it’s time. the blog is Daisy Design and as best I can figure the blog author is in Newfoundland, Canada. Daisy D is well written, with a lot of talk on issues that effect designers everywhere. Some of the recent posts have been about doing the local Home Show.

Those of us in the trade know what a hassle(necessary evil) the Home Show is, and I was enjoying following along and taking in the pics of the booth(s) and all the other stuff that goes with being involved in this PITA deal.

Be sure to check out the rendering/conceptuals through the link on the top left. That is some nice skill using watercolor(colour-Canada?).

Good luck with the Blog and I look forward to following along. I hope you guys do some case studies like some of those I have shared here. That’s if you are reading this and care to share.

A good article in the NYTimes

Moss, any moss lovers out there? Well David Benner is and I love his philosophy:

“I really don’t water,” . . . “I work with nature, and my philosophy is that things have to tough it out.”

And this other great tidbit from the Times article:

“I can still hardly believe it. Moss produces spores, and they just blew in from the air. Now I have 25 kinds, none of which I planted.”

This magic occurred after he covered his yard with sulfur powder and aluminum sulfate, this combination killed all his existing grass and created the acidic soil, which allowed the magic to happen.

So is moss the next great thing in sustainability? I don’t know, but I do know this you better have some shade, and your soil should be acidic and nutrient-poor.

Let me tell you . . . I really love moss. I have been adding it ti projects as long ago as I can remember. Everony knows I am a big stone guy, and it goes without saying that moss and stone go together.

So let’s all get rolling on this moss gig, and make sure this moss yard idea catches on.

Death to Surburbia:

Death to the landscaping business soon to follow, at least for a lot of folks if this prediction comes to fruition.

Author James Kuntsler claims this is going to happen in an article dated April 24th in the online edition of BusinessWeek.

From the story:

Cheap oil is what made suburbia possible. But we’ll run into problems with spot shortages. As we get into trouble with these supplies, our economy will suffer. Major instabilities in the system will present themselves much sooner than we are led to believe. And by that I mean the way we produce food, the way we conduct commerce, and the way we move around.

So why am I not screaming like chicken little? Because . . .

Kunstler has been wrong before. According to the article he did do a chicken little on the whole Y2K techno blow-up. Which; of course, never happened.

Still there is some food for thought here. If we had to pay as much for gas as Europeans do I’m sure there would be big changes . . . big changes.

I prefer to remain positive as we move forward, but I ask this question(s)?

• What would you do if the suburbs started to empty out? It does seem far-fetched doesn’t it?
• How would you change your business model?
• Would you get out of the profession?
• Do you even believe this is possible?

Heamanthus toxicarius

Found this image at the MBG Rare Books site and I thought this great illustration was worth a look.

[ Heamanthus toxicarius, sure reminds me of fireworks. ]

Fragmenta Botanica: Figuris, Colorata, Illustrata is the name of the book. That’s quite the book title, ca1809.

This page list all the illustrations in the book if you are looking for one of your favorites or hoping to find an illustration of a particular plant.

This is part of the Missouri Botanical Garden Library, clicking here will get you started on their site, happy hunting.

Well that’s it; moss, suburbia, 100+ year old illustrations and a new Blog. another day in the life of Rick Anderson.

Here’s how things looked early this morning at Rick Anderson central.

[ Computer, markers, moleskine, photo's, more markers, another moleskine, ]

As we pan to the right a look at the drawing table.

[ Ah, that drawing on the bottom looks ready to go, time to start another. ]

Addendum: Need some design work done? How about hand-rendered in color or some loose line drawings? Let me know.

[ A conceptual design, with emphasis on the hardscape.* ]

We always emphasize the hardscape, the structure, the construction. this is where the aork is and where we usually cannot afford to make any mistakes or “do-overs”.

Petunia’s we can do over.

1400sg. ft of stone patio we cannot do over.

A shrub here or a new Heuchera there-we can do over.

A 70 ft run of Briar Hill steps we cannot do over.

Those folks that poo-poo design really do not understand the importance of good design.

I read several blogs in the last day or so where bloggers agonized over the placement of that exciting ‘new hosta’ . . . wow, I’m overcome with their agony, their despair, their lack of planning.

Someday the garden enthusiast will understand the difference between where to put the new perennial, vs the real work of what landscape design really means.

There’s nothing wrong with planning ahead. Planning to create great space(s).

End of rant . . . hope you had a great weekend.

* Click on it to go large, then click again for really large and to see detail in the drawing.

OK listen up; it’s follow-up time. Remember way back when in the previous post we were talking about what type of landing I was thinking about for this particular project?

Well now we are getting down to the nitty-gritty. The real deal, it’s now for all the marbles. Now we got a deck, and some steps(in scale) to go along with that awesome stone-terrace, and beautiful sandstone slab steps.

[ Here is that stone-terrace with some steps and deck attached to it. ]

The color areas and the blue writing were added for you, dear readers.

So imagine me sending this drawing(minus your stuff) along to contractor, estimator, and probably client . . .

The notes I made(in blue) for this post were given(s) and not needed to be repeated/cluttered on the original drawing, but I thought they would be helpful for you to flow along with my nutty thought process.

My biggest problem

Has to be with this is the long(7.0ft) run of steps-seems like a lot for “hung” outdoor steps.

The other big issue for me was where to connect the deck to the house(see asterisk). I had the option of several different points to connect and in the end this seems like the best one. If you would have done it differently I would like to hear why/and why.

OK, that’s it, this design is now in the hands of others now it time to sit back and wait-to see what’s next . . .

Addendum: “hung” for me, means exposed stair treads/stringers, etc

Landing . . . you know, a landing. That flat space you design in when you’re going from a high space to a low space. Or in the case of a Landscape Designer when you’re going from a deck to a patio.

It’s that platform where you stop and rest, and then turn right(or left) continuing down the steps to get to the patio.

In a rough sketch it would look something like this. You know . . . splitting the height difference; 5.0ft above the landing, 5.0ft below the landing. Landing smack-dab in the middle.

Then the only real discussion becomes is-how big is the landing? Is it just another part of the steps, or, are we going to add something to the landing?

Something like . . . what . . . I don’t know, maybe a couple of chairs and a small table. In the business they call that a two-top. That’s it, we could add a two-top that would be very clever and it would mean that we were going beyond the plain old boring landing.

Or . . . . . . . .

or we could go right off our rocker and blow the landing idea right out of the water.

You don’t mean the dreaded 10.0ft run of steps do you?

No . . . of course not.

See, what we got here is a set of large beautiful sandstone steps coming down the hillside on the left. big slabs of sandstone at 6.0inch heights-really beautiful stuff.

And . . . since people might be coming down those big beautiful sandstone steps to get to the back patio, and/or maybe to get to the back and then up more steps to the deck, why not make a connector?

How about something like this:

[ A fast rendering showing a different kind of landing. ]

So now we come down about 3/4th’s of the distance to a stone-terrace landing. This terrace then provides access to the sandstone steps on the left and at the same time has a switchback set of steps 3.0ft or so high to the right. Taking the observer right down to the patio.

Will this work? Yes it’ll work.

The question is this: Does this solution not only provide a functional set of stairs and landing, but at the same time is it aesthetically pleasing?

I like this idea of someone coming down those beautiful sandstone steps and having several different options/choices in where to go next.

What appeals to the observer?

Is the observer drawn to something in particular? the fireplace . . . perhaps?

Is there an intended destination involved? The observer now has several choices in how they may get to that destination.

Is 6.5ft-7.0ft of run too much for an open set of outdoor steps? To some designers this is probably too much. to some it wouldn’t matter, and too others:

What’s the big deal?

I think that run matters in outdoor steps. Even though I have never seen a hard and fast rule(s) I wonder.

The 1st set of steps I ever built was on a 8.5ft height difference and we put them in at just over 7inch risers. Every time I went back and looked at that set of stairs . . . It gnawed at me, just a little . . . but it did gnaw at me.

I wonder now if it will happen here with this set of stairs.

6 inches and that’s it

One big difference will happen here, and it’s big . . . those risers will be no more than 6inches high. 6inches, that’s it.

One of my core design philosophies is outdoor risers should never be higher than 6inches and if possible-even lower.

Lower means safer, lower means slower, lower means more steps-the design now forces the participant to slow down and take in the scene. To me lower is better.

Tomorrow I am going to flush out this landing idea, and get a handle on where the railing comes out of the side of the house-it means I will commit to a footprint for the upper deck.

There it is

The typical landing at the halfway point-same material as the stairs, or an atypical landing 3/4th’s of the way down . . . with a stone-terrace for a landing.