Gossip in the Garden

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Big News!

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Not only is today the day Susan Morrison and I turn in our manuscript for very first book Garden Up! Smart Vertical Gardening for Small and Large Spaces, but today’s the day I also get to announce that along with another fabulous ‘Susan’ (Susan Cohan), starting 2011 we’ll be co-writing a regular column for one of my very favorite garden magazines - Horticulture Magazine!!

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PINCH ME!

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And what makes this extra, extra amazing is the fact that we’ll be writing about a topic near and dear to my heart – discussing the similarities and differences of East Coast and West Coast design.  It’s funny, because when those of us with the Garden Designers Roundtable, wrote our first collective post this past January, the topic was Celebrating Regional Diversity.  It was truly one of my favorite topics to write about.  After reading everyone’s posts, I was particularly struck by the obvious passion Susan had for her state of New Jersey and the East Coast, feeling it equalled the passion and love  I feel for my state of California and the West Coast.

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And here we are now writing a column about that very topic – Design Perspectives!

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Thank you, Patty Craft, for recognizing our passion!

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When I’m designing a garden, one of the questions I sometimes hear is ‘What do you think about a resin fountain?  I saw a great deal on one for $39.99…”

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While I’m all for a great deal, in general, please try to fork over the bucks necessary to buy a fountain made of something other than resin.  Personally, I’ve never seen a plastic one that looks remotely like stone or cement.

You may just be temporarily blinded by the cheap price, but take it from me – You’re not fooling anybody.  It doesn’t look like real stone!.

(I know, I know…they’ve made a lot of improvements in resin fountains, but they’re usually not the super cheap ones.  It’s the cheap ones are the ones I’m advising against!)

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In this month’s Garden Designers Roundtable, we discuss how to create a garden that’s inviting to wildlife – creating a ‘habitat garden’.

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I think it’s safe to say that for the most part, those of us who love gardening appreciate most aspects of nature and get a little thrill when discovering hidden bird nests in our window boxes, see a baby fawn with its mother, or hear an owl in the distance.  In addition to enriching your soul, by creating a garden that caters to your area’s habitat, you’re enriching the surrounding wildlife as well.  The faster society develops its land, the less land wildlife has to claim as its own.  This is a real issue where I live in the Bay Area, as nature is rapidly being displaced by monster homes, mini-malls and residential developments.  As natural habitats are rapidly shrinking the native wildlife is forced to find other places to call home.  It’s hard to imagine, but your own garden (no matter its size) can actually have quite a positive impact in helping wildlife survive.

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This summer has been a roller coaster of excitement, panic, energy, exhaustion, confidence and doubt – all stemming from co-authoring my first book.  While I’ve always wanted to write a book, I never thought it would really happen. But earlier this year everything changed when Roger Waynick at Cool Springs Press contacted Susan Morrison and me to see if we’d be interested in writing Garden Up! together.

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From the moment we said ‘Yes’, handed our ticket to the guy in the booth, picked just the right seat and tightly buckled ourselves in, we’ve been enjoying the ride of a lifetime.  As we’re approaching the end of the ride (with our manuscript due in 2 1/2 weeks),  I’ve been marveling at where we’ve started and where we’ve ended up – all in just 4 months.  As with all journeys, from the moment I set pen to paper (more like from the moment I bought my first laptop, charged the battery and began) I’ve learned so many things along the way.

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As I looked around on this roller coaster, I noticed lots of friends on the same ride, some right ahead of us and some right behind us – and I thought it might be fun to ask them if they had any tips they’ve learned along the way that they’d like to share with future first time authors. Boy, did they!  Here’s what a few of us ‘First Time Authors’ would suggest to anyone thinking of writing their first book.  Enjoy!

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Okay, okay – by now most of you who have been reading my blog for any time now probably feel like they’ve personally strolled through Freeland and Sabrina Tanner’s garden and have seen everything I could possibly show them, right?

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WRONG!

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Freeland is an amazing powerhouse of creativity and has just finished building two incredible sculptures made from his collection of antique sprinklers, a few hoses and some rebar.  They’re  the perfect additions to their potager, adding a bit of humor and personality to an already fascinating garden.

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Does this man’s brain ever sleep? . .

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I think my favorite is the heart…..