My somewhat leisurely winter hiatus is about to come to an abrupt end. The spring garden season kicks off for me with the Yard, Garden & Patio Show in Portland's Convention Center. This year's show, which runs from Friday, February 17th through Sunday, February 19th, is my 11th straight year as an exhibitor.

I remember my first show vividly, as my landscape design practice was only a few months old, and I had virtually no clients or work samples to display. What was I thinking?!? Why would anyone choose to stop by my booth? How was I going to pay for the booth space and the backdrop pieces I rented?  

I had one thing going for me. During my final year of landscape design classes at Portland Community College, each student  was given an assignment to design a landscape for "real life" clients that had agreed to let students work on their landscape projects. I was fortunate to work with a wonderful couple that liked my design enough to hire a landscape contractor to implement it. As a result, my "portfolio" consisted entirely of
the landscape design drawing and photographs of this project. 

But at least I had something to show to the people that were nice enough to stop by my booth. The other thing I had to offer was my firm conviction that Homescaper, the name I had chosen for my company, would provide something unique for Portland homeowners. I had determined that my landscape design practice would focus on clients that were interested in doing some or all of the landscape installation themselves. This focus on do-it-yourselfers seemed to hit a responsive chord back in 2002, as I found myself with several new clients from contacts I made at the show.

My commitment to those homeowners that would like to be involved in creating and installing their own landscape, but don't know how to go about it, continues to this day. Do it yourself (DIY) has become something of a movement, with many magazines, websites, books and cable television shows devoted to the topic. This year, the Yard, Garden & Patio Show is fortunate to have Ahmed Hassan, host of DIY Network's "Yard Crashers", appearing twice during each day of the show. 

Unfortunately, I won't be able to see Ahmed's presentation, as I will once again be talking to people that are kind enough to stop by my booth to see what I have to offer. If you find yourself at this year's show, stop by to say hello.

Farwest Show vendor display (photo source: OAN)Each year I look forward to attending the Farwest Show at the Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. This trade show is put on by the Oregon Association of Nurseries (OAN) and includes over 700 wholesale nursery growers and non-plant vendors from the horticulture industry.  

I purchase plant material on a regular basis for my landscape design clients, other landscape designers and landscape contractors. The show provides an excellent opportunity to see many of the wholesale growers I purchase from on a regular basis and to learn about nurseries that I am not familiar with. All in one location! 

Landscape design is for the most part a solitary endeavor.  Many hours are spent alone sitting at the drafting table or in front of a computer screen.  To keep from going stir crazy, several years ago I became a member of The Association of Northwest Landscape Designers (ANLD).   This organization has grown to over 150 members, and it has provided a wonderful sense of community among Portland area landscape designers and others in the landscape and nursery trade.

One of ANLD's goals is to provide encouragement and support to landscape design students. For the past eight years, ANLD has organized a garden tour, featuring a behind-the-scenes look at member designed gardens.  Ticket sale proceeds are used to fund scholarships for landscape design students at three Portland area community colleges.

I somehow talked my way into becoming the designated photographer for the garden tour. This gives me the opportunity to photograph the gardens before the tour begins, without all of those pesky garden tourers showing up in the photos.  Here is a sampling of photographs from a few of the wonderful gardens on this year's tour. I will post more photographs following the tour.

Which came first...the house or the boulder?

Poorly placed boulders are a common landscaping mistake.  They are often out of scale with the house and surrounding plant material.  Boulders are often simply placed on top of the ground, where they feel unnatural and unstable. Sakuteiki, a centuries old Japanese gardening manual, indicates that poor positioning of rocks in the the landscape may bring bad fortune to the inept designer,* so beware! 

The goal is to have the boulder feel as if it has been there forever, placed eons ago by some unknown force of nature.  Place boulders so their unique characteristics are shown to best advantage.  A good rule of thumb is to dig out below ground level (G.L. in the accompanying illustration) so that approximately one-third of the boulder is below ground.  Use the appropriate equipment if the boulder is too large to be manuevered manually. 

Send us your examples of boulders that should be bashed!

* Source for the quote and the illustration is the wonderful book: A Japanese Touch For Your Garden - Kiyoshi Seike, Masanobu Kudo, David H. Engel

You're thinking it's time to renovate your landscape.  Designing it yourself seems like a viable option. You've picked up a lot of great ideas from garden magazines, nurseries, and garden tours.  Next step: buy some graph paper and a ruler, break out the mechanical pencil buried at the bottom of the desk drawer and get to work.  Or purchase an inexpensive landscape design software program.  I Googled "do it yourself landscape design software" and was presented with 3,060,000 results!

A professor once told me that having a word processor does not make someone a good writer.  I think the same holds true for landscape design.  I'm not saying that designing a landscape is rocket science, but there certainly are many factors involved with creating a successful plan.

Many of my clients have taken a shot at doing their own design but became frustrated along the way with some aspect of the process.  What is important is recognizing the value in having a plan to work from.  A landscape designer has the experience and training to see the potential in your landscape and to collaborate with you to bring your ideas to life in the garden.

"Why Choose A Landscape Designer?", an article written by freelance writer Rob Schneider, provides several objective reasons for for hiring a professional designer to help you with your landscape project.