Previous posts in the Digging Deep series:

1. Creativity
2. Imagining

*******************************************

In Stage One, we invited our mind to look within and around us, to go foraging and gather up the berries and flowers of imagination. There is tremendous power in claiming our likes and dislikes, our dreams and yearnings, our aesthetic memories and walkabout observations. They are all fodder for the creative mill.

Envisioning, giving shape to your dreams, is the next step in the creative process. To envision something is to form a picture of it in our mind. Anytime we set out to create anything—a garden, a festive table, a new employee manual for the company, we must first be able to see in our mind’s eye what we are aiming for.

Vision is not quite a plan: plans are solid and steady, like road maps. Rather, it is an idea that begins to gently come into focus. Visions are vitally important in creating not only beautiful works and innovative solutions, but also an authentic, self-directed life. If you can’t envision, you are just going along letting life happen to you. Creativity isn’t just about making things prettier or wittier; it is a key element in determining whether you are designing your life, or life is designing you.

In Stage Two, you will look at the importance of solitude in the creative process, what it means to define your own unique, personal style, to be true to your needs, and to trust your instincts.* All these aspects are integral to creating a vision that reflects you and your individual wishes—not only for your garden, but for anything you wish to create in and of your life, as well.

We all have our own style. Contrary to what many of the fashion and high-end lifestyle magazines tell us, there is no such thing as having “no style.” Style is simply the way a particular person does things. Your style can be bold, elegant, classic, eclectic, romantic, tailored, dramatic, understated…the list can go on forever. Somehow, the word stylish has come to be a complimentary adjective—-as in “She has so much style.” But we all have our own personal sense of style that has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not we have what style doyens refer to as good taste. Our style is simply the fullest expression of our presence in the world.

My garden has as many different moods as I do, depending on the weather and seasons. But beneath all its moods and face, however, there is one constant: its tone. No matter how bright or dark or stormy or cold it is, my garden has a very specific feeling that defines it. My garden is, in its authenticity, bold. That is me, and that is my garden: In our identities, we are one and the same.

I think in order to live authentically, we need to stop concerning ourselves with what others think of us. We must be willing to live outside the norm and take risks, rather than risk compromising what is unique and special about us. I know that after all the years of gardening that I don’t fit in with the traditional gardening world: after several years of struggling with it, I’m now pretty happy about it. My garden is always a little askew, because I never quite get around to finishing it. If someone comes to visit my garden, they may find a tipped wheelbarrow under the wisteria pergola and half planted containers strewn about. That’s just my style. I have plenty of weeds and mistakes. I don’t plant according to a strict calendar. I always feel two beats behinds, but that’s OK, because that is how I garden. If I tried to do it any other way, it would become about something other than expressing my full self, and that just wouldn’t work for me.

Your garden can be a wonderful laboratory for you to define and express your unique style. Forget about curb appeal, or what the high priestess of taste dictate, or what types of gardens are ‘in’ right now. They all may look lovely, but you’re seeking to dig a little deeper! The exercise below is meant to assist you in defining your own personal style.

To Try

You’ll need the pictures you collected in the Discovering exercise (in Stage One), a large piece of cardboard or other stiff paper (about 2 x 3 feet) and a glue stick.

Gather up all the pictures and start to organize them into categories: one pile for flowers, another for trees, shrubs, another for architectural elements, and so one. From there, arrange each pile of pictures on a different spot on your storyboard. I generally like to put the flowers in one corner, the trees in another, the structures in a third corner, and any pathways or walkways that I’ve chosen in another. In the middle, I put the ‘mood’ pictures—the ones I chose that may not be of gardens at all, but that evoke some kind of mood or feeling that I like, such as a photo of a lone rowboat or a serene lake or a group of laughing people at a wild outdoor party. Be sure to glue the pictures down so you can see each one clearly.

The choices we make generally reflect our style, and when you look at what you’ve selected, a theme or continuity in your approach will emerge. What is the overall feeling you get from looking at your pictures as a whole? What elements repeat? How would you define the sensibility you see before you? It could be: funky, elegant, simple, whimsical, romantic, classic, modern, old-fashioned, wild, minimalist, exotic, bold, charming, mystical, serene or any combination thereof. Once your style emerges, claim it!

You’ll be using this storyboard throughout your entire designing process as an emotional and visual baseline. Whenever you want, add to it as you like, and feel free to remove any images that you don’t want to include. This will be an evolving process as you continue to hone your garden vision.

*There are three other steps in Envisioning, Stage Two. They include solitude in the creative process, being true to your needs and  trusting your instincts. Read more about them in Digging Deep:  Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through Gardening which is now available in paperback and Kindle.

*******************************************

Click here to see all posts in the Digging Deep series

*******************************************

Yes, I am a little obsessed with rain. A casual observer watching my behavior during a rainstorm might conclude that Dry Betty and I have something going on. I lurk at the kitchen window, watching my big pulque agaves (Agave salmaniana) funnel water toward their roots. I look out past my mesquite trees to watch Dry Betty filling up. Although Betty has a face like a splitting wedge, she is beautiful to me in her own way. Because I cannot gauge her watery countenance from indoors, I slip into a pair of flip-flops and run out in the storm after her.

In three days last week, Dry Betty filled up to three-quarters full–3.25 inches–after three juicy Pacific storms rolled through like sloppy wet kisses. Be still my heart! To put this in perspective, we only average 9-14 inches of rain annually.

My daughter says that if I had a Native American name, it would be “Rainwatcher”. Can I help it if I get excited about the prospect of wildflowers, or if I thrill at the thought of rainwater soaking deep into tree root zones!?

To kick off Year Three of the Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop, we’re revisiting what has turned out to be one of our most popular topics: fences, walls, and other means of creating enclosure, separating spaces, and adding privacy and protection.

There’s a lot to be said for not having walls or fences: unenclosed gardens usually appear more spacious, and good air circulation helps to keep plants sturdy. But in some cases, they’re a necessity: when, for instance, you need to keep something in or out.

In my previous garden, a solid fence was a must-have. With a busy side street just a few feet away, making sure my Shelties (including one super-energetic puppy) stayed safe was high priority. I would have loved a taller boundary for more privacy and sound screening, but both my budget and local zoning rules nixed that possibility.

When I started my current garden in the middle of 4 treeless acres, one of my first priorities was creating a bit of shelter for a small kitchen garden and propagation area. A 6-foot-tall “shadowbox” fence on the south and west sides and 4-foot picket-style fence on the other two sides did a good job blocking the worst of the wind, with the added benefit of providing a great support for trellising peas and climbing beans.

Second priority was figuring out how to divide up the blank slate: to separate what would be the closely gardened area around the house from the meadow, naturalistic plantings, and shrubbery. With plenty of setback from the road, and dogs who at this point rarely left my side, a more open fence was an option. Post-and-rail is a common style here in Pennsylvania and well suited to the rural setting. At 4 feet, it’s not nearly high enough to keep deer out, but for the most part, they seem to go around it, except for occasional forays in during the winter.

Beautiful stone walls make me weak in the knees, but I quickly accepted that there’s no way I could ever afford them. Rocks are certainly plentiful around here, but they’re mostly small and uneven: less than ideal for wall-building. There are still some remnants of old walls on my parents’ farm next door, but they’re basically loose piles of rocks gathered when the land was cleared long ago for farming and roughly stacked along fencelines.

When I started preparing planting areas, those piles began to make a lot of sense: it was much easier to use the abundant small rocks as edgings than to haul them away and find a place to dump them.

Besides serving as dividers between paths and beds, the low stone “walls” also work well as frames for the looser dug-up planting areas, creating much-needed raised beds.

Other properties in my neighborhood have much larger rocks. Usually, these boulders are left in place, but in this case, they were arranged to create a serious stone wall. I think they’d have been better left where they were.

I’m more inclined to admire rocks used artfully, as in this amazing drystacked “Tripple Flip” built by Thea Alvin of My Earthwork. Granted, something like this is more of a landscape feature than a garden wall; who would even notice plants around something like this?

Ok, back to more practical issues, and your turn to share your thoughts on and photos of walls and fences, in your own garden or those that you’ve seen on your travels.

• Do you already have a wall or fence – either one that you chose or one you “inherited” when you bought your home? Are you pleased with it, or would you like to replace it with something different?
• Have you removed an old fence and decided not to replace it?
• Do you not have a fence or wall now but wish you did? What kind would you get if money were no object?
• Do you use walls or fences to enjoy vertical gardening – in other words, to support vines, climbers, or espaliers?
• Have you used  a wall or fence as an aesthetic feature: as a focal point, or to frame an eye-catching entrance?

If you’re new to the GGW Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop, here’s how it works: Write a post on anything related to garden walls or fences on your own blog and give us the link below, or simply leave a comment if you don’t want to do a separate post. If you’ve written about the topic in the past, those links are equally welcome; it’s not necessary to create a new post to participate.

I’ll gather all of the links into one summary post for easy reference. It’ll go up on February 27th, so if you could get your links in by the 25th, that would be great.

If you’re interested in checking out previous Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshops, you can find them here.

So, without further ado, here is what Roger has to say:

“I’m excited to be judging February’s Picture This competition. The theme is Winter Light. To most, this may not seem like the ideal time of the year for garden photography: but if you’re willing to brave the elements you may find that there are plenty of opportunities for beautiful photographs. Winter sunlight can be bold and graphic in the way it falls in the garden – textures become more pronounced and shadows fall in long, sharp lines like in a film noir movie.

Without so many leaves to block it, winter light can reach into a garden space very early or late in the day to rim a scene in light. These effects can be equally dramatic when shooting a landscape or a close-up, and when you see it working its magic, you’ll forget how cold your feet are, or that you’ve lost the feeling in your bare fingertips.

A fresh snowfall gives us the most dramatic conditions, but the amount of snow can make or break a winter garden shot. Too much snow can reduce most of the garden to a few rounded bumps. When this happens, you can look to the larger landscape with big trees beautifully loaded with snow on every branch. In a garden with a deep snowfall, dried stalks and seed heads will stick up out of the white to create Japanese-flavored pen-and-ink drawings.

A dusting of snow adds its own texture to the landscape, letting some of the garden show through, but lending its own effects of light and shadow and adding a bit of frosting to holly berries and other winter plants. If the wind is up, the swirls of blowing snow will create a fog-like screen over an area.

Look for the effects of ice in water sources and a glazing of ice covering plants. If there is no snow and no ice, the moody winter light in the garden has lots to offer, giving you opportunities for photos that could only be taken at that time of the year. Winter plants in the garden have textures, colors, berries and bark that you won’t see later when it’s finally warm enough to walk outside without ten minutes of preparation.

Some tips for winter photography may help you get going.

- Make sure you don’t overexpose the snow. To do this, you’ve got to pay attention to your camera’s histogram to keep the highlights from blowing out with no detail at all. If you avoid the middle part of a sunny day to go out, you’ll be in a better situation for beautiful light. If you shoot jpegs and can set a picture style in the camera, adjust those setting for low contrast when shooting snowy gardens in sun.

- Beware if you go out to shoot while it’s still snowing. It is tempting, because it’s so beautiful, but unless you have a space to stand that’s under cover, snowflakes can easily drift onto your lens, where they will melt just enough to blur your photos. It may not be visible when looking through the lens or on the LCD screen, but when you get home and call up the photo on the computer screen, it will be depressingly obvious.

- The cold quickly drains batteries of their power, so take a spare camera battery with you. I keep one in an inside pocket of my parka, so it stays warm. I’ll also turn off the camera more often, if I know I won’t be using it for a couple of minutes.

- In the snow, you have to think more carefully about where you put down your camera bag. I’ll bring a large black garbage bag to put under my bag on the ground. If, like me, you use a tripod for your photography, you should protect the bottom leg sections from the snow. I wrap the bottom leg sections with pieces of thick garbage bags and the cover with duct tape to keep moisture out. And when I get home, I let it stand overnight, fully open, in my studio to let it dry out.

- Don’t forget to protect yourself, too. Unlike hiking or doing winter sports, winter photography involves a lot of standing around, so you’ll be colder than you might think. My right hand is always a problem, since I haven’t yet found the perfect gloves that I can easily use for working the camera. Ones with bare fingertips are the best I can do for now.”

And now that I have figured out exactly what the 2010 New Rules for Picture This are (thanks for your patience), they are in effective for February’s contest with no exceptions.

“I have a nearly impossible job.  I am a garden photographer…. “

So begins my article in the current Pacific Horticulture “Finding a Sustainable Aesthetic …”; and so begins my lecture circuit this year with the subtitle – “… What is ‘Good’ Garden Photography” as I promote my book  “The American Meadow Garden”.  I don’t pretend to define a sustainable aesthetic but I know my job as a garden photographer is taking on increasing relevance in the conversation.

The fanciful “Hermits Garden” created at The Late Show Gardens by Kate and Ben Fry prods us to consider the role of the gardener and our own assumptions about sustainability.  The questions, Sustainable for who?, Sustainable where ? become important, even vital consideration.

If we are to find a sustainable aesthetic, the media will need to show it.  The photographs that depict it need to be regionally appropriate and authentic.  They also need to look good, which is why my job is so hard.  It is not too hard to find beautiful gardens, nor is it beyond the realm of a professional photo shoot to create a beautiful garden, but how far can I (the media) stretch the truth to communicate an idea ?

This lovely deck drenched in afternoon sun under a canopy of native oaks amid lush, ornamental drought tolerant shrubs might seem like a perfect California, regionally appropriate garden.  It might be. I don’t know for sure because all the shrubs are lying sideways in 5 gallon pots facing the camera.

While it might be a model for long term success, it was sustained for 2 hours.  And today, I would not include such a photo in any of my books.  I want books to be believable, I want my photos to be paired up with authentic information, I want gardeners to have long term success based on real gardens.  I want to be trusted.

As a garden photographer in California, I began to realize about 10 years ago how few authentic and sustainable gardens we Western gardeners saw in the national media.  It was my own fault as much as any Eastern writer or publisher.   We, in the media, and me as a photographer needed to change the aesthetic of what Western gardeners saw in a garden photograph.

When Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates was conceived I set about to help.  The photograph of this second deck under a canopy of oaks was photographed for that book.  It is completely real, mature, and full of plants that if the gardener walked away would survive on their own.  Without the gardener to sustain it, this garden would not be so pleasing to look at and certain plants would inevitably decline; but I have no pangs of guilt claiming that this is a realistic example of a good garden.

Since that book I have done “Hardy Succulents” and now “The American Meadow Garden”.  I am taking even more seriously my obligation to fellow gardeners to illustrate books with ‘good’ photographs.  This posting is really a pep talk for me.   I will be attending the Eco-Farm Conference this week and will be among those who have been committed to sustainable practices for 30 years.

If asked, I want to contribute to the conversation.

“First of all, I want to thank GGW for asking me to judge the January Picture This contest. And, second, thanks for all the entries. It was fun to spend the winter days viewing your choices.

Here is how the judging went. First I rated each entry from 1 to 5. Then I selected the top images and imported them into Adobe Lightroom. At this point there were fourteen contenders. I put all fourteen into a collection allowing me to view all of them next to one another. Then, just as publishers do in calendar image selection, I kept looking at the group to narrow it down to the strongest ones. Seven images were left at the end. I looked at every entry in the contest one more time to make sure I had the best.”

Here are the final seven, starting with several Silver Medals:

“Ice on crab apples in Frigid Friday is a simple, to the point image. MMD of Mr. McGregor’s Daughter has clearly shown us what caught her eye.”

“Marjorie of Molly’s Country Memories showed a wonderful winter scene in Gardening Gone Wild Picture Contest. If the sun had been placed off center, it would have been even stronger.”

“The image by Amy of Go Away, I’m Gardening in her post Winter’s Beauty Photo has a nice feel to it. The inclusion of some out of focus background gives the image depth as well as keeping it from being static.”

“Christopher of Outside Clyde gets credit for seeing the picture he posted in The Sun Came Out. In addition, placement of the shadow in front and including only what is necessary in the rest of the image took some thought to keep this picture from becoming a snapshot.”

“Most of us would have missed this fun shot by Darla of More Family and Flowers, in her post Picture This Photo Contest. Moving the main grass blade off center in the frame or maybe shooting it as a vertical might have been even stronger.”

“Captured by Laura at Through Laura’s Lens, the subject of the image in her post Winter Beauty is as simple and straight forward an image as possible. The leaf is placed nicely in the frame but it is the side lighting with a shadow in the back that really makes it.”

And the Gold Medal winner for this month:

“This winter scene of a storm just passing is very striking. Taken by Diana of Diana Lee Photography, it has strong dramatic lighting and good composition. If I looked out my window and saw this, I would race for my camera and coat. Each time I looked at this image, I liked it more. Well done.”

General Judge’s Comments

“I noticed some images were a bit dark or underexposed, especially when snow was included. Be careful when snow or sand is in an image that the snow/sand isn’t gray. Use the exposure compensation feature on your camera or adjust in the computer to give you better whites.

Light colored items in the foreground that are out of focus can be distracting if they occupy too much of the image.

Busy backgrounds or bright out of focus areas in an image can hurt an otherwise beautiful picture.

Last, the computer gives us tools to modify or optimize our images but too much manipulation can end up looking strange or unnatural to the viewer. Use the tools without making it obvious to the viewer.”

Final Notes

If you want to check out the past months’ photos, here they are:

Native Plants - April 2009
Containers - May 2009
Roses - June 2009
Flowering Trees – July 2009
Down On Your Knees – August 2009
Ornamental Grasses – September 2009
Abundant Harvest – October 2009
End Of The Line – November 2009
Winter’s Beauty – January 2010

I appreciate all of the feedback that many of you have shared about the Garden Bloggers’ Idea Gallery. This resource is only as good as the posts you all write about the art of garden blogging, so I’m thrilled that you keep posting and sending me links. Here are a bunch of links that have been added over the past month.

More Memes and Contests

While most of us in the northern hemisphere are thinking about spring, there’s still a fair bit of winter to endure. If you want to whine about how cold it is in your area, drop by Frigid Friday at Mr. McGregor’s Daughter to share a comment or link and get some sympathy.

Nearly a year ago, VP at Veg Plotting started Out on the Streets, a meme focusing on topics relating to public plantings. Every few months, she does an update, and she plans to continue this series in 2010. You can find the original OOTS post here and the most recent one here.

Leaf lovers will be delighted to hear that Pam at Digging has started a monthly meme called Foliage Follow-Up as a complement to May Dreams Gardens’ Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. Post pictures of whatever pleases you foliage-wise on the 16th of every month and leave a link at Digging so others can find you.

Pam also created Bloggers’ Celebration of National Parks to celebrate the beauties of these special places. Checking out the list of links submitted by bloggers all over the world is a great pick-me-up on a dreary winter afternoon.

As you’ve probably noticed, we’ve started a new year of the GGW Picture This Photo Contest. The winners of this month’s theme, Winter’s Beauty, chosen by Alan Detrick of Alan and Linda Detrick Photography, will be announced on Wednesday, January 27. Fran has many more pros lined up to judge Picture This for 2010, so check back often to find out the new monthly themes and see the entries.

Anyone know of any other new memes or contests? Leave us a link below, please.

More Image Ideas and Blogging Resources

If you’ve visited Robin’s Nesting Place, you’ve admired her amazing images of backyard birds. She shares some of her winter photography pointers in Backyard Bird Photography Tips.

Many of us use WordPress, Blogger, or Typepad as our blogging platform, but those aren’t the only options. In a comment on Choosing a Blogging Platform, Anna (Flowergardengirl) explains why she chose Iweb for her new site, Decorate a Garden.

Freda at Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel offers advice to Blogger bloggers who want to add ID information to their posts in How to Automatically Add Your Blog Name to Each Post. Wondering why you should bother? She explains why in We Won the Battle Against the Blog Content Thieves.

For me, one of the most exciting finds in compiling this idea gallery has been the posts by Jean of Jean’s Garden on using the free program Windows Live Writer for creating blog posts for a variety of platforms: Drafting Blog Posts with Windows Live Writer and Taming Images with Windows Live Writer. I can’t begin to tell you how much less frustrating it is putting posts together now! It escapes me how this program makes it easier to put together WordPress posts than WordPress can, but so it is. Apparently it works just as well for other blogging platforms. It’s also makes it incredibly simple to add watermarks and special effects to your photos, and to incorporate cool features like aerial maps. I found this one of my place as it looked about three years ago – pretty cool.

On Cameras

I’ve also added a new page to the Idea Gallery: Selecting a Camera and Accessories. There aren’t nearly as many links as I’d hoped to find, but I’m sure there are more out there, so please let me know if you’ve already written or run across additional blog posts about cameras, tripods, and other photography-related equipment.

*******************************************

Previous posts in the Digging Deep series:

1. Creativity

*******************************************

In my last Digging Deep post, we began discussing the process of creativity and the possibility of learning to live a more creative life, in and out of the garden.

The subject of this second workshop is to explore Stage One of the creative process: it is Imagining, what I call the sparks of creativity.

To imagine is to see possibilities, to envision realities that don’t yet exist, and to map out secret paths not yet charted. Our imaginations are our own mental playgrounds, where we release our dreams to romp without risk or fear. It is here, in the inner regions of our psyches, that we are free to explore who we truly are and let our thoughts and wishes run wild. It is here that we cook up all our fantasties, our deepest desires, and very often, all the hopes and longings that we never share with another living soul. It is from this wellspring that we draw the inspiration that serves as the spark for our creative fires.

So how do we tap into our imagination so that we can learn to romp, play and be spontaneous? Observing is the first step: it is simply the act of consciously attending to or making note of something. In the fast paced world we inhabit in the twenty first century, so many of us move through our days as if blindfolded, at an extremely hectic pace. Observing is the polar opposite of that. It means tapping all of our senses to really see, feel, taste, smell and touch the world around us in such a way that we reconnect with our sensuality. We awaken our aesthetic intelligence, our appreciation for beauty, harmony, melody, aroma, and sensation—all of which illuminate our imaginative energies and serve as the palette from which we can draw. Observing the natural world around us is one of the simplest ways to begin to awaken our senses and stimulate our creative fires.

Discovering your wishes , the next step in Imagining, is one of the most basic ways to begin unearthing your authentic roots. In order to create anything that has true resonance for you, you must first know what really calls to you. Otherwise you are just casting about, dabbling with this or that– a process from which you may or may not create a solution. Certainly whatever end you come to might work just fine, but what was truly gained in the process? Did you learn anything about yourself?  Have you grown as a result?

In the garden, there are literally hundreds of options that you can incorporate. It can be quite overwhelming. The assignment for this week can help you discover what calls to you as well as facilitating you in taking ownership of your authentic, unique self.

To Try:

Get your hands on any gardening, home and lifestyle magazines. Then set aside a designated amount of time and begin to browse through and earmark anything that grabs your fancy that relates to the garden. It can be flowers, an actual garden bed, a type of tree, a structure such as a fountain or pergola, or just the overall look and feeling of a garden. Tear out anything that calls to you. Don’t censor yourself—-there are no rules with this activity. Just have fun. Pick and choose and rip out as you feel inclined. Take breaks if you want. You don’t need to cram a whole garden’s worth of inspirations into one afternoon. I also encourage you to pick up a few gardening books that appeal to  you. Go through the pages and put Post-its on the ones that you love, even if you don’t know exactly why.

As you peruse and dream, try not to let the ‘how-to’ element sneak in. That is the censor of your mind trying to impose limits. People censor themselves so much, but this exercise is like brainstorming. Don’t worry about what to do with the material or how you’ll translate it into your garden; just like what you like. We’ll deal with pulling it altogether later. For now, simply take pleasure in finding things that speak to you without having to give them structure or meaning, like the beginning of love.

We go into fear so quickly when we do exercises like this, because we immediately assume we have to have an agenda–a reason or theme behind our likes or dislikes. We become frustrated and think ‘I can’t do this….this is impossible!” The key to unlocking this barrier is to recognize the frustration simply as fear. There is nothing you need to do about it, nothing you need to figure out, no problems to solve right now. Now is truly the fun part–just let go and dream!

This exercise will help you begin to see your likes and dislikes, thus allowing you to become more intimate with the longings within you. Being honest about your likes and dislikes frees you from the tyranny of other peoples’ opinions, which can often cloud your authentic desires. Keep the pictures that you find safely tucked away somewhere because they’ll be used later in another exercise.

Let’s return for a moment to last week’s assignment. You were asked to write down on a daily basis any creative moments or chunks of time that you experienced and the feelings that accompanied them. Please share your week of creative moments with us:  tell us what you experienced and learned about yourself.

***Note:  Although I’ve only talked about 2 elements, Observing and Discovering, there are 4 other elements that embody Imagining. They are: Remembering, Exploring, Opening To Possibility and Playing. You can read more about them in my book, Digging Deep: Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through  Gardening, available in paperback and Kindle format.

*******************************************

Click here to see all posts in the Digging Deep series

*******************************************

For me, one of the pleasures of garden design is that I can plug in and let Radiohead or Bach fill my head with sonic waves while I draw. This is something I can’t do when I’m writing—when any musical waves I generate need to come from within. But designing gardens, and working in gardens, are perfect activities for listening to music. A day spent outdoors with an iPod in a back pocket and Felco pruners in my right hand is my idea of a great staycation.

A habitual list-maker, making playlists is one of my favorite things to do. Every December, I make a list of my favorite songs from the previous year. In my high school and college years, I bought chrome cassette tapes to make mix tapes for prospective (and occasionally actual) girlfriends. Like the John Cusack character in the movie High Fidelity, I surrounded myself with music. What is harder than you might think is finding songs about plants. If you exclude references to roses, there aren’t all that many.

The following songs, with plant-related themes, have become some of my favorites over the last decade:

1. “White Winter Hymnal” by Fleet Foxes. For me, its weird Beach Boy-like harmonies and odd lyrics simultaneously evoke memories of picking strawberries and butchering rabbits.

2. “Sycamore” by Bill Callahan. What gardener doesn’t love a song about a big white-barked American tree sung by a guy with a voice deep enough to give Lou Reed a run for his money? As Callahan says, “There’s sap in the trees if you tap ‘em.”

3. “Summertime” by Josh Rouse. This song comes pretty close to capturing the nature of summertime. I have liked a lot of Josh Rouse songs over the last decade so it was hard to choose.        

4. “Someday Some Morning Sometime” by Billy Bragg & Wilco. Bragg and Wilco manage to take this Woody Guthrie song, with its promise to “…build you a house all covered in vines…” and make it melancholy.  

5. “Passing Afternoon” by Iron & Wine. A song about loss, leaves, and bougainvillea seeds. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a bougainvillea seed although they are planted everywhere here. Must investigate.

6. “Nude” by Radiohead. Has nothing to do with gardening, but it is moody and atmospheric and wonderful.

7. “Nomenclature” by Andrew Bird. Who among us hasn’t been maddened and disgusted by ever changing plant nomenclature? What use are Latin names that are constantly in flux? As Bird sings, “nomenclature is washing us all away.”

8. “Jardin” by Gustavo Santaolalla. A little instrumental gem from The Motorcycle Diaries soundtrack that might make you think about water dripping on leaves.       

9. “In The Flowers” by Animal Collective. This 2009 song is the least accessible of the bunch, but if you play it a few times, the sonic noodling and background noises grow on you. It starts off slowly and builds to a crescendo that makes me want to run through a field of flowers.

10. “Turn the Dirt Over” by Seawolf. With lyrics such as, “Oh, turn the dirt over, if you want to gro-o-o-w back”, this is a pretty straightforward gardening tune.

11. “Changes” by Seu Jorge. Who would have guessed that David Bowie songs in Portuguese could be so lovely and isn’t change what gardens are all about anyway?           

12. “Bramble Rose” by Tift Merritt. I have to confess that since Tift Merritt signed my guitar with a Sharpie in a Barnes and Noble a few years ago, I’ve been a little in love with her. I’m not much of a fan of roses, but bramble roses, well… “So my love has/ turned as hard as/ a bramble rose/ I’m a real good woman nobody knows.”

So, fellow gardeners, what are you listening to? Do you have a pruning playlist?

This is my newly released book, Succulent Container Gardens. Ever wonder how a garden book’s cover comes about?  Consider: A cover has to be eye-catching and effectively illustrate the title, and convey that the book is the definitive source of information on that topic. Ideally, it also entices readers with appealing plants and an engaging idea.

A book’s cover story begins with the author’s proposal, about two years before the book becomes a reality.

This is the cover of the folder I used for the proposal I wrote for my earlier gardening book, originally titled Landscaping with Succulents.  I chose a photo that I hoped expressed the book’s emphasis on sophisticated garden design.

Timber Press accepted the proposal and renamed the book Designing with Succulents. Their first cover (shown here) was used in pre-release promotional materials. A cover that isn’t green makes a gardening book stand out, but this one was scrapped because it didn’t convey how a wide variety of succulents can be used as landscape plants.

This is that book’s finalized title and cover. It shows a garden that’s in the book, photograhed by Lisa Romerein. I had scouted and written about the garden originally for Sunset magazine.  The cover elaborates on the title by showing that the book is about gardens that feature succulents and their companion plants.

Designing with Succulents came out in 2007 and became a bestseller. In 2008 I proposed a sequel: Succulent Container Gardens. This is one of the cover shots I suggested.

During the ensuing year, the title briefly was changed to Succulents in Containers. Here’s one of the cover designs I suggested for that title.  

 Of all the photos in the book, this is my favorite. But a horizontal image doesn’t work well for a cover.

When the title was changed back to Succulent Container Gardens, the publisher evaluated each of the book’s 300+ photos for its cover potential. This one met all the criteria. At first I thought it was too busy and the title might not stand out. Also, there’s a broken stem on the right and some marred leaves. But my concerns were unfounded—as you can see by the cropped, corrected and finalized cover above.

Do you have a great idea for a gardening book? No doubt you’re wondering how to interest a publisher. I recommend you follow the guidelines in a book that really helped me:  Nonfiction Book Proposals that Anybody Can Write, by Elizabeth Lyons.

 Also, think visually. As you would for a blog post, choose outstanding photos that illustrate great ideas your readers might enjoy implementing in their own gardens.

I’ll be giving presentations and doing book signings at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show in Seattle on Feb. 6; at the Philadelphia International Flower Show on March 6; and at the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show on March 24. (For a complete list of where I’ll be, when, see the Presentations page of my website). If you’re coming to any of these events, please say hello!