Establishing a reliable phosphorus supply is essential for assuring long-term, sustainable food security….If we fail to meet this challenge, humanity faces a Malthusian trap of widespread famine on a scale that we have not yet experienced.

—James Elser and Stuart White, Foreign Policy magazine (April 20, 2010)

My blog post last week about soil prep in the vegetable garden led to a discovery that I have to pass on to our readers. Mike Ghia—a friend, local farmer, educator, and crop consultant—submitted a comment on our blog which included the following (among other useful advice): “The phosphorus in rock phosphate is largely unavailable, and is a depleting resource from human over-use.”

The other night I ran into Mike at our kids’ chorus concert and asked him about this. What I learned was astonishing. All gardeners and farmers need this information.

Phosphorus contributes to the development of all living things—plant and animal—and in its mined form, it is becoming drastically depleted. According to an article by James Elser and Stuart White in Foreign Policy magazine, to which Mike pointed me:

“Our dwindling supply of phosphorus, a primary component underlying the growth of global agricultural production, threatens to disrupt food security across the planet during the coming century. This is the gravest natural resource shortage you’ve never heard of.”

The article describes the necessity of phosphorus in agriculture, how it is lost in erosion and runoff, global mining efforts, foreign policy implications, and more. I strongly recommend reading it—and as much as you can—about this critical issue.

So, I asked Mike, what can we do? Here are some actions we can start with:

• Don’t purchase rock phosphate for the garden or conventional phosphorus fertilizers. Chemical phosphorus fertilizers are made by treating rock phosphate with acid and heat to remove other materials from the rock and to make the phosphorus more soluble and plant available.
• Do get a soil test and find out exactly what nutrients are lacking in your garden. (You’ll avoid treating nonexistent problems and inadvertently creating imbalances.) Soil tests should be done at least every 3 years or more frequently if you are attempting to make major changes in pH or nutrient levels.
• Soil tests typically only measure “available” phosphorus, not total phosphorus. Low levels of available phosphorus can often be addressed by getting soil pH into optimal levels between 6.2 and 7 (which makes existing phosphorus in your soil more bio-available). Once the pH is corrected, do another soil test, and you may find that you had adequate phosphorus levels all along, but it was not in the available form.
• Do add sources of phosphorus from organic materials such as manures, compost, and bonemeal. These materials can be tested for phosphorus levels so that you can figure out the appropriate amounts to add in conjunction with soil test results. Or you can use “book values” which can also be found on the internet.
• Reduce tillage of your soil, which damages mycorrhizae colonies that enable plants to absorb far more nutrients. No-till is optimal for encouraging mycrorrhizae growth, but not always practical for the home gardener.
• Do add mycorrhizal inoculant to your garden. Here is an online resource with an informative and interesting website.

Thanks to Mike for sharing his knowledge and expertise! I’m ordering my soil test kit today.

Mycorrhizal fungi increase the surface absorbing area of roots 100 to a 1,000 times, thereby greatly improving the ability of the plant to access soil resources. Several miles of fungal filaments can be present in less than a thimbleful of soil. Mycorrhizal fungi increase nutrient uptake not only by increasing the surface absorbing area of the roots, but also release powerful enzymes into the soil that dissolve hard-to-capture nutrients, such as organic nitrogen, phosphorus, iron and other “tightly bound” soil nutrients.

—from the Mycorrhizal Applications website

Illustration of mycorrhizae by Melissa Buntin, from an informative Fine Gardening article by Greg Quinn.

Gas prices have been going up, and with them, food prices. This winter I was shocked by my family’s grocery bills and determined that we would start growing a lot more of our own food. Trying to be as self-reliant as possible, we grow a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Every year some crops do well, others languish, some fail spectacularly. We were philosophical about the losses, but now I mean to combat them more vigorously.

Some of the most welcome signs of spring: happy, snappy peas and garlic!

For a few years, while working in other people’s gardens, I was scrupulous about testing their soil, correcting imbalances, using crop-specific fertilizers, weeding, and mulching. At home in my own garden, I adopted a laid-back, low-maintenance, “if it doesn’t thrive here, fahgeddaboutit” approach. No more of that! It’s time to make the most of every square foot of garden space.

The first major change that I am making is how I prepare my garden beds. As I’ve written before, I dig rather than till, disturbing the soil structure as little as possible. For crops that hate acid soil (i.e., most of them), I add a dusting of lime. This year, for the first time, I am incorporating a homemade COF (complete organic fertilizer) into the soil of every bed before planting.

L: Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times by Steve Solomon. Photo: New Society Publishers. R: The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times by Carol Deppe. Photo: Amazon.

I previously thought homemade compost was a perfectly good addition to the soil—and the only one necessary. After reading the excellent books Gardening When It Counts by Steve Solomon (founder of Territorial Seed Company) and Carol Deppe’s The Resilient Gardener, I understand that while compost adds wonderful organic matter to the soil, vastly improving its tilth, it doesn’t do nearly enough to feed annual vegetable crops. Quite honestly I tried to resist this truth for a while (in part because of a tetchy vanity about the quality of my compost); however, thinking back to some of last year’s lackluster harvests, I am persuaded to try it.

Hey, veggies, whatsamatta?! This beautiful stuff ain’t good enough for ya?

I used Solomon’s COF recipe, which calls for the following:

• 4 parts seedmeal (any kind except coprameal) or 3 parts seedmeal and 1 part tankage (meatmeal)
• ¼ part agricultural lime, finely gound
• ¼ part gypsum
• ½ part dolomitic lime
• 1 part of any of the following: rock phosphate, bonemeal, guano, kelpmeal, basalt dust (½ part)

He also suggests some alternatives and substitutions, which I won’t list here. He warns that parts must be measured by volume, not weight. I used an old 2-quart saucepan to measure out equal parts.

So, here are the ingredients I used, with actual quantities:

• 6 quarts cottonseed meal
• 2 quarts dried blood (instead of meatmeal)
• ½ quart agricultural lime, pulverized
• 1 quart dolomitic lime
• ½ quart gypsum
• 1 quart rock phosphate
• 1 quart bonemeal
• 1 quart kelpmeal

I chose ingredients based on what was available, which were least expensive, and what I already had on hand (the bonemeal and kelpmeal). It occurs to me that you might like to know how much I spent on these ingredients, so I’ll try to dig up my receipts later and post them as a comment. As Solomon points out, the money is well spent in terms of dollars saved at the grocery store and the much higher nutritional content of veggies grown with COF. It can also save time; correctly used, COF distributes the perfect amount of lime, so you won’t have to lime the garden as a separate step.

Ah, the magic formula: complete organic fertilizer (recipe above).

I store my COF in covered plastic 5-gallon buckets (it filled 2½ buckets) with a handy measuring scoop nearby. How much to add to garden beds? Solomon says to add 4-6 quarts per 100 square feet (or 10 square meters). If planting in long rows, use 4-6 quarts per 50 feet of row (in a 12-18″-wide band). If you have clay soil, as I do, use 1½ times this amount for the first few years. Dig it in well to a depth of about 12 inches. Solomon and Deppe also give specific advice for preparing beds for individual crops, so I highly recommend reading (and highlighting) both books.

When we had that crazy heat wave back in March, which dried out the soil much earlier than usual, I planted a few beds with cover crops such as oats and buckwheat (seeds I already had on hand). The heat-loving buckwheat is just sort of pathetically limping along, but the oats are coming along nicely, providing some good biomass to add organic matter to the soil. Next week I’ll turn it all in and let it decompose. By June 1, when it’s time to put in peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, and squash, the cover crops should be well broken down.

“Mares eat oats, and squash eat oats…”
Cover crops can help feed your soil (and therefore whatever else you plant there).

As always, I’ll continue my lazy-gardener’s favorite technique of using leaf mulch to prevent weeds and add tilth to the soil as it breaks down. I will also be more vigilant this year about reading up on which crops like what kind of fertilizer when, instead of my habitual sloppy “This-week-everybody-gets-fish-fertilizer!” feedings.

I’ll try to keep you posted on the results. In the meantime, please share your comments, experience, resolutions, triumphs, and lessons learned!

Hello, blog readers! We hope that some of you have been trying out the Home Outside Palette iPhone/iPad app. We’d like to humbly request that you take a moment to submit a rating in the App Store and tell us what you like about the app. We’re already at work on many new features and capabilities.

To rate us, just click the “thumbs-up” in the bottom left corner of the Gallery screen (see below).

In other news, we’ll soon be telling you about some Ball shrubs we tried out (Physocarpus ‘Lemon Candy,’ I love you!), but for now we just want to give a shout-out to Ball Horticulture, in partnership with Costa Farms, for introducing a product that is long overdue: SoilWrap, a plantable, biodegradable, non-petroleum-based container for plants for purchase. It could replace the hundreds of millions of pounds of plastic used by the horticultural industry each year, in disposable pots that are most often thrown away. SoilWrap won the Greener Packaging Award in 2010; we hope to be seeing more and more SoilWrap packaging in local nurseries.

We’re opening a conversation on Facebook: What do you do with your plastic pots? Hop over and tell us!

New York Times Review of Our Home Outside App

On April 4, the Home Outside app received a positive mention in The New York Times, in an article by Kate Murphy called “Gardening by the App.” Read the online article here. JMMDS and our app development partner All Dreams Digital are so proud!

Screen image of a design created with the Home Outside app, as featured in the NYT.

Home Outside Online Design Service Website

Our web presence has had to grow with our growing services, and Home Outside online design service now has its very own website. Homeowners can now sign up for Home Outside directly on our site. Our online workbook (coming soon) will enable every part of the process to be completed electronically, from users submitting their property measurements and design preferences to receiving their very own JMMDS-designed plans for a personalized, affordable “home outside.”

The home page of www.homeoutsidedesign.com, where users can browse our brochure, request a free quote, or sign up for the service.

Home Outside iPhone App Version 2.0

Version 2.0 of our Home Outside app for iPhone and iPad has just been released in the App Store! Now called homeoutside Palette, the app has a fresh new look and improved functionality.

The new home screen of the Home Outside Palette app, with beautiful graphics by Bethany Gracia.

Get news about the Home Outside Palette app and online design service on the Home Outside Facebook page, where you can also see designs created by app users. Please click over and “like” us!

Most question a trip to southern Scandinavia in February – it’s cold, dark, and all the good skiing is in the north.  For me, there is beauty in the austere, treasure in the off-season quiet, and allowance to indulge in a bounty of smoked meats and dairy delights.  Also, it had been 20 years since I had seen much of my family in the motherland, and I was looking to get out of Dodge.

Map of Scandinavia: Free World Maps.

The first thing that I notice each time that I arrive in Stockholm are the colors.  Stucco in paprika, ochres, honey and warmth: quite the antidote to somber skies.  There is a simple elegance to the city (mirrored in its inhabitants), an ease of maneuvering about, and a prevailing sense of calm.

L: Color cure.  R: Garland street lights give the city a festive flair.

L: Your average street trees? The Swedes are renowned plantspeople.  R: The new and the old side-by-side at Stockholm Central Train Station.

L, R: Simple play – stones and slush make for happy kids.

For my birthday, I accompanied my brother on a business trip to Turku, Finland, the EU’s Capital of Culture for 2011.  Culture it was not without—from a modest but intricately detailed cathedral consecrated in 1300 to an impressive number of fascinating museums, galleries and contemporary design shops.

L: Mall, Finnish-style.  R: Scale play at a famous historic Turku restaurant along the River Aura.

I also found myself in the belly of a fish—at St. Henry’s Ecumenical Art Chapel, a short cab ride onto an island from the city center.  Designed by Sanaksenaho Architects, the copper scale exterior of the chapel was the ultimate protection from the blizzard that was mounting while I warmed my spirit and toes in the pine interior.

L: Copper exterior. R: All-pine interior.

The train ride from Stockholm to Oslo—a rhythmic tapestry of spruce and slender birch figures—brought me to the final leg of my journey, my ancestral land.  My family resides in the fishing town of Tønsberg, the oldest town in Norway, whose name means “fenced area or garden” (tun) and “mountain” (berg).  Those elements were certainly the focus of my eye.

L: Of house and hedge: multi-layers of hedging and fencing create friendly, but private, neighborhoods. R: A downtown residential street, with the rocky outcropping of Tønsberg’s “castle mountain” in the background.

L: A young beech hedge separating lawn and hill from the common walking path.

R: Dense (but beautiful) housing preserves open, arable space: a national resource on many levels.

L,R: The original green roof.

A day was spent exploring “Verdens Ende” (the World’s End), the most southern tip of this part of Norway.

L, C: In the summer months with warm water, the Norwegians lie out like seals at this stone paradise.

R: Glacial scarring indicative of the orientation of retreat.

Last day: Oslo city.  The weather finally let loose, so instead of fjord exploration, I spent my last day captivated by cafes with reindeer-fur benches and outdoor fires and the city’s posh downtown.

L: Granite crosswalks:  Norway’s answer to paint.  R: The Opera House: Snøhetta’s glacial masterpiece.

We’ve recently had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Garry Jones, a Brattleboro “musical sculptor.” Garry and blacksmith/artist Erik Newquist have designed a musical park bench which captured our imaginations.

Garry Jones, left, and Erik Newquist, right, constructing a musical bench. Photo: Gallery Walk.

Garry describes the benches, which he and Erik hope will soon be placed in Brattleboro parks and other public spaces: “The bench frame, legs and striker mechanisms are constructed from hand-forged steel, the ‘keys’ are Vermont white cedar, and the inserts are western red cedar. It has been designed to withstand outdoor Vermont weather and to be as vandal-resistant as possible. It does not need separate beaters to be played. It is also nice to just sit quietly on, of course!”

This musical bench, entitled “Steel, Wood, Melody,” is designed for private gardens. Another version, intended for public parks, can be played without beaters and is designed to be weather- and vandal-resistant. Photo: The Harmonic Forge.

In this Studio Two video, a young girl wanders over to watch their impromptu performance and asks to join in–exactly the reaction Garry hopes for when people see the benches. “We try to make them attractive and intriguing as a way to encourage people to unexpectedly come together to play music and interact in fun ways.”

Musical Bench Performances

The Windham Orchestra will be performing with Garry and Erik’s benches at Brattleboro’s Latchis Theater on Thursday, March 22nd, in a sold-out workshop and performance with Dummerston school students, some of the town’s homeless folk, and audience participation. The benches will also be part of the orchestra’s concert at the Latchis on Sunday, March 25th.

Garry has been working with Hugh Keelan, the orchestra’s director, on a summer program of orchestra performances in parks, using the benches as a focus and collaborating with youth groups, disability organizations, NECCA, dance schools, other community groups, and the public. Garry is composing a “Concertino for Strings and Park Bench” and is also planning an event on the anniversary of the Irene floods with a performance of Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Fludde (Noah’s Flood).

Garry hopes that these events will generate interest in his benches and support for placing them in public parks. Want to sponsor a musical bench for your local park? Learn more at The Harmonic Forge.

More About Garry Jones

Garry is an Australian-born musician and composer who lived for ten years in Ireland, where he became fascinated with Irish mythology and began to incorporate it into his compositions.

Garry wrote his  ”Fire Eye Suite” while living in Ireland. Here you can see and hear him play the Brigit movement, written to celebrate the sovereign goddess of Leinster province in the east of Ireland, performed with Laura MacKenzie, and here he and Laura play the movement for Aine, the goddess of Munster in the south.

This intriguing cave is the entrance to the Temple of the Wind, which Garry Jones built for Brigit’s Garden in Killannin, Ireland. The megalithic chamber has a corbeled roof and four “wind catchers” that channel the wind into organ pipes that resonate inside the central chamber.  As the wind changes direction, it plays different notes. Photo: The Harmonic Forge.

My house may be full of nuts, but my yard has none. This sad state of affairs struck me after reading The Fruit Gardener’s Bible: A Complete Guide to Growing Fruits and Nuts in the Home Garden (Storey Publishing, 2011), Leonard Perry’s update of Lewis Hill’s classic Fruits and Berries for the Home Garden. For some irrational reason, although I grow several types of fruit, nuts always seemed like a daunting undertaking; now, armed with this book, I’m ready to plant some nut trees, and some more varieties of fruit as well.

The Fruit Gardener’s Bible is a 319-page paperback full of color photographs. Photo: Amazon.

Lewis Hill, legendary Vermont plantsman and author, who passed away in 2008 after many decades of sharing his horticultural expertise and love of plants, wrote Fruits and Berries for the Home Garden in 1992. Dr. Perry, a UVM Extension professor and author, whose blog Perry’s Perennial Pages is one of our favorite resources for information about herbaceous perennials, was a longtime friend of Hill’s and the perfect writer to update this classic reference book.

As Dr. Perry notes in the book’s Preface, recessions tend to spur renewed interest in growing food crops. Accordingly, the new edition is formatted to make it easy for busy gardeners to find the information they need. In addition, the book reflects new developments in sustainable growing practices and improved plant varieties. Although both authors are from Vermont, the book is an excellent resource for gardeners across the country, with information for all regions.

Hill and Perry advise buying plants from a knowledgeable and experienced local grower, where you can be sure that stock is healthy and hardy in your zone. I’m contemplating getting grapevines and hardy kiwis from Elmore Roots Nursery, a reputable Northern Vermont business that gives customers detailed information to help their plants thrive. Photos: Elmore Roots.

Part One, “Getting Started with Fruits and Nuts,” addresses what and where to plant, how to select the right varieties for your area, and what to expect during the annual cycle of gardening chores. It includes advice about planting more than one of non-self-pollinating varieties and encouraging pollinating insects. Lush photographs show a gooseberry trained as a standard, containers overflowing with strawberries, espaliered fruit trees, and underplantings of annuals—all appealing to people’s growing interest in incorporating edible plants into ornamental gardens.

Left: The delicate, otherworldly flower of the passionflower vine (Passiflora incarnata), a perennial native to the southern United States, is followed by a highly nutritious guava-like fruit known as a “maypop.” Photo: Jeffrey Pippen. Right: Gooseberries (Ribes uva-crispa) grow on manageably-sized shrubs (4-5 feet tall) which need little care once established and whose attractive leaves provide glorious fall color. They are hardy to zone 3! Photo: CollaboratElaborate.

Parts Two and Three, which deal with growing small fruits (such as berries and brambles) and tree fruits and nuts, respectively, are filled with specific advice for selecting varieties, getting plants off to a good start, and maintaining their health and productivity. For each type of fruiting plant, there is specific information on situating, caring for, fertilizing, diagnosing problems, and harvesting. Also included are lists of lesser-known varieties in different plant categories, with recommendations such as maypops, loquats, medlars, saskatoons, and hardy kiwis.

Part Four, “Growing Healthy Fruits, Nuts, and Berries,” deals with maintaining healthy soil, composting, pruning (with clear illustrations), treating diseases, and dealing with insects and other pests. Especially helpful are the large color photographs of harmful insects and visible signs of common diseases. Also useful is the detailed “Diagnosing What’s Wrong” chart, which lists symptoms and their possible causes.

Left: Maybe I’ll start with hazelnuts, which grow to only about 15 feet tall and begin bearing in 4-5 years. Photo: Azprod. Right: Lucky gardeners in the western states can harvest their own pine nuts from pinyon pines; the tree shown is a Colorado pinyon (Pinus edulis). Photo: Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands Information Network.

As the title indicates, this book is not for the professional orchardist; it is a terrific reference for the home gardener. I anticipate using it in conjunction with my permaculture bible, Toby Hemenway’s Gaia’s Garden, which explains how to use plant combinations (guilds) to maximimize availability of nutrients, conserve resources, foil pests and diseases, and improve soil health.

Spring is coming. Grab a copy of The Fruit Gardener’s Bible and read it while you still have the time!

Apologies to all our blog readers and especially to Dr. Leonard Perry, whose book The Fruit Gardener’s Bible we attempted to review on our blog last Friday. The blog post vanished into cyberspace and will need to be recreated. Stay tuned—we are eager to tell you about this fantastic resource!

In the meantime, Becca over at The L.A.N.D. Line has written a terrific post about a subject near to our hearts: the myriad rewards of getting children out into nature, with lots of good links and resources. Read her post here.

A little while back, Erica Bowman wrote  The Trouble with Chickens. Anyone interested in gardening with chickens (without trouble) should check out Jessi Bloom’s Free Range Chicken Gardens. Genevieve at North Coast Gardening has a review—and a chance to win a copy!

That’s all for now. Have a great weekend, everyone!

How lucky I’ve been—I’ve had more than my share of peak experiences in my working life over these thirty-five years in the field.  Learning the secrets of Japanese garden design from Professor Kinsaku Nakane in Kyoto; traveling the world to research “garden realms” for my first book; building Tenshin-en at the Museum of Fine Arts; creating the Toronto Music Garden with Yo-Yo Ma; opening my studio in Vermont—joyful experiences all.   Then, just two weeks ago on Saturday, January 28^th under a brilliant winter sky, I had my most recent peak experience, thanks to the volunteer efforts of 14 Alpha Tau Gamma alumni, six students, and two girlfriends from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture in Amherst, MA.  This hardy group came together to prune the Garden of the Heart of Heaven back to life.

The heroic volunteer pruning team with Jim Mulcahy at center, in blazer.

The quarter-acre meditation garden, designed by Prof. Nakane and opened in 1987, is about to turn 25 years old.  So it is fitting that the process of its rejuvenation has begun.  Rumors that the garden would be removed in the fourth phase of the MFA’s master planning process seem to have finally been put to rest; the ATG fraternity’s hard work has brought encouragement and impetus to those of us who continue to love the garden, despite its overgrown state.  Thanks to them, I plan to work with MFA staff to ensure that it is well loved, properly maintained, and appropriately curated in perpetuity.

Volunteers gather inside the Kabuki-mon entry gate. The gate was built in Kyoto, disassembled and brought to the MFA, and reassembled by Japanese carpenters. Visitors are meant to look at the garden only from this path and from the terrace, where benches are positioned to allow contemplation of the garden. Julie calls this a “mind journey.”

The enthusiastic and effervescent James Edward Mulcahy, ATG ’60, spearheaded this entire effort on the Museum’s behalf.  He brought a small group of fraternity brothers together in early January to meet with Director of Facilities David Geldart, Facilities Manager Karen Haley, and me to decide how best to proceed.  We walked the garden and assessed the 1,750 plants and decided to put out a call for a legion of arborists to pass under the Kabuki Gate with pruning saws and shears in hand.

L: Crew members Marc Hansen, Greg Barnett, Steve Spencer, and Bob Maltby. R: Pruned material being hoisted out of the garden.

And come they did! The group was assembled by 8 a.m. and, except for a brief lunch break, worked straight through until 3 p.m.  Here’s who arrived to help: Pete Childs (’58), 
Jim Mulcahy (’60), 
Hugh Sweeney (’62) and friend Roberta, 
Robert Stowell Maltby (’74) & son Brian, 
Steve Spencer (’75), 
Greg Barnett (’83), 
Gary Shepherd (’85), 
Mark Olson (’89), 
Jim Anspach (’90), 
Marc Hansen (’97), 
Leighton Allenby II (’04), 
Ben Anderson (’04), 
Nate Cenis (’05), 
Tim Kaija (’09) with friend Abby, 
Steve Copeland (’09),
Josh Lima (’10), 
Ryan McGillivray (’11), 
Ethan Dangelo (’12), 
Nick Henderson 
(’13), Mark MacDonald (’13) and Glenroy Buchanan, house father.

L: Pruned Stewartia inside the Tenshin-en wall. The clay tiles atop the wall were baked in Kyoto four times rather than the traditional two, to temper them for the extremes of Boston’s climate. R: Ethan Dangelo prunes the interior branches of a cherry tree inside the courtyard.

L: A cherry tree (Prunus autumnalis) which had become badly overgrown is removed by crane. R: Euonymous alatus after a drastic pruning. Vertical and crossing branches were removed and the tree opened up to admit light and air.

One member, Bob Maltby, went way beyond the call in his contribution to the cause.   He donated the services of his Maltby Tree Service 38-ton, 129-foot crane, a bucket truck and chipper, and an additional non-ATG 5-man paid crew, removing three overgrown autumn cherries (Prunus autumnalis) from the garden and several large oak and ash limbs that blocked the sunlight overhead.  Bob, along with his son Brian and associate Marc Hansen, have earned my allegiance forever with their huge contribution for the garden.

Stockbridge School freshman Nick Henderson rakes the gravel with a 50-pound rake as the afternoon shadows lengthen.

And ATG is not done yet! Another large group of members has already committed to returning to the garden on April 21st for broad-leafed evergreen pruning, to prune the Enkianthus hedge along the north wall, and to do more precise pruning inside. Thank you, ATG.  This is the beginning of a beautiful and fruitful relationship!

The smiling faces of our amazing volunteers:

We are working on a new book, entitled Landscaping Ideas That Work, to be published by The Taunton Press in November 2013.

We are seeking entries from architects, landscape architects, landscape designers, and photographers. We’re looking for projects to photograph (which will appear in case studies) and completed photography that fits our book outline.

Please click here to read the Call for Submissions and share this with anyone you know who might be interested!