The opening of a project is always conceptul. I find "before" pictures painful as, well, images are full of emptiness. But then slowly as you progress, ideas you didn't even have begin to emerge.

Position yourself to move with what becomes in the production process.

I worked the "The Territory (of Collaboration)" last night for an hour. On the one hand, I worked the garden with Jeremy - we weeded, I pruned the Smokebush, and got the hose running on the Enkanthius which had dropped a lot of leaves from a droughty summer.

But, there was other work done. I spent most of the time working between my point and shoot and DSLR. I hadn't really worked with my Canon (DSLR) all season and I don't know how to use the customizable features on the Nikon P/S. I went there to practice with those as much as anything. Then there was the garden naval. Its been a mess. The idea behind the naval is that it provides a measure  to compare the development of the space: the naval is left untouched to demonstrate the human control of the garden.

The naval however is allocated a specific 36" diameter space and in overgrowing its bounds was infringing on the manicured portion of the garden. But how does one handle this allegorical space? Its meant to be unchecked yet it demanded it for the "garden." My answer was to prune the seed heads and make a floral sculpture in the open lawn space with the pruned materials from other plants. Good answer?

My point here is not about "the what" result that was brought about. It is to think of "art gardens" - if not all gardens, as if we need to distinguish only certain ones as "art" - not as finished objects that are made but as spaces of labor and experimentation; the studio of the garden artist.

It is difficult to get color in the shade - white, OK, but color, OMG impossible almost. A client in North Buffalo put these ornaments in her bed that from afar look as if they are plants.

Its something to think more about. 🙆🏼

Dendranthema. I do really like to say it out loud. "Den dran theme ah." At least that's how I pronounce it. Many times you only know plants from texts or catalogs until you bring one in and experiment with it. But, the orality or pronunciation is something one produces in their imagination. So, I have to admit, I have never heard anyone actually say this name before and my pronunciation is just made up.

The trick with Dendranthema is that everyone wants to call it a "Chrysanthemum." Which, in a way it certainly is. But, I think conventionally, mums are planted as annuals - we buy them in the fall for autumnal color. We may call Dendranthema, "Hardy Mum," but of course this isn't as fun to say. Dendranthema is cold hardy to Zone 3.

I believe I have only used it one time. Shown here, I returned to a site I planted it at four years ago as an experiment and I am in love with it. First, I love plants that run a little bit and can hold down some territory and compete against weeds. This Hardy Mum spreads somewhat, but if it gets a little beyond the spacial constraints you wish for it just easily pulls out with your hand roots and all.

😓

For ten years I have been moving further and further toward the most traditional and old-tyme methods of production. Some would say this is nostalgia. While there is certainly a risk of this oftentimes the simplest tools are the most dependable.

Today we rented the classic 2-person auger. And for the second time in as many weeks it was a miserable failure. The trick with "higher forms" of machinery is that on a small scale, their production gains don't outweigh their risk of failure. I've learned this too many times. The rented auger, by the time I pick it up and return it, even if it works flawlessly on the job, we've still used 1/2 a day of work up. Where, the most traditional of methods simply uses a clam-type post-hole-digger and a digging bar...but...this method doesn't fail. Today I needed to get 4 holes dug. Simple, but site conditions didn't allow the auger into the soil. Even if it takes an hour per hole manually, we haven't really taken any longer to do the project.

I apologize. This is a little drifty. But here is my point: Even if traditional methods take a little longer, one can plan the pace of production. Steady progess and hard work always feel good - failure never does. The anxieties and headaches that come with large scale machinery are more often than not emotionally inefficient.