The Green Meridian Podcast - A Landscape Design/Build Toolkit

"One man's 'magic' is another man's engineering". (Robert A. Heinlein) Many landscape designers know their plants and paving and might creatively layout a patio, visualize a landform or know the soil, but how can one really sense the true “spirit” within the landscape? Thinking about this, I have been drawn to researching the myriad cryptic arts, ancient beliefs about plant systems and mysterious...

"Everything must be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.” (Albert Einstein) When I think of all of the software and process tools that I have used over the last few decades, like a lot of green industry folks - I have just cobbled it all together, experimenting with one online tool and then another until something sticks. The fact is - if you do this right, you will likely be using a few s...

They are like ghosts in the machine. Someone handed me a list recently of all of the staff we've hired over the last three+ decades. Its almost 400 people. I went through and highlighted the problematic pinheads that I wouldn't wish on anybody. There were quite a few. Then I followed up by highlighting the good people that were - and are - consistent, creative and caring. As you might expect, that...

No two designers will tell you the same thing. I talk to scores of potential clients annually ….and a question I'm often asked is "what does a plan cost?" The answer if course depends on a number of moving parts - and the way that you relay this information can be the decisive factor in whether your potential client chooses to work with you. The fact is - in the landscape design trades there is no...

Something will always go cattywampus. Hey, we are in construction. Even if you are just designing, you are in it. Maybe a bit deeper than you originally thought. You have very real responsibilities. You have legal liabilities that are tied to the execution of your drawings & proposals. Something will always go wrong. Despite all the negative connotations - and counterintuitive to what you migh...

Ever have to be two places at once? (What - only two?) I think that we can all agree that landscape design and outdoor construction work is really frenetic. We talked out it in our first episode. You've got not just the myriad plant materials of course, but also all of the nuances found when we work with wood and metal and stone and water, not to mention electricity and fire. Throw in a workforce...

Without one, it's like building a wall on sand. Building a strong Contract sets a steady and level base course for all of your work. Without it, you really cannot design or build effectively. Contracts & Agreements are a necessary means to protect yourself from issues that arise that are beyond your control, and can support you by limiting the damage caused from mistakes that might be made by...

It's stinking up the place. There's a fragrance in the air. Can you smell it? It's not daphne or lilac. It's kind of a poopy smell. Like sarcoccocca! (Is that a bad comparison? ) maybe that weird greenhouse plant we read about that blooms once every few years. What I'm articulating badly is - designers have a real problem that stinks up our reputation . So today, let's address the elephant in the...

Is Design/build the most difficult trade of all? As a landscape architect, a nurserymen and design/ build business owner, sometimes I feel like I have seen it all. From a small nursery office to a large landscape architectural firm, from the inside track of an interiorscape company, to the retail aisles of a supplier, I have plied the trade - and from the fast paced world of a computer imaging com...