First Year Snapshots

Yesterday on my way to somewhere else, I stopped at a garden I designed and installed last fall. The design mostly followed the footprint of a formal garden that had fallen into ruin--the concrete pond was there as was a crumbling low garden wall. I updated it and designed a scheme of mostly deer resistant plants--the exceptions being roses and daylilies planted at the owner's request.

These are not the best photos I've taken and I usually don't photograph gardens in their first season --they need time to fill in. First year photos are like taking baby pictures--the gardens are going to morph and mature and come into their own as they grow--and really they're just another cute baby. I made an exception yesterday since really liked what I saw.

Upper and lower borders--the wall is very old-and was covered with ivy

Lower border--it has a sequential bloom pattern

Why Fit In?

I have never fit in. There have been times, like when I was in high school, where fitting in seemed important, so I tried. I still didn't really fit in--there was always the nagging sensation that I wasn't really being authentic.

As I grew and evolved as a designer, I learned to get used to blunt critique and/or praise of my work and view it with my own value meter. Reject what I didn't believe, embrace what I did. This process also made me more secure in who I was as a person. The nagging sensation of not being authentic mostly disappeared. What didn't disappear, however, is the fact that I still don't really fit neatly into any ready categories that people seem to need to organize their thoughts, lives and ideas.

Miss R doesn't really fit in either. It's not a garden blog--although I sometimes write about gardens and post garden pictures. It's not a design blog, although I certainly explore that also. It's not a blog of personal revelation, but that is definitely a component. It's not a blog about process either. It doesn't fit in.

It is a blog about the thoughts, ideas, images, work, people and places that fill my creative life. I'm standing in the middle of my life as individual as ever, as unable to fit neatly into anyone's categories as I ever was. The difference is that I now know that's because I don't need to. I am authentically me.

Spring's Slow March

No pun intended in the title although after another dose of winter weather this week, those of us on the eastern seaboard might believe it.

Photo by Johann Dreo,via Wikipedia Commons

The coming of this spring's season seems to be interminable. For a landscape designer in a four season climate, the approach of the 'season' is always a crazy mix of anticipation, relief and angst. This year, there is more of each since the economic climate chilled at the same time our traditional outdoor project work season was winding down so there's no real gauge of what might or might not happen.

Just how different will this coming season be? In many ways, winter has been typical. Here and throughout much of the country, it has been a slower time, spent on design and planning, participation in workshops and seminars, and taking a much needed break. It has also been a time to wonder, just how will my design practice be affected by the current 'no spend' consumer climate?

Like each spring before now, I have decided to embrace whatever happens. I will work as hard as I normally do getting ready for the busy, busy, busy time. I will continue to try to improve my client realtions and give them an exceptional experience with their projects. They are the core of my business. That might take a little bit longer, but thankfully, the clock springs ahead a month earlier than it has in the past so I have more daylight to burn. On Sunday I'll have more hours in each day as Spring finally ends its slow march and arrives just as it should.

Inspiration and Experience

When I first started writing this blog, I was determined for it to be about three things: art, design and living a creative life. It's that last item that ties the first two together and has given me the freedom to explore all sorts of topics.

Often people ask me where I get my ideas from--what inspires my work. I believe that my inspiration comes from the sum of all of my individual experiences filtered through an instant. In other words, I am a funnel. The input area of my life is huge and the output is squeezed through the narrow viewpoint of any given moment. I reference and draw from hundreds of thousands of influences based on what I need to solve a specific design problem.

Because my aesthetic is based on the sum of my individual experiences it is unique to me. My perspective filters those that are shared and makes them exclusive. The solitary colors the mutual.

I hope that make sense. It does to me.

Postcard Power!

Several days ago, two boxes, weighing 78 lbs were delivered to my studio doorstep. They weren’t holiday gifts--next spring’s postcards had arrived!

The 2009 Postcard is a departure w/a white background and new tag line

I have produced a postcard for all but one of the past six years. 2008 was the only year I didn’t use one because I flirted (erroneously) with glossy magazine advertising instead. It was not as successful as my previous postcard campaigns. Expensive lesson learned.

There are marketing specialists out there who say that postcard mailings don't yield enough results. I think it depends on the postcard. If it looks like just another advertising gimmick filled with too much information on too small a space--I agree with the marketers. Whenever I visit someplace new, I buy a postcard. When I visit a museum, I buy a postcard. People collect postcards. I try and make a postcard that people will keep.

Every year the choice of photograph is the most wrenching task. That photo will become the ‘face’ of my studio and the one I use on all promo pieces for that year. The 2008 postcard’s layout and graphics have been changed to be in visual sync with that on the website. Some of you may have noticed that all of my on line avatars are similar to the photo of the garden you see above. That isn’t an accident or me being lazy. Image/brand recognition is the goal.

I use postcards in a variety of ways—as direct mail pieces, as promotional pieces at events, as informational pieces at other businesses, as client leave-behinds, and as alternative business cards. Each of those functions is described below along with a gallery of prior cards.

This year I printed 6000 cards and will mail out 5000 of them in early April—hopefully to arrive on the first warm Thursday. Why a Thursday? I want potential clients to look at the card right before they start to think about using their properties over the beautiful spring weekend. This is late in my design cycle for the season, but I found that mailing any earlier in my zone 6 climate just doesn't do the trick. I invest in a well vetted demographic mailing list in addition to my own that will yield 50 phone calls that in turn will yield 4-5 projects. These projects help to fill up my summer and fall design calendar.

The 2005 postcard--this one generated some great projects

Now before you say, “That’s all?” I will also get calls next spring from people who have received previous year’s postcards and had saved them. People toss business cards and mailers, as I said previously--they save pretty postcards. I actually walked into two new clients' kitchens last year and each had multiple cards tacked up over a workspace or posted on the fridge. Next thing I know they’ll be selling them on Ebay.

At the special events I participate in, from flower shows to show houses to charity auctions, the postcards become a promotional piece. They are the souvenir visitors pick up when they tour through a show house garden. When tied to a trowel, the postcards become a gift certificate for a charity to be auctioned or raffled. Every time I’ve donated my services for a cause the purchaser of the item has become a client.

2006 Postcard--not as successful because it did really show a 'garden'--just plants. Did get a good project though...

I’m very lucky to have a local upscale garden center that doesn't provide design services as a source of referrals. I give them postcards each year in February—they in turn give them out to clientele who ask them for design service recommendations. I have through the years received more referrals from this than any other single source other than my website.

2007 Postcard--My least favorite because I succumbed to a cliched image--shame on me!

Not every new client has received a postcard, so when I meet with someone new, I hand them a postcard instead of a standard business card. The image on the postcard helps to clarify what they can have on their own property and they usually turn it over and read the laundry list of services. This simple process often that adds to their mental list of what they’d like me to do but maybe hadn’t considered.

2004 Postcard--the first one

So here's to postcard power--another useful landscape design studio tool.

A Short Story...very short.

Last night is snowed a bit. This morning it misted. Before 6, it was warm when I went out to walk the dog. N0w, at almost 9, it's colder. Here's what happened.

Lacecap on Ice