The New Year brought the classic moment of looking back to look forward – and I realized that in September we will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of our business, designing and building landscapes here in the Champlain Valley of VT. We have experienced significant growth and change during that time and I am very grateful for Tim’s infinite patience, as well as the extreme hard work performed by Tim and the crew, and the faith of our clients as we have evolved our design process and methods.
Looking back at some of our first designs I admit it’s a bit like looking at photos of myself in the 80’s and wondering how I could possibly have thought shoulder pads were a good idea. Thankfully, we’ve learned along the way, and continue to do so, and we have found ways to successfully integrate our interests in ecology, agriculture, and landscapes. Recently I was giving a particularly interactive lecture to some UVM students about Ecological Design and the discussion turned to whether I thought they should go to grad school in order to secure a job. I told them that “it depends”, but that no matter where their path takes them I believe that education is continual beyond any formal school setting, and needs to be a part of daily life. We choose to be Learners and our identify morphs with our constantly evolving body of knowledge. I am not the same gardener-designer-farmer-wife-
So yes, research is important but so is hands-on experience, and most importantly, learning from each others’ hands-on experiences. With this in mind I have assembled an index of the topics that I’ve written about in the last three years to share with you – think of it as a distillation of our recent experiences. I write about 20 posts per year, so there are 60 articles here organized by topic for you to pick through and hopefully find something useful. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter if you would enjoy getting our happy rantings each month. Have fun and please share your thoughts.
