Joining us this month is our guest, noted landscape architect David Cristiani, author of the blog The Desert Edge.

Here is a little more about David -

David has over 20 years of experience designing outdoor environments in the Southwest. His projects include a variety of resource-conservative commercial, institutional, and residential designs.
David has merged the practice of landscape design with his knowledge of climate and the study of arid-region plant geography and species composition. This unique insight has proved valuable for both site-specific design work and for assisting regional growers, by collecting seed and cuttings for large-scale production of promising high desert plant introductions.

And now, for a look at Reality Check / Don’t Do This…

Simply follow the links below to each of the blogs. Enjoy!

David Cristiani : The Desert Edge : Albuquerque, NM

Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO

Susan Morrison : Blue Planet Garden Blog : Easy Bay, CA

Andrew Keys : Garden Smackdown : Boston, MA

Susan Cohan : Miss Rumphius’ Rules : Chatham, NJ

Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In The Garden : Los Altos, CA

Christina Salwitz : Personal Garden Coach : Renton, WA

Shirley Bovshow : Eden Makers : Los Angeles, CA

Genevieve Schmidt : North Coast Gardening : Arcata, CA

We’ve all had moments when we’ve scratched our heads and wondered, ’What were they thinking…’

Take the ‘What Were They Thinking’ Reality Check Challenge

♦ Do you live in New England but continue to try to grow cactus as a foundation plant (or do you live in the desert southwest and try to grow rhododendrons)?

♦ Do you sometimes forget that plants grow and get bigger and bigger and BIGGER?

♦ Do you believe that if one garden gnome adds a touch of whimsy, then ten garden gnomes must be ten times more whimsical?

♦ Has anyone ever told you to drop the pruning shears and leave that poor shrub alone?

If you can answer yes to even one of those questions, you may need a garden design reality check.

Our Guest This Month

What was David thinking.... sending us his high school ID?

This month on the Roundtable we are joined by none other than David Cristiani, principal of Quercus, a landscape architecture firm located in Albuquerque, NM.

Long before sustainable and eco-friendly design were buzzwords, David was designing residential and commercial outdoor spaces that capture the essence of the high desert region of the southwest that he loves.

David is also the author of the blog The Desert Edge. On his blog, David explores the landscape, plants, people and weather at the ‘edge of the vast Chihuahuan Desert + Great American SW’.

Join us on Tuesday, January 24th as we take a reality check and explore ‘Don’t Do This…’. Oh, and we’ll also have a current photo of David!

Deer have become a major problem in the landscape, and the reasons for the increase in deer damage range from development encroaching on their territory to populations thriving on the lush banquet our gardens provide for them. Whatever the reason, choosing the right plant for the right place no longer guarantees success in the garden, you must also ask “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”

This month on the Roundtable, our designers discuss, “Gardening with Deer”. Follow the links below and find out how they deal with their uninvited “guests”!

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Genevieve Schmidt : North Coast Gardening : Arcata, CA

Pam Penick : Digging : Austin, TX

Douglas Owens-Pike : Energyscapes : Minneapolis, MN

Christina Salwitz : Personal Garden Coach : Renton, WA

Susan Morrison : Blue Planet Garden Blog : East Bay, CA

Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT

Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In The Garden : Los Altos, CA

Tara Dilliard : Vanishing Threshold: Garden, Life, Home : Atlanta, GA

Here is a little more about Thomas -

Thomas Rainer

Thomas Rainer is a landscape architect by profession and a gardener by obsession. Thomas has worked on projects such as the U.S. Capitol grounds, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and The New York Botanical Garden, but is happiest puttering in his small garden in Washington, D.C. Thomas thinks you should use more natives, plant in humongous masses, and loosen up that landscape, for crying out loud.

And now without further ado, may we present, our Idols! Please follow the links below to each of the blogs, and Enjoy!

Thomas Rainer : Grounded Design : Arlington, Virginia

Susan Cohan : Miss Rumphius’ Rules : Chatham, NJ

Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT

Rochelle Greayer : Studio G : Boston, MA

Jenny Peterson : J Petersen Garden Design : Austin, TX

Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT

Andrew Keys : Garden Smackdown : Boston, MA

Tune in next Tuesday, November 22nd, to meet the idols that inspire our designers, and maybe through their words, you’ll find inspiration to fashion the garden of your dreams!

Follow the hotlinks below to see what our creative team has to offer!

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO

Genevieve Schmidt : North Coast Gardening : Arcata, CA

“… she had preferred night to day, had enjoyed sitting out in the yard after sunset, under the star-speckled sky listening to frogs and crickets. Darkness soothed. It softened the sharp edges of the world, toned down the too-harsh colors. With the coming of twilight, the sky seemed to recede; the universe expanded. The night was bigger than the day, and in its realm, life seemed to have more possibilities.” ―Dean Koontz, Midnight

What possibilities emerge within your garden at the edge of light? Join us next Tuesday, as the Roundtable explores “Darkness” and its effect in the garden!

Debra Prinzing is a Seattle- and Los Angeles-based outdoor living expert who writes and lectures on gardens and home design. She has a background in textiles, journalism, landscape design and horticulture. A frequent speaker for botanical garden, horticultural society and flower show audiences, Debra is also a regular radio and television guest. Her five books include Garden Writers Association Gold Award-winning Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways (Clarkson-Potter/Random House, 2008) and The Abundant Garden (2005).  She is now at work on her new book about seasonal, local and sustainably-grown cut flowers with photographer David Perry. Read more about it at www.afreshbouquet.com.

Debra is the new contributing garden editor for Better Homes & Gardens and her feature stories on architecture and design appear regularly in the Los Angeles Times’ Home section. She is also a contributing editor to Garden Design magazine and writes for top shelter and consumer publications, including Organic Gardening, Horticulture, Fine Gardening, Cottages & Bungalows, Metropolitan Home, Landscape Architecture, Sunset, Alaska Airlines Magazine, Old House Interiors, Seattle Homes & Lifestyles and Romantic Homes, among others. Her website and blog: www.debraprinzing.com.

David Perry has earned his living as a commercial photographer for more than thirty years and in that time has been invited back to work, again and again, for some of the most demanding clients, magazines, ad agencies and design firms in the world.  He has successfully completed assignments in each of the fifty states of the U.S. and in dozens of countries in every corner of the world.  Based in Seattle, he fills out those essential non-career corners of his life as a cook, a fly fisherman and an avid gardener.

His thoughtfully chronicled online journal, “A Photographer’s Garden Blog,” melds his two interests – photography and gardening. David’s clients have included AT&T, Amazon, Bantam and Ballentine Books, Boeing, Costco, Farm Credit, Harvard Business School, Microsoft, PACCAR, Weyerhaeuser and many others.  Over the past few years his work has been featured inLandscape Architecture Magazine (including two cover features) and Sunset. David is a regular contributor to Range magazine and has collaborated with Debra Prinzing on a garden feature for Seattle Homes & Lifestyles.

Join us on our adventure, as we explore Getting From Here to There. Simply click on the links below and enjoy the journey.

Debra Prinzing & David Perry:  A Fresh Bouquet

Pam Penick : Digging : Austin, TX

Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT

Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In The Garden : Los Altos, CA

Jenny Peterson : J Peterson Garden Design : Austin TX

Susan Cohan : Miss Rumphius’ Rules : Chatham, NJ

Susan Morrison : Blue Planet Garden Blog : East Bay, CA

Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, 

Christina Salwitz : Personal Garden Coach : Renton, WA

Getting From Here to There can refer to the process of designing a garden – getting from ‘before’ to ‘after’, and everything in between. Or, in a more nuanced interpretation, it might refer to the never-ending pursuit of an ideal garden, one that is truly never finished.

Getting From Here to There...the possibilities are endless. And isn’t that what the Garden Designers Roundtable is all about?

Our Special Guests

Joining the Garden Designers Roundtable this month to give their interpretation of the topic are design writer, Debra Prinzing and photographer, David Perry, collaborators on the soon-to-be-published book, A Fresh Bouquet.

Debra Prinzing is a Seattle- and Los Angeles-based outdoor living expert who writes and lectures on gardens and home design. She has a background in textiles, journalism, landscape design and horticulture. A frequent speaker for botanical garden, horticultural society and flower show audiences, Debra is also a regular radio and television guest. Her five books include Garden Writers Association Gold Award-winning Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways (Clarkson-Potter/Random House, 2008) and The Abundant Garden (2005).

Debra is the new contributing garden editor for Better Homes & Gardens and her feature stories on architecture and design appear regularly in the Los Angeles Times’ Home section. She is also a contributing editor to Garden Design magazine and writes for top shelter and consumer publications, including Organic Gardening, Horticulture, Fine Gardening, Cottages & Bungalows, Metropolitan Home, Landscape Architecture, Sunset, Alaska Airlines Magazine, Old House Interiors, Seattle Homes & Lifestyles and Romantic Homes, among others. Find out more about Debra on her website and blog.

David Perry is an inspirational photographer, a willing teacher and a captivating storyteller who brings the unique insights and skills garnered in his thirty plus years of worldwide, on-location photo assignments for major corporations, ad agencies, magazines and book publishers to each new project he encounters.

The inquisitive son of a zoologist, David grew up in the field with his dad, trapping and preserving specimens for museums, exploring caves and studying the complex interplay between life forms and their ecologies from the southern reaches of Mexico to northern Canada. He began documenting his impressions of the living world around him with cameras at a very early age.

His very popular, A Photographer’s Garden Blog, which he started publishing in January, 2007 brings thousands of readers together each week through garden tours, thoughtful essays, seasonal imagery and playful photographic assignments and contests that readers actively participate in.

Onstage he is a spirited, dynamic and slightly irreverent speaker who makes his presentation topics memorable and relevant to audiences through the ample use of clever graphics, breathtaking imagery, playful humor, and by never, ever talking down to them.

You can find out more about Debra and David’s new book about seasonal, local and sustainably-grown cut flowers by visiting their website A Fresh Bouquet.

Don’t forget to stop back again next week, on September 27^th for links to Getting From Here to There. In the meantime, visit us on our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter

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