Todays world is full of new or seemly new concepts in landscape design, but the most conmen thread though every elment of these "new" designs is the ease and beauty of the finished layout. How much work will the finished design take to maintane? How much watering will it take to keep the plants producing? How much furterizer will it take? Many other questions pop into ones head as you veiw images of project designs of others in maginzes, books and on TV shows such as Gardening by the Yard, and Victory Garden. We all have seen the big visions of beauty that took many years and much time and money to create. But what is never spoken about is the mistakes that were suffered though on this path that preceded the finished product. What plants had to be moved because they were dieing where they were because it was shaded or to wet or any number of other reasons. They don't tell you about the failed atempts, this learning curve that everyone "grows" through because maybe they desire to make their designs to look effortless. I belive that it is in these little misgivings that the real interest and grace of these projects can fully be seen for what they are, man's attempt to create heaven here on earth.

Another topic or catch phrase that is now gaining popularity is "Soil Reminalization" though natural methods and though natural materials. What is this? and How can this be done?

What it is, is the natural process in which mother earth uses to bring to the surface of our planet deep earth elements, minerals and mixes them up and breaks them down to small enough particals that plants can readly consume, thus causing them to flurish.

How is this done? It is done on a planet wide basis though a scary bit of earth activity called volcano eurptions. That lava flow and those plastic flows are super heated deep earth minerals combining and mixing with surface materials that are tearing themselves apart into very fine dust particals. This is the basic building blocks needed for plant growth and substainability.

In future blogs I will talk about this in more detail. Where this has recently happened and what noticeable effects if any this has had on the plant life there. This may surprise you....