sinking the pathfinder.

Nandina, since when have you been so negative? As a total turn off the title of your thread takes the biscuit, would it have been more positive if you had offered your ideas on the subject (focal points not homework)rather than wrap it so unappealingly? One of the contributors used to post here rather than in the rarefied atmos of that elite round table. Are focal points all they are cracked up to be do you think?

And I just found interesting posts today. I better state leaving bread crumbs so I don't lose my way further.

A working link, I think:

http://gdrt.wordpress.com/

Why would you say it lost its way? It seems to be on the same course as before, going on about its business in a very spontaneous way without any design or structure.

I dunno...I thoroughly enjoyed the Victorian walkway thread. One needs to pick and choose...

I've got a couple of thread ideas but they are going to have to wait until it's not SPRING in the Garden Center...when I'm not at work I'm too mentally wasted to come up with a spontaneous thought. Just give me a couple of weeks!

Hi nandina,

A couple of years ago you gave me some great ideas to deal with the Canada Geese that think my lakeside property is their bathroom. We've been using monofilament line, as you described you had done on golf courses, with great success. It's not completely effective, of course, but WOW, what an improvement. THANKS!

The forum is definitely in what we could call a regenerative phase. I personally have never liked the theory threads, almost never read or contribute to them - my interest is really in learning about the principles through seeing them applied to real problems/solutions, and in helping people work through landscape problems or challenges. So unless people bring good problems, there aren't good discussions and there's nothing to learn.

But also, that's more time for me to do other things :-)

KarinL

Karin, ever since this forum began there has been complaints about what subjects are appropriate or worth reading and considering, some from me. In the end though, there is room for the practical and the theoretical as long as the forum is active we can choose what to get involved with and what to skim over. Periodically there are complaints that LDF is dominated by professionals, Nandina (a professional) seems to be making the opposite claim. I have known Nandina for some time and like lynnski says her experience and knowledge is invaluable if often unappreciated which is why her negativity saddens me.

I love Nandina's contributions, Ink, as they are almost always so fresh in terms of perspective and eminently pragmatic, one of my favourite qualities in people. And if people want to have theoretical discussions I have no objection; only that I don't think the absence of such discussions says the forum is going downhill. But it did drop the quality when we did lose most of our professionals a long time ago, and I am abjectly grateful for the the few of you that hang around.

Ironically, I'm just drafting what might be considered a somewhat theoretical thread opener.

As for negativity, well, we've all had our bad days.

KarinL

It is early spring. Every year it is the time when a ton of "be priveledged enough to design my no budget elaborate landscape for free" threads come out. I don't think it has changed much since the mass exodus a few years ago.

Many of the fun and informative personalities have taken up blogging as individuals and in groups rather than in open forums. That is good because it is a source for focused writings that stay on point and don't become corrupted. Those are great sources.

Open forums are a totally different animal where we are all subject to other people's comentary and a greater degree of vulnerability. There is some discomfort in that and certainly a lot less control of where threads will lead. Sometimes a consensus of nonsense builds, but the openess is what it is all about.

I really like it because it lets me know when I am not doing a good job of communicating, it points out when I'm wrong, and other people interact and reshape my perspective continually. Yes, there is a lot of stuff that is not worth reading or that is just plain annoying (myself included, I'm sure). It just depends what you want to get out of it and what you want to put into it.

It is a difference between reading or writing and true interaction.

I used something I learned on here just yesterday. Customer came in asking me to help her find a plant to hide her gas meter. I told her that many garden designers and landscape architects (I couldn't remember who said it!) believed that planting something just to hide it merely drew attention to the "eyesore" and that most people's eyes skipped over meters and such without their brains registering the meter's existence...unless someone went out of the way to "hide" it. Unless the meter was in the middle of an existing bed...so that the plantings looked like they belonged there.

Her meter was NOT in an existing bed.

(I'm pretty certain it was laag who wrote that years ago...but it might have been ink...or tony...or michele...)

Anyway...customer thought about it and I could see the light dawn. And she went away plant-less. Yeah, I lost a sale. But she'll be back to buy other things because I "solved" a problem for her.

I love what I learn here...and use it constantly.