It's a New Day... a New Year... Hello 2010!

It's the last day of 2009 and the 'dead' of winter.... but the promise of Spring and a new year is already present for me (as I'm sure for many of you). It has been a challenging year... certainly it has given us the opportunity to appreciate how fortunate we are, what really is important, what we may have taken for granted.

I find it interesting that the beginning of the year does not find us yet in Spring, the time of beginnings, but instead in winter, a time of death, ending, of hibernation and gestation. I suppose it's one way that life has of telling us that this period of death is an important part of the process and must happen before new life can emerge...

I do my best to respect the cycles of life. My work designing and caring for gardens helps to reinforce that concept and certainly to see beauty in each season... yet it is sometimes so tempting to want to leap forward and to forget the process of gestation...

Since I decided not to publicize my blog but to a small circle until I had at least two entries, January 1st 2010 is like Spring to me... something inside me is being born... my gestation process already completed in this regard. Interesting that numerous cycles at different stages are going on simultaneously and all the time within us and in the world...

But the cycles of nature stay true...

I wish you a good gestation this winter, and also a little promise of things to come this year - of newness, of freshness, of enlightened beginnings.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A Blog is Born.... Fall in the Garden

Though fleeting, fall is one of my favorite times

in the garden with its myriad of burnt & vivid

oranges, reds golds and yellows against the green

backgrounds of evergreens... so rather than

the normal introductory first blog, which will

come later, I'd like to take you through the

garden gate with a little fall garden tour...

if you would...

The glorious fall color of Japanese Maples growing in

a quiet corner of the property of 'Love Apple Farm',

whose main focus is to provide food for the gourmet

restaurant 'Manresa' of Los Gatos, CA. More on this

inspiring place in a future post.

Japanese maples are a favorite tree in every

season. They are becoming my specialty when
it comes to aesthetic pruning (see the articles
section) Looking forward to pruning the Love
Apple Farms maples soon.

Designing a garden with seasonal interest

(interesting things going on in every season),

is one of the fun and involving challenges that

we as designers have the opportunity to face

time and time again. It is very rewarding work.

Autumnal interest in a Japanese style garden I designed and care for...

Thank you for visiting!

Wherever you are this fall, I hope you are enjoying

the season. I look forward to exploring the world of

fine garden design, fine garden care, aesthetic pruning,

bringing the inside out and the outside in to homes,

sustainable and green solutions, caring for the planet,
nursery and horticultural travels,

and the explorations and challenges of a single,

female artist/entrepreneur as she survives and thrives,

creating bounty and success in a business she loves...

as her profession and the world change at a rapid pace.

Questions for my readers:

What are your favorite trees for fall color?

What are you looking for in your garden?

What subjects would you like this post to cover?

How do you feel about the gardens shown on this post?

Feedback is welcome and I look forward to having you

back to visit often.

Judy