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2.sorry, you sounded pretty bitter to me, and I was merely agreeing with the frustration of being a planner. I personally found it to be a really thankless job, for the most part..

1.And I was drawing up the plans in advance of their submission for these guys, so it was sort of fun as a new LA for me, so asa a planner, I was drawing up site plans…[Read more]

I used to meet with the developers and draw up their site plan for them on trace, nrschmid, as well as their (natives only – my choice..) landscape plans – they would thank me..it was way out in the sticks..But you do sound like the normal extremely bitter planner… planning is extremely frustrating, and thankless….Nothing like a Planning Board…[Read more]

Thanks, Les. I’ll take a look. I remember reading the book version of Last Chance to See when I was a kid, and was going through a Douglas Adams phase.

Hi,

There may be differences between planning larege and small pinetums and mixed arboretums. However, at all such tree museums here (and I have been to one in France too) there are shops both to sell plants, trees and other garden centre type equipment and souvenir shops which have some kind of history of the site in book form. Often these are…[Read more]

Hi Erdal,
I worked in the arboretum at Michigan State for a few years, and the University of Michigan has a really nice one as well. Here are the links.

MSU Arboretum: http://www.hrt.msu.edu/clarence-e-lewis-landscape-arboretum/
U of M Arboretum: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/mbg/

I’m sure there are larger, more extravagant ones, but these are both…[Read more]

HI, there is a shop on the BBC TV website which commissioned and showed all the Attenborough series. I think some clips are availabl on utube but, as the BBC would sell their undies for sufficient inducement, I cannot imagine their not facilitating your purchase of Attenborough series direct. Google BBC TV and follow your nose from there. While…[Read more]

And of course, as has been mentioned in these forums often before, definitely check planning jobs – LA is directly applicable, no registration required, and some of them can be even somewhat interesting, although as a planner one has to be political and reticent as to ones own opinions..
But one does get to review a lot of stuff going on, and in…[Read more]

Never heard of this, although of course familiar with Attenborough..Thanks!!!

I did not read thru every reply, so if I am repeating something said previously I apologize.

We get resumes in the mail and in email we put them on file. The ones that impress us the most are the ones that research our firm, find out who is the person to talk to, and walks in the door to shake hands and express interest. Even tho firms are not…[Read more]

Thanks Roland, those are awesome!

The University Of Gloucestershire accepts foreign students. Ive recently graduated from there it was cool.. Brodie one of the senior lecturers practiced in the US i seem to remember contact either him or dave booth bmcallister@glos.ac.uk dbooth@glos.ac.uk

http://www.glos.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/laa/Pages/entry2010.aspx

I have been messing wit Revit for a little bit now am pretty impressed. It will be an excellent LA tool with a little bit of work. The ability to import terrain from other applications is good though editing in Revit is a little bit clunky at this point. I think that the only thing that really needs to happen is that introduction of landscape…[Read more]

Nick S, I agree with you about the alternative career thoughts. It’s something that I’m constantly thinking about. These cyclical swings that seem to hit our profession very hard are very unsettling. I’d like to think of having a family one day, and I’d hope that I wouldn’t have to worry so much about the next ‘big one’.

Nick and Nick, what are…[Read more]

The only thing that has ever worked for me is just plain dumbass luck – the right place at the right time..it helps to be really good looking, but I have not been able to take advantage of that..that is all! I would apply for jobs in China or Dubai..seems like the onlyl sure thing to me, right now..

That is part of the issue. We receive on average 15-20 inches of rain a year here. To me, that is enough to justify inspection. I think the biggest issue is that their is a lack of inspection in many different areas here.

Yeah, plastic sucks! I have been to many projects where plastic was used by the previous landscaper and it is always a pain in the butt. The plant roots are almost always right on top of the soil and there are never any deep roots. It almost always ends up showing and it doesn’t allow any organic matter to break down into the soil like you said.…[Read more]

Ryan, thanks for your encouraging words. I’m curious about the ‘showing up’ method though. Can you elaborate somewhat on how that worked for you? Did you show up unannounced to random firms? Did you know anyone in those offices? How was your unannounced arrival received? How many places did you visit in this fashion before someone showed a genuine…[Read more]