[Jay Smith]

Samuel I’m curious as to what your classmates went into to and how they broke into those areas?  I’ve never understood how people transition into other fields with this background unless they have friends who help them get a foot in the door somewhere.  99% of the general population hear Landscape Architect and think we are just glorified gardeners.  Just wondering what your friends did.

[Jay Smith]

I’m in a similar boat as you and I can confirm that you aren’t alone.  The market for L.A.’s really never recovered from 2008 and I suspect that those with experience are at a disadvantage to those with little experience who can be paid lower salaries, are more hip to the latest 3d graphics software coming out of school, and don’t have to be untrained of habits from previous firms.  

You mentioned you were considering an MBA.  I’m curious as to why this is something you are considering and what do you think you would do with it?  From what I’ve researched on MBA’s, it looks like something that would be more valuable to someone who is trying to move up within a specific field.  I’m not aware of any L.A. firms looking for people with MBA’s.  And if you used it to do Management Consulting in another field, I would think your background as a Landscape Architect would be a hard sell to those looking to hire you for your services.  I could be all wrong on this, just sincerely interested in how you would plan to use it.

[Jay Smith]

It seems as though more employers are requiring, or at least preferring, that applicants be licensed when running ads for experienced people.  I’ve noticed this more and more in the past couple of years with the job ads I’ve seen.  Maybe it’s because there is a glut of qualified applicants out there and they feel they might as well try to get the most qualified people they can find?  I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, has anyone else noticed this trend?

[Jay Smith]

Craig, I hear you about the natural deep edging being the best way to go and 99% of the time that’s my preference, however with this particular job (it’s a small job on a tight budget in Florida) the existing turf is not in the best condition.  It’s St. Augustine that was put down years ago over poor soil conditions without an irrigation system.  The soil itself is extremely sandy and makes for a sloppy edge, even when edged regularly.  I’m just thinking the steel edging would help the curvilinear bedline hold it’s crisp edge over time, and could be relatively inconspicuous if installed deep enough.  The chopped stone might be a possibility depending on cost, but I really don’t want an edging that becomes such a dominant element that it detracts from the overall design.

[Jay Smith]

I think after looking at the prices of PermaLoc I’ll be looking at steel edging instead.  While I’m sure it’s a good product, I’m doing this on a budget and I think the look of steel will suffice.  Hopefully installation isn’t too much more difficult.

[Jay Smith]

Because it’s a rock bed and I’d like a cleaner, more well-defined edge for that particular bed. Plus it’s a homeowner doing self maintenance, not a commercial maintenance company coming in every week.

[Jay Smith]

Thanks for the recommendation Daniel and Andrew!  Are there any common installation mistakes with this product I should be aware of?

[Jay Smith]

Thanks Andrew, that helps alot!  Is there any reason to think this couldn’t be done by a DIY homeowner?

[Jay Smith]

Bump.  Anyone bored on a Friday feel like a little edging discussion?

[Jay Smith]

I’ll check those out, Thanks for the tips.

[Jay Smith]

It runs very slow or stops working momentarily.  Do you have any recommendations for those four factors you mentioned?  I was thinking of spending around $1000.

[Jay Smith]

What are the biggest factors in getting SketchUp to run at peak efficiency? Is it just the graphics card and RAM? or is there more to it than that?  My work computer locks up a lot with SketchUp and it’s a fairly new machine.

[Jay Smith]

Sorry I’m a little late to the party here, but is the installation something a homeowner could handle?  I need to do about a 30 foot section that will have some curves.  Do these steel or alum sections bend and shape fairly easy?

[Jay Smith]

I really wasn’t asking what people are using in the office. No wonder you don’t like to play this game, you’re not very good at it. 🙂

[Jay Smith]

Jason I’ve had some mixed results with digital print shops.  When I’ve printed 11 x 17 portfolio pages with a combination of color images and cad, the color backgrounds, images and pictures look fantastic, but the black and white (cad) work wasn’t as good as what I’ve produced on a home photo printer. In fact, with the last batch of brochures, the cad work had a brownish tint to it and the lines aren’t as crisp.  Perhaps this is a result of how I’m formatting the cad work? 

What I’ve done in the past is print my cad work as high quality adobe pdf.  Then open that pdf in photoshop, set the resolution to about 300, flatten it, and save it as a tiff before placing it in Indesign.  I then export the indesign document as a high quality pdf which is then printed at a shop.  What I’m going to try this week is just placing the cad work into indesign as a pdf instead of an image file, perhaps this will make a difference?  I think for me the allure of having a decent wide format printer is to avoid all the back and forth fine tuning of working with a print shop and being able to have total control over the operation myself at home.

I’ll be trying a new print shop this week which uses a Xerox Docucolor 5000.  Perhaps I’ll have better results with cad pdf’s.

[Author]

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