toby

http://www.elnativogrowers.com/
Cercocarpus betuloides 1g available

Have you looked at the county website about the gis stuff they have available ? 

Yeah, speaking of discerning the differences… I remember a spring plant ID course that started when it was still winter, and we had to figure out if the buckeye was glabra, pavia, or sylvatica by the bark, branching, and bumps on the leaf buds alone.
Those teaching assistants were just cruel.  But I learned to feed the inner geek.

Unless the municipality is requiring retention/detention ponds, or stormwater treatment of surface contaminants, you’ll be on the losing end of the arguement for quite a while. 
You might also talk to the bosses – they may be quietly pushing the engineers back to the lowest liability solution.  Construction costs and long term maintenance are no…[Read more]

You better find out if those slabs are pre/post stressed and if the cable cells are grout filled, or if the whole thing is just rebar’d.  Something might go bang in a really bad way if someone drills into the structural slab where they aren’t supposed to.
It might be better to pour a floating slab (think anchor weight) and attach to that.
 
 
 

Back in the day when (if) I did this kind of stuff, pavements were warm grays 1 – 5 , darker at the edges, lighter in the middles.  The lightest color would go down everywhere with darker colors over still wet so bleed would occur. 
I did the same thing with greens for mass vegetation.  A dark dark green would then be used to make things pop – bra…[Read more]

I like this reply.

Where I work, engineers are in control of all programs and departments.  And it is unlikely they will cede responsibilities to non-engineers, even if the case can be made that LAs are better suited for things beyond planting and irrigation.
My opinion is a result of my experience.

Most DOTs have landscape requirements because the public/pols usually demand some type of aesthetic treatment…and since plans need to be stamped…
If one does get into a city or state DOT, the economic boom/downturn cycle is not likely to affect their job as much. 
And you might be suprised how difficult roadside design actually is.
 

I agree with nca777.  Take a few classes or minor in LA if the itch persists.
Where I work, LAs don’t do grading, drainage/stormwater, ADA, pedestrian or bicycle facilities, or any of the other things that allow the creative side to flourish.
Nope.  
Just planting and irrigation. And occasionally, aesthetics.
Such a waste.

…

and finally…

more stuff…none of these notes are valuable by themselves.
Read the books first without taking notes, then go back and reread them to take notes.  Interrupting the ‘story’ will hinder the learning process.
Project Management notes were taken for chs 1, 2, 5, and 11.  The other chapters did not seem to apply.
CSE notes are how everything a…[Read more]

Here are the cleaned up notes for Site Analysis.  I might have other stuff on the comp at work.
 
I absolutely refuse to look at the LARE youtube vid, only because of the horrible, horrible memories of studying.  Horrible, I tells ya !  Seriously, I took C and E consecutively only so I didn’t have to get back into ‘study mode’ six months after the…[Read more]

For A and B, I read: Construction Contracts by Hinze, Project Management by Ramroth, Ready, Set, Practice by Sharky, and Site Analysis by LaGro.  If these books are not at your local library, see if they participate in book loan program with cities/universities.  For just a few $, I got these four titles.  IMO, none of the books need to be collec…[Read more]

I had both James Hiss and storm’n Norman Booth for design/graphics studio at OSU.  Not sure one could get a better set of ‘doers’ than that.

I found this on a google search, and most of it seemed reasonable even for SoCal.  You’ll have to adjust things for Canada.
A basic job, such as having somebody create naturalistic garden landscaping, costs around $12 per square foot.  On a 50×50 foot yard, this would work out to a little more than $25,000.
Read the rest of the info at http://www.c…[Read more]

Yeah, I’m still the opposite.
The client lists the goals, and I cut them down to what [I think] is appropriate for their probable level of mainenance.  If they insist, I’ll oblige with the design, but they get an earfull of the costs and time involved on their end. 
I’ve seen too many water features that are nothing but calcium’d leaf colle…[Read more]

I planted a few at a job 10 years ago, on an east facing wall IIRC.  Picked them up from a retail nursery.  I have no idea how it is now. 
I don’t see it at any of the san gabriel valley growers, so it isn’t going to get spec’d on any job.  It is available at nurseries that my contractor deems too far away to bother with.
South facing is alw…[Read more]

Be sure the software license agreement allows you to sell it (or give it away).  You might want to find a different route (less public) to “disposing” of it.