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I have found that simple asymmetric or symmetric landscape designs look boring. To me the designs in post 135 are typical of landscaping in every cookie cutter development out there. Its like the stepford landscapers association, all of one mind. These are meant to accentuate the house, not to feature a garden or integrate a house into a garden. Garden art does not have the house as the centerpiece, but part of the flow. And art changes over time as new creative approaches are developed. At one time impressionist works of art were considered junk and not permitted in la Louvre, and modern art had a rough road in the early days. To me the art of landscaping has a lot to do with departure from the common or ordinary and it includes detail that stimulates and captures the attention of a more sophisticated audience but goes right over the head of the uninformed. Commercial landscaping (like pop music) needs to appeal to but not overwhelm the common homeowner(listener) and by doing so will likely lose the interest of the more sophisticated gardener. This doesn't mean that basic concepts aren't useful, but it does mean that the most interesting "designs" to me are NOT the commercial ones for the masses. I prefer the approach where my view out from the house takes preference to that of neighbors of visitors looking in. I do laugh though when I see someone putting a bizzy right in front of the front door, this is a mistake on many levels.... I do agree that these are good concepts and rules if you want to sell your house..... but I have no intention of doing that with all the work I have put in my garden. I actually find the house and landscaping in post 141 hard on the eyes..... it looks in poor taste with little imagination outside the houses gaudy coloring, sloping grounds surrounding it, and interestingly shaped windows.... the yellow, gold, and red seem discordant with the subtle green landscape.

Thanks Lee, Some of the best gardens I’ve seen on PT are from HI with very nice tropical companion plants to go with their exotic Palms. Kim’s garden comes to mine but there are many others that are out of this world gorgeous. Yes I do have a few NZ flax in the garden, LOL! There about as common here as they are in CA. Here two pics from my garden back in 2005 with some of those big Flax’s, I took these out a year later since they would stop growing. But I do like the flowers so I keep some of the smaller ones around. BTW you’re the first person I’ve seen growing them in HI. 2005

Happy Birthday Milos! Ed

My wife Lee loves all of the new red fronds so we have a few in our garden. Unfortunately she wasn't feeling well and went to bed early so I've forgotten the species she told me on at least one of these. She is our resident expert - I dig the planting holes. Blazing red Chambeyronia macrocarpa Calyptrocalyx albertisianus Calyptrocalyx - oops can't remember what she told me. Dypsis pinnatifrons Hydriastele affinis Lemurophoenix Pinanga caesia Young chambeyronia macrocarpa when they were just in the ground.

Do it! Don't tell him do it, the tropical gardening community of Perth will suffer a huge loss! Actually that community only consists of approx 5 people, Urghhh, yeah, do it.

My Cocos loves me. It knows I will keep it warm.

I think its your Coco rotting already. I talked to it and he told me, "might as well die now, I wont survive anyways..."

I'm always ready. I say we talk about palms

Exactly, well said! Me too. I completely agree and as a landscape architect I rarely follow the "rules" because very few of my clients want average "blend in with the neighborhood" landscapes. It's important to keep in mind balance, harmony, and a sense of flow in a garden. Lots of gardens are full of one of these and one of those throughout and it can be chaotic to the eye and even disturbing to be near. You need a theme and repeat of given species of plants. This applies to a heavily planted tropical style garden as well as a xeroscaped yard or any style for that matter. Negative spaces such as lawns, pathing, patios, etc. are important in order to be able to enjoy the different aspects of the garden. My own house is very heavily planted but the front entry is visible from the street which I find important but you still come "into" the garden as you approach the front door.

Please tell me your just picking ugly house, ugly design, and ugly landscape just to be funny. This is so bad in so many ways. I would take the cartoon drawing over this crapmanship. If you think this is a master designer in home and landscape then that relieves me because now I know your basis on a good designer! Haha. I would love to post my front yard design up so everyone could give me their constructive criticitism. I'm by no means saying that I am a master designer at all-or even good, but I believe I have a good eye for what's right and wrong, and I am open minded to other options and ideas as I will be a student in this my whole life(always learning)and then like Len said, people have their own taste.

Exactly, well said!

Thank you very much friends! Ondra, I hope we will make a party in Sri Lanka next year (yes, with catfishes and oenocarpus) so I will show to you and Philippe my new jacket made of mole skin. Haha Milos

Happy birthday Milos! You have to make a big party with catfishes and Oenocarpus! Kindest regards Andrew

The thing is almost every person on this forum does not follow the "rules" laid out here, so to say those rules are some kind of fact on a forum of plant collectors is just odd. I would say that the overwhelming majority of people do not care about their yard. They just want something clean, nice and easy. With that Rob's yard idea works and works for resale as well. For the average person Rob is probably spot on. For a plant collector it is just not a reality. Rob I offended you earlier, I apologize, lets see your yard and you can offer me insight into my yard as well. You can see I have no diagonal corners and It looks like a mass of plants from the street. Once you get past the front planter it opens up to a decent size lawn. The walkway is offset so you can not see the front door, but the path is an easy transition to the front door. I tried to create the walkway so it followed somewhat of a natural path.

But not so fast; there are still attractions out front to view... Dean has several Ceroxylon species, and this is one of them..... and the trunk of a different one. Ha! Guess which is which! The tentative id of this palm is Ravenea monticola. Shady path past various palms including Rhopalostylis sapida, Howea forsteriana, Archontophoenix, and much more. Okay, back toward the house, another tiki sneering at our lack of palm id skills... But in this open atrium-like setting, the palms and tikis are cool, giving us a friendly welcome, along with the sounds of trickling water. Even the non-palm-fanatic guests were enthralled with this tropical ambience. Phil puttin' on his tiki face; a chair that begs you to be seated, and many did take a seat.

The board meeting took place on a shady raised patio. They were too consumed with business for a dip in the pool. Lounge chairs awaited occupants under a palm-filled sky. As you exit the garden, the signage would almost seem to give directions to the next garden...