Well, my father was a Landscape Architect and it does not surprize me
to have
some shared interests in landscape design. My forte, or strategy of
design is that
rows are the beauty. Single plants dotted here and there does not make
beauty. So for me, the ultimate landscape design is a solid area
filled with rows
of trees, bushes and small plants.

I like to accentuate colors. I like a row of blue spruce and white fir
with a row
of amur maples on one side and a row of silver leafed russian olives
on the other
side. So we see a contrast of red-orange-green-silver.

Then there is the row of white leafed willows with a row of russian
olives
and on the other side a row of laurel willows so we see a contrast of
white-silver-dark green.

Now it seems to me that rows of trees are faster to assemble in a
landscaping
than is rows of bushes or hedges. So I guess that the master
landscaper has
mature hedges as the pride of his work and it may take a lifetime to
achieve
master-hedges.

I have a lilac hedges and some buffaloberry hedges but would like to
see
my hazelnut hedges mature.

I tried raspberry hedges but my climate is too dry for them.

And I guess in the past centuries where fencing was expensive, that
many
societies used natural grown hedges for fencing. My lilac hedge does
stop the
Llama and horse from going through.

But there is one feature of my landscaping that was not included in my
father's
landscaping art. I have come to appreciate having animals graze on the
landscaping
grounds.

It has required me to take out the yew-bushes because I understand
they are
poisonous, although I hear that on the East Coast, the deer beeline
straight
to the yew bushes.

I have tried getting a mature yew-row, but we have alot of
"winterburn". So I
have to "wrap in plastic" over the winter.

The animals are a overall benefit to the plants because of their
constant manure
and fertilizer, especially the urine of its nitrogen.

So I am rather wanting of the animals in the landscaping, and they
force me to
clean up the "wild spots" as they wander into them and start eating
the grass
and weeds and brush.

I tried a Scottish Highlander bull this spring but found him too
destructive so am
waiting for a cow next year and will try to pasture the cow with a
donkey. I do
not want the animals to be lonely for they are social and need a
constant
companion.

I let the pony interface with other animals across the fence. If I
have the pony
with the donkey or Llama, the pony does too much running and running
hurts
the landscaping. And the pony loves a spot near a toolshed that has a
window
which reflects to the pony his body, so he is fooled in thinking that
he is near
another pony. So I will try to get a mirror into a window so the pony
is even
more calm.

So in landscaping with animals gives me the practice of getting to
know what is
best for all concerned, for the plants and for the animals.

Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies