Commentary from a  Master Gardner, hailing from Whidbey Island, Wa.
  
I have been enjoying your website and can definitely relate to many of the situations (regarding plants) you describe in your
 growing section. 

Since I've worked in in the plant world for so many years, I think I've heard every landscaper (or landscraper, as I call them) story
known to man. 

When I worked at the nursery, I really got to know the names, faces, and reputations/stories of all the local landscapers, and there
are a lot of them. 

I had to become a master of the tactful way to tell customers to stay away from certain particularly heinous  practitioners. 

There was one guy who put in a pond for this woman, and, since he is part  of a certain breed which preys on summer people and
weekend people (rich and politically correct all the way)(or, more dollars than sense) he told her that the more "natural" and
"environmentally friendly" way to put in a pond requires no liner, just rocks if necessary. 

Of course, she probably envisioned all that plastic she wouldn't be using and felt pretty good about it. 

Once he had this mammoth hole dug on the hill above her house, he put big (expensive) boulders and whatnot a round the edge,
planted a bunch of ferns he probably dug out of the state park and charged her a bunch of money for, and filled it with water. 

For about a week it looked very natural and pristine, a veritable postcard picture of "Wild Whidbey." 

Then, all hell broke loose as the tremendous weight of all that water broke through the side of the hill, and the pond drained --
downhill, strangely  enough, and filled the first floor of her home with thousands of gallons of mud and water. 

The boulders were tossed down like marbles and took out the supports to her second floor deck, collapsing it into a giant pile of
mud.

 What a disaster.

I went out to look at it and was just speechless at the damage, and the poor planning it took to make it all happen. 

But, this landscaper talks such a line of bullshit, you would think he was Bill Gates' chief designer and had done installations for
kings and presidents. 

When she told me she was suing (duh) the guy, I told her to get in line, because he has a legion of unhappy customers and
businesses after him.

What amazes me is that you can look on L & I's website and find out whatever you want to know about anyone  who has a
contractor's license in  the state,  but people don't want to do it.  They want to "trust" the guy (or woman) to do a good job
and make them happy. 

Or, they want to pay someone without a license, to make  it easier on their bank account...
which brings up a couple more of my favorite little sayings,

"Pay now or pay later," and "You get what you pay for." 

I always told people to ask to see other jobs and talk to other customers, and to run the other way if the landscaper balked at giving
out names and phone numbers. 

I think it would make a pretty interesting book, all those collected stories. 

Since I just do maintenance on existing gardens, I get to see a lot of interesting things people have had done. 

Sometimes I can just admire the results, since there are good landscapers around, but sometimes I keep the old brain cells busy
while I am weeding or raking or whatever by puzzling over what in the world was going through the homeowner's and/or
landscaper's mind when this or that was done. 

A lot of the nicer jobs I've seen done have been by people who knew nothing about it, but got so fed up trying to get someone to
show up, or were so stunned when they got the bid on the job, or so disgusted when they saw the results, that they did it
themselves. 

Those are the ones who usually become fellow plantaholics and really have fine gardens.

We hear a lot about the xeriscaping trends here, too, and it IS a good idea, since we are on an island with a very finite water supply, etc.,
but sometimes people take the term a little too literally. 

"Drought tolerant" becomes "never needs water" in a lot of minds.  An example of a typical exchange over "water-wise planting"
when I worked at  the nursery: 

Bellevue Matron:  " I need some drought tolerant plants for our new garden.  We're only here for 3 weekends a year,  
                                 so they need to be able to  make it while we're traveling or in Bellevue." 

Me:  "Ok, well, do you have someone who is going to be taking care of your garden?" 

BM:  "No, we don't want to pay someone when we're not here." 

Me:  "Well, you know, even 'drought tolerant' plants  need to be watered regularly
          for the first two  years to get them established." 

BM:  "What?  I thought they were ' drought tolerant!' 

Me:  "They are, but not until they have a good, established root system."

BM:  "But we get so much rain in the winter!" 

Me:  "Yeah, but the summers are very dry." 

BM:  "Don't you have ANYTHING I can put in that doesn't need water?" 

Me:  "No."  What I WANT to say: "The florist has some artificial ivy and flowers inside the store."


We also go through the "native plant" syndrome -- another chapter in the politically correct handbook for guilty weekenders
and summer people. 

They buy a wooded lot at an insane price, have it cleared of all alder, doug fir, red cedar, salal, huckleberries, sword ferns,
snowberries, and ocean spray, and then head to the nursery with the plan they just paid a fortune for from "Earth Harmonics".

They head straight for the alder, doug fir, red cedar, salal, huckleberries, sword ferns,snowberries, and ocean spray, not recognizing
any  of it from the their burn pile, but eager to have the carefree, wildlife-friendly natives!

I read your big trees section with interest -- up here, the winters are not so harsh, so trees will not die back to the graft, as they seem
to do down there. 

Occasionally, there will be a tree (like apricots) that prefers a harsher (drier) winter and will die, but most will make it if they are
well watered in the summer. 

Your purple robe locust probably died back to the graft, and then you got the species Robinia, which is white.