Do you have kids?  I am just curious who does and who doesn’t….I have this idea that if I didn’t have kids my life would be so much more peaceful (less full and vibrant, but day to day more peaceful)….I am sure I am wrong in presuming that others might have something better — the grass actually isn’t greener on the other side of the fence….it’s an optical illusion…. but…if things don’t just slow down a bit I might have to hop the fence and run off to crazy-land.

The latest in my insane October…(just since my last whiny post last week) …Lice infestations (can you good-bye to two days; given over to manic combing, cleaning, laundry and general disorderliness?),  and Cat surgery — the vet said an ‘incision’ on his back….she neglected to mention it would be 12 full  inches long…. my stomach turns to look at it…the poor thing only weighs eight pounds — this kind of cut would put down and NFL superstar, a mighty soldier, even a bigger than life super hero….needless to say my kitty needs some serious nursing. Oh — and did anyone else notice that it is Halloween…the mother of all creative fun holidays?  We have created an Avatar, Hermione Granger, a Gypsy and some sort of Lenny Kravitz look alike disco guy….if you are interested, I can share pictures…

The weather has been mild and fall planting is still possible — bringing  clients that I just can’t handle right now.   I haven’t done it, but I am considering cutting off planting for my own sanity…I simply need the respite of a new season and the mild weather and lack of an early snow/frost isn’t giving it me.  I used to work for a corporate planting outfit that did just that — they cut off outdoor stuff in mid october to make way for holiday work… I think I need to adopt the same policy.  I just want this month to end. Do ever feel that way?

This garden however is feeding my creative juices and my desire to spend some time this winter planning my own garden’s next phases.   I find this landscape (created by the fabulously talented Acres wild) particularly inspiring  as it has a lot of similarity to my own (lots of hill side and steps, and lots of full sun or full shade areas  without too much in the middle)

Boardwalks and decking are appealing to me, as I have taken to building so many of my own garden features (in my own garden that is – not others — I put my clients in the more trusty hands of  professional contractors).  I am finding decking to be less hard physical labor than masonry.

How are you this last weekday of October….are you ready for Halloween?  Are you ready to move into fall more officially?

Take a look through the gallery of this wonderful project and see if anything inspires you.

Happily, I found a couple great ideas over at Readymade Magazine for using oil cloth in the garden. I have been thinking of making my own potato grow bags for next year — but I have to admit I hadn’t thought of perhaps using oilcloth to do it more interestingly. Now my mental wheels are turning.

The full instructions are available on the Readymade site. I wrote a post late last summer that rounded up a variety of oilcloth suppliers that you are welcome to re-visit. If you are thinking that you want to give this project a try, here is the link to that post where you will find some creative options.

Here is another handy little Readymade makeover for some less than appealing patio furniture.  I certainly think the after is much more charming than the original don’t you?  A little paint and oilcloth do the trick.

This is the picture that caught my eye….the mondian-esque steps with the gravel and the clumpy grass are perfect don’t you think?

But Potted, the garden store in LA that offers these beauties, also makes other designs and will work with a custom request.  Here are some of my favorites from their selection.

Here is the thing. I cringed when I realized that I had inadvertently signed up to post about Healing Gardens. What do I know about “Healing gardens”? Little. Except that most I see make me wince. It’s the overworked themes, twee fiddily-ness, garden junk, and green nooks that are often tortuously carved out of places that weren’t meant to be, that bug me most.  I am ever surprised by a truly inspiring ‘official’  “Healing Garden”.

Last month, I met a man who once had a client who was the heiress to a plastic empire. He told me this story:

This client, in her later years, suffered a stroke. At around 80 years of age, she was not one to accept anything less than 100% recovery. While she had healed to be back to nearly 90% of her original function she simply was not satisfied and believed that two things would restore the final 10%. First she partook of treatments from the famed local Maharishi Ayurveda Center (famed because the likes of George Harrison, Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, Julia Roberts and  George Hamilton have been rumored to have made visits).  And second, she must sit with her dogs in the ‘Healing Garden’ of one Clara Endicott Sears.

Never mind that in the mid eighties (at the time of this story)  Clara Endicott Sears had been dead for over 20 years and only the faintest of remnants of her garden still existed.

Seems the Plastics Heiress and Clara were of subsequent generations.  Clara was friends with the Plastics Heiress’s parents.  Childhood visits to the ‘Healing Garden’ stuck and in later years a firm belief persisted that a visit to this place would provide health.

All of this has me wondering ever more about Healing Gardens.  What makes them truly healing?  Is it because they are sited near a hospital, or a recovery center?  Or because they have themes about the cycles of life or religious symbolism? That they are handicap accessible? I think not.

A true healing garden has an indescribable sense of place.   It holds enough magic, mysticism and memory to make an 80 year old stroke victim jump a stone wall and trespass in order to sit in its ruinous state.

Now, blessedly, I have on my hands, the restoration of this particular place.  I am still trying to understand its appeal and meaning.   Yes, it has twee statuary (and some less so), it has some sort of symbolism in the layout (though I am yet to fully understand it), it has extraordinary vistas, and even an auspicious location, but I am beginning to think that the secret of its spirit is most likely found in the original purpose of Ayurveda.

It is a garden that is  not just content to improve the health of one individual, but is also designed to help create a healthy society.  It is a belief that each truly healthy individual contributes to producing a disease-free and peaceful, well-adjusted community, society and world.  I think Clara believed this deeply.  I think that true health can be had in a garden.  Which has me thinking that perhaps every garden, if looked at the right way, is a healing garden.

Make sure your check out more Garden Designers Roundtable-ers and their posts about Healing Gardens.

Naomi Sachs : Therapeutic Landscapes Network : Beacon, NY

Genevieve Schmidt : North Coast Gardening : Arcata, CA

Ivette Soler : The Germinatrix : Los Angeles, CA

Jenny Petersen : J Petersen Garden Design : Austin TX

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Have you seen this book?

The beautiful collection, created as a special feature for global post,  is best described by Beth Dow herself.

In Dow’s words: “These photographs were taken in formal English and Italian gardens. The shape and mystery of these places are a natural draw for me as they offer glimpses of the rich traditions of garden making. I am interested in garden history and historical concepts of paradise, and aim for pictures that have a meditative quality to reflect the spiritual urges that inspired the earliest gardens some six thousand years ago. My images are not depictive. I use the land before me as a jumping off point, implying light or shadow where perhaps there was none, as a way to create my own path through the garden. In fact, by positioning the lens, cropping my prints, and using burning and dodging to guide the viewer’s eye through a picture, I feel that I too am a gardener in a sense. I am after that “slant of curious light” that is the genius of a place.”

Makes me want, even more than I already do, to take more garden photography classes – and perhaps even some artful photo editing courses.

Towards the end of last week, things, once again, went right of control.   Do you need to know anything about asbestos removal?  Go ahead and ask.  After performing an emergency removal in my own basement (in order to allow the furnace install guy to finish his work and give us our heat back) – I think I can claim to be a minor expert.  Also, feel free to ask for details about throwing a pumpkin carving party for 20 kids and a VIP After Party.  But don’t ask about tumors on the backs of sweet little kitties, if I knew how to get rid of those I would do so immediately on my own sweet Chuck – hopefully saving his life.   Yes, last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were a bit too much – I really am ready for the quiet of winter.

This charmed me today, as I am finally, happily, sitting down to my computer….

Please accept my apologies for temporarily going A.W.O.L.

You can buy a post garden or find stockists for the post garden at their website.