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Sidenotes

By Peter Kidd, July 2010

"Poetry has its roots in feeling, sprouts in words
 Flowers in sounds, and fruits in meaning."
            Bai Juyi, 8th Century Chinese Taoist Poet

So, here we all are in the midst of it. Kerplunk, small stones in small ponds being tossed about. I can feel I am at the Autumn of this way of life. I don't want to build a website, I really don't want to design by cadcam. I only got a cell phone a few years ago, because my crew insisted. It is my original, cheapest possible; I doubt it could text, it is so old, nor do I want to text.

In thinking back, I started this business when interest rates were 24%. Many a Friday I went home with no work for Monday and hustled something up before the weekend was done. I would work on the job all day, learning the trade, how to truly do this or that. Then I learned to do things classically beautiful, and tiring of that, learned to hit flat notes and sharp notes - jazz it up a bit, use ghosts of formal gardening, as well as Oriental gardening and natural gardening. It is all a response to the client, the architecture, and the environment, as well as a personal stage of development. 

Leon Pearson drilled into my head: "Attention to details!" I took him seriously. I learned more about balance and negative space. And as I grew, I learned how big and what shape the individual plants would grow, and gained confidence in initially leaving space. I began to design "for keeps." 

Year after year I've been creating images, using materials, listening and watching effects, adjusting, enlarging my palette of plants. The knowledge truly is infinite, but that is good news. 

Anyway, here I am, celebrated my 63rd birthday, now have access to the planet Saturn's intelligence. I keep thinking about how to transition my life at this stage, though I do enjoy making gardens still. I wish there was a tad more dough around to do more than basic applications, but hey, whatever. I am creeping along, just barely staying busy, have more Bobcats than employees...anyone want to buy a Bobcat? I have from new to old and they all run well. 

It has been a genuinely wonderful way to make a living - and some art at the same time. I've raised a family, bought a house, educated the kids. "Turning stone into bread" and continuing to remain a beneficial presence is no easy task, and I tip my head and hat to any of you who have chosen and grown in this way of life. I always recall Palmer Koelb telling me 29 years ago "Plant people are pretty good people." I so agree. And masons are special people also, working with the skull of earth.

I still wake up in the morning having resolved a problem on a site in my dreams and wanting to apply what I saw, to actually see it. When we are good, we are actualizers on many levels at once, in consort with nature, or is it concert? m