Designing for Difficult Areas

For the show airing 4-25-09

When else in life do you get a prize for sharing your problems? 

I’ve certainly never seen a therapist and then subsequently received a cookie or a gift certificate in exchange for telling her about my woes. 

The priest has never handed me the keys to a new BMW on my way out of Confession.

So it might be hard to wrap your brain around this one: sharing your landscape design problems can win you a prize.

I know, it’s a new concept, but it’s true.  Shawn and Blinda of Your Livable Garden radio show want to hear about your most difficult design area out in the yard.  Tell them how you solved it.  Tell them why you can’t solve it.  But tell them (with shawn@mirrorlakedesigns.com ) and you could win a free design from Mirror Lake Landscapes, Pools & Waterfalls.

Nice equation, right?  Spill your problem, get a design worth $1400…free.  That’s a big exchange for a little email.  And it’s happening because the hosts of our favorite show about outdoor living in Houston want to solve your design problems.

They should; they’re on the air 4 hours every weekend.  That’s enough time to plow through a lot of difficult design areas in the yard.  In fact, they cover a lot of typically tough places to design in this week’s show (which you can catch, as always, Saturday from 6-8am on KSEV 700 and Sunday from 10-noon on KNTH 1070.)

These are some of those places in the yard that make you just scratch your head.  What do you do against the garage wall?  In the side yard?  Well, if you need ideas for designing these areas, you can get all the information you need from Your Livable Garden this weekend.  These are those design areas Shawn and Blinda will be covering: 

• The drip line of the house
• Mail box and sidewalk  
• The place against the garage wall
• Between the house and driveway
• Side loading garage area
• Places around big tree roots
• Your very oversized lot
• Your existing pool

As always, Shawn and Blinda don’t fill up the entire 2 hours with their own wisdom—they bring in outside expertise through interviews with local, well, experts.

Jimmy Turner, Senior Director of Gardeners at the Dallas Arboretum (www.dallasarboretum.org) returns to the show to give us ideas for plant combinations.  This time his combinations are for those places that are the most challenging to plant—in wet shade, dry shade, and among tree roots.  You’ve had a hard time with these areas, too, so be sure to listen in to what he has to say.  With a title like Senior Director of Gardeners, you can be sure that Mr. Turner has good ideas that work.

We also hear from Bob Borta of The Brass Baron company. Bob describes for us the detailed process of creating the stunning brass statues and fountains his company provides.  Talk about difficult design!  The process his company follows to create their products is a complicated, perfected set of steps.  Check out their beautiful work at www.brassbaron.com .

And once again we hear from Sarah Pounders for more creative, interactive garden activities for parents and kids.  This week she shares ideas for making bean tepees and sunflower houses.  You know your kids loved her Field Journal project, and we couldn’t get enough of her ideas for natural Easter egg dyes, so don’t miss out on her newest activities!  And you can check out www.kidsgardening.org for more.

Difficult design areas—solved.  More great interviews.  And a contest to win a free Mirror Lake design!  It’s another show packed with information you’ll really be able to use. 

And though Shawn and Blinda mention it on the show, don’t forget that they spend their weeks running that little award-winning company in Spring, Texas: Mirror Lake Landscapes, Pools, & Waterfalls. 

Maybe you’ve recently had a design drawn up for a pool or a front yard planting or an outdoor kitchen.  Have doubts?  Not really sure if it’s what you want?  Call Blinda at (281) 350-0515 and she’ll set up a time for Shawn to talk to you about your design.  It’s free, it’s just 15 minutes, and he’ll review your design and talk to you about it.  Why not try it?  He’s got 23 years of award-winning experience under his belt…he’ll tell you how your design could work or how it might work better if changed.

And in the meantime, turn on your radio, and sit back to listen in to this week’s Your Livable Garden.