Time passed. I built the wall along the edge on the lower half and started the wall abutting the covered walk that would enclose the intermediate part. This is as far as I got when I got interrupted by some now forgotten crisis du jour. The available stones were difficult to work with - the mason's rejects - and I seemed to always find some other thing that needed doing. The PVC pipe sticking decoratively out of the ground, for the future yard hydrant, added to the ambiance. The weeds grew and still we dithered.
Inspiration
Where does design inspiration come from? The answer is just about anywhere. It's not that you see exactly what you want and set about copying it slavishly - although that will work, too, sometimes. More often something you see will trigger a chain of thought that instantly reveals the solution to your problem - the proverbial light bulb turning on in your head. Usually, your final result will only vaguely resemble whatever the original trigger to your inspiration was.
Ideas are everywhere you look. They are particularly evident in other gardens and at the exhibits designed by nurseries and landscapers at flower shows. If you're looking around for ideas to solve a particular design problem in your garden, the best course to follow is to visit every garden you can; read every garden publication you can get your hands on and either go to the library or buy garden books to see what others have done. There are really no totally new designs in the world, simply different interpretations of solutions that have been done before.
In 1997, we went to the Philadelphia Flower Show and inspiration struck. One of the exhibits was a space about the same size as the intermediate level. A simple design of a central bed with surrounding walk and a bench which solved the problem of too much boring paving; gave me more places to plant and a perfect location for the sandbed I'd been wanting to make. Of course, it wasn't exactly what we wanted, but the concept could be transposed. I wanted raised beds instead of flush beds, for instance, and where the grass strip is in the photo, we would have an upper pond. We both got rather excited and I set about drawing up plans and calculating what needed to be done. I figured it shouldn't take all that long to accomplish. But, first, I had to get the ground cleared. There's always a "but first" to every project, isn't there?
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