The square foot landscaper is responsible for most of the lack of intelligence and interest in the natural world in our own backyards. A square foot landscaper designs by measuring the mulch, the sod, the number of sprinkler heads, the length of edging, stone walls, the number of shrubs on the foundation, the tree in the front and backyard. There is no consideration for creativity natural features, where is the sun rising and setting which way does the breeze come from, where is the kitchen window, how will I move through the garden. The simplest distinction could be landscapers and gardeners. It is quite amazing how many square foot gardeners know absolutely nothing about horticulture, taxonomy, botany. They go to the nursery with a list of needs, “I need six shrubs that grow in the shade and will get so high and are drought tolerant” Many Squarefoot landscapers do not even know botanical names history country of origin for plants. The question is how with so little knowledge a landscaper can do a competent job, a creative job with so little knowledge. The answer is the customer knows less than the landscaper.
What I hope to explore here is how can we redirect our attention away from landscaping and to gardening so that we can reap the benefits of our natural world
What defines a landscape in terms of maintenance is lawn mowing blowing driveways, sidewalks, repairing sprinkler systems, mulching trees and beds, and trimming trees so that there are absolutely no dead branches. What defines the maintenance of a garden is usually hand weeding trimming back overgrown perennials removing dead flowers, seeding for the next season and planting where there might be empty spaces. Landscapes usually need to be maintained constantly to keep everything looking the exact same while gardens constantly change. Landscapes are defined by hard monotonous labor while gardens are defined by musing and decision making planning preparing. Gardens are designed to give repose and solace while landscapes fill the need to look a certain way to express a certain ideal, to transform the exterior world into a conceptual space. In nature things expand or contract they never stay the same this is represented in the laws of thermal dynamics. Only man would try to keep the land in stasis.

The natural world as garden of eden.
I have traveled quite a bit and have never seen any part of the natural world that didn't’t have some interesting aspect. Desserts, forests, barren beaches, tropical jungles, grassland scrub all are interesting if you look closely. Man made landscapes are usually the most uninteresting places on the planet, parking lots garages, alleys, landfills, overgrazed pastures, over farmed fields, feed lots, under bridges. Man seems obsessed with vacuums while nature abhors a vacuum. Nature is always filling every nook and cranny with some interesting living organism while man seems intent on removing every complex system and replacing it with a simple single purpose system such as straightening a river or putting creeks in drainage ditches or planting mono tree plantations. The intelligence of the natural world is being lost at an alarming rate. The intelligence is that which informs us how ecological systems work how the geology and biology work in harmony to create the environment we live in.
The natural world is a work in progress and conversation between geology, biology, climate, solar and lunar events, and of course anthropology (the influence of man).
Our gardening can make us part of that conversation where we inform and are informed by the natural world about our own well being. If we look at the geology of our region