Designing Driveways

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For good or for ill, we Americans do love our cars, our garages, and our driveways. We site our mailboxes so we can drive up to them. Many of us own homes that present the garage as the prime architectural feature. If you are in the fortunate position of being able to choose a driveway, I could make these suggestions.

drive4Consult a landscape architect or landscape designer about the drive; be clear about your needs. Do you entertain frequently, and need extra parking? Do your kids need a place to shoot hoops, and skateboard? A driveway that doesn’t work well for you can be an irritation you have to visit every day. Once the plan for the drive addresses your needs, then you are ready to plan for a beautiful driveway.
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At a Glance

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A Library

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A library is an important design tool.  A library can be as simple as a folder stuffed with pictures of everything you ever saw or read that you liked.  I find books irresistible, and I have collected them as long as I have gardened. They expose me to other people and places.  What I see when I read becomes a part of what I bring to my work. It reminds me that I am part of a community of a certain sort.  Would that someday I could write one essay the caliber of those written by Henry Mitchell.  The long time garden writer for the Washington Post, until his death in 1993;  his books I read over and over again.  To follow is one of my favorite essays by him-this spring it seems especially timely. His book, The Essential Earthman,  is a much have garden tool.book

Rob

rob2Anyone who has come to Detroit Garden Works the past 15 years has probably dealt with Rob.  He manages, buys, designs, arranges, and generally oversees the store. He does display, he pulls weeds, and waters. He arranges purchases from nurseries in Ohio, Tennessee, and Long Island, and every place in between.  He buys for DGW all over the country, and in Europe.  In recent years, he has made a concerted effort to shop our country.  We two agree that every city, every region in our country, has people making beautiful work. We just need to find them.  His latest purchase, custom made plant towers in a weather resistant acid washed finish that looks like lead. Many of them are his design, and they are being manufactured by a local ironworker.
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