The Intersection of Art and Nature
By Lois Miller – Landscape Designer, Garden Consultant and Artist
Having spent 40 years as a professionally trained landscape designer and horticultural consultant I have stored up an extensive knowledge of landscape construction, working with clients on their properties and the applications of varied plant palettes for all types of gardens. I actually started gardening as a child becoming more and more fascinated with growing things. In conjunction I helped out in my families art and craft supply business learning how to make all sorts of decorative and useful items.
These two interests seemed to go hand in hand. Add the study of biology, botany and ecology plus art at junior college then the course load in Ornamental Horticulture at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, things really came together. Landscape Design is a unique combination of art and design, science, construction and business. I was just lucky to find a career that utilizes many of my interests.
Moving On
After retiring in 2023 I decided to work on expanding my web presence. I have a blog on Google blogger with the same name as shown above. I used it as an informational tool for clients.
But with more time now, I want to expand the products and services I put out on the web plus add photo galleries and informational materials for subscriptions.
The blog seems to be a great outlet for my inclinations to be an author- the post lengths being relatively short and are informational rather than plot driven! Web pages are ideal to share my many photos of plants, landscape materials and garden projects.
My daughters and I also want to add more to our Etsy sites (I will add a link to these sites when we update the Etsy stores).
The Etsy stores mostly consists of sewn and handicraft items but will grow to have fall themed items, a creepy Christmas section and nature crafts. You can see that I like to keep busy!
In addition I enjoy playing around with my cartoon- “Tomben Twerls” posted on Facebook and Instagram on public pages. Tomben is a woodsprite approx. 8″ tall. He lives in the forest adjacent to the urban sprawl. Check out his adventures. He is quite the prankster.
Endless topics to Explore
Horticulture, the science of growing, maintaining plants, is a vast subject. Add outdoor construction, garden art and projects, tips and information on plant selection and care, design ideas to enhance your outdoor living space, suggestions of public gardens and nurseries to visit, ecofriendly landscape info. and incorporating native plants- phew! There is indeed a rich and varied base of knowledge to cover.
As with all my endeavors my first intent is to be helpful and give constructive and applicable knowledge. Experimentation has led to a practical knowledge that backs up the suggestions I give. Gardening is always a learning experience but one of the goals of the site is to provide you with the knowledge to help guide you to success.
Check out the blog page for information on all these topics plus more. Follow the blog to receive a once a month email with the new blogs.