Although I'm no expert in landscape design, nonetheless many of my friends asked me for landscaping ideas on a regular basis. I think it is just that I give good advice. At least that is what I tell them my secret is. In fact, there is an even more simple reason for it. I look at a lot of landscape pictures. Ever since my parents started taking me to the art museum as a kid, I always liked landscapes. My favorite images were the pastoral scenes. I loved looking across a field with woods in the background, or out at a sun set over a lake. I had no preference as to medium. It could be done in oil, acrylic, or just done as a landscape photo. For me, anything that captured a still, beautiful moment in the outdoors was good enough.

I was about 12 when I started thinking about landscaping design. My parents always recruited me to do the weeding in the garden, but one day I outdid myself. I actually rearranged the garden path without asking. My parents would have normally been mad at me, but my landscaping ideas actually turned out very well. The garden looked beautiful, and they couldn't complain. After that, I was given charge of all the gardening chores in the house.

Nowadays, I like to put my own landscape designs into practice. I have a lot of different landscaping ideas. Part of it is that I read landscape magazines. Every time I see something that really catches my eye, I try to do it in my garden. Unfortunately, I have a limited amount of space. As such, I have certain friends I like to call up and recommend new ideas to. If I don't have the ability to do it myself, I try to get other people I know to do it. I know it is kind of silly, but people are usually happy with the results of my landscaping ideas.

I have even started using landscaping software lately. At first I scoffed at the idea of landscape design software. I preferred to plan everything out in my head. As my landscaping ideas got more and more complicated, however, I realized that I could get a lot more done with the software. After all, it allowed me to draw everything out precisely. Nowadays, every landscaping idea I have gets the computer treatment before I try it out.