Cleverly, I wait to take photos until managers have hands in their pockets. They claim that they do some physical labor to justify their paycheck, but no evidence is to be found. I have the excuse that my picture is never taken since someone must take the photographs. You must take my word that I work up quite a sweat when not photographing.

A simple fact of design of a garden show space is that objects are usually much larger in person than they appear on paper. Often the reverse seems true in planting a new landscape around a home. A simple six by eight foot structure nearly overwhelms a garden show space of six hundred square feet, and it could not possibly have been designed another foot larger without wiping out hundreds of blooms that visitors attend to see.

Two large Colorado spruce and several Hinoki cypresses are more mass than a small garden would ever allow, but here we are looking to create a mature garden, not a realistic one. The densely branched evergreens conceal the curtains and products of neighboring displays, and I beg forgiveness for a design that I hope is pleasing while it is unquestionably a horticultural abomination.

Along with the spruce are five hundred forced daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths, and a hundred hellebores. Certainly, this is an adequate number for a garden five times the size, but if these were spaced to a reasonable distance apart I doubt that you would find it pleasing, and most definitely I would not. This is a land of instant gardens that are built by Thursday, and gone by Monday.