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have. Helping them home in on the functions and services they want their landscape to provide brightly illuminates the next steps you take together. 2) "How much time per week do you like to spend garden- ing?" This gets at how much the clients actually enjoy garden- ing and how realistic their expectations of maintenance are. If their answer is "none" or "a few hours," I gently inquire as to whether they plan to hire help and what their budget might be for that. I want to design something that they can maintain without it becoming a chore or a financial bur- den. 3) "What do you have in place now that works well for you? And what bugs you?" A walk around the neighborhood together yields incredibly helpful information about the client's preferences. The Jenks Farmer approach South Carolinian Augustus Jenkins Farmer, known as "Jenks" (jenksfarmer.com) is the author of Deep-Rooted Wisdom: Skills and Stories from Generations of Gardeners (Timber Press, 2014). In addition to being a writer, he is a speaker, an organic lily farmer, and designer specializing in environmentally sustain- able landscapes. "A lot of times folks come to me because a previous design didn't work out for them," he said. This could be because the first design was overly ambitious or expensive. Sometimes it's because the previous designer didn't really take the time or ask the right questions to find out what the client really wants. Farmer first tries to find out what the client knows about him and his approach, to assess if they're the right fit for each other. Both verbal and non-verbal cues come into play. "I have a gut feeling in the first 10 minutes if we have totally different visions, or if someone's not going to pay their bills," he said. If a rapport is established, Farmer asks the client, "What do you really want, and what can you hope to maintain? What are you dreaming of?" Farmer will "reign in" that dream by designing a series of plans that the homeowner can implement in stages. Stage 1 could be a small vegetable garden. Stage 2 adds fruit crops or a perennial border. Stage 3 could get into hardscape and woody plants. "The goal is bring them closer to their dream based on what they're willing to put into it," he added. To get at that essential maintenance question, Farmer asks, "What do you want to spend Saturday doing? How much time are we talking about? If I give you names of nurseries for the best plants, are you willing to go out to those places?" Then he asks clients about their background, like where they grew up. Jenks Farmer designed this low-impact installation using all small plants, no gas-powered equipment, no synthetics, no tilling, and no irrigation. The owner, a non-gardener, has little work to do. Taken from Deep-Rooted Wisdom. Published by Timber Press, Portland, OR. Used by permission of the publisher. Jenks Farmer, author of this new book from Timber Press, asks clients where they grew up, as this gives clues as to plants that might have emotional resonance. In addition to being a writer, he is a speaker, an organic lily farmer, and designer specializing in environmentally sustainable landscapes. www.landscapeirrigation.com June 2014 Landscape and Irrigation 15