Watching an Expert at work

 Francisco took us to a nursery in San Ramon today. He showed us plants and trees he feels would look good and asked us what we wanted in our yard. I only knew a few names of plants that I like and he took any idea or thought and ran with it. He has an artistry in his mind that I cannot see. I know I like lavender and now we have lavender plants and then yellow leaf plants that will look good with them. Some pinks and whites, a few bushes and four new fruit trees. - but it is hard for me to see what he is trying to describe.

He was also showing us how he could get the best plants for the best price and was very picky on which pot had good plants. He showed us a couple of plants that wiggled too much and were not firm. He said they wouldn't grow well when transplanted. He showed us the five-gallon versus the fifteen-gallon buckets and showed us how the five-gallon bucket with a cheaper price had the better tree.

It is nice to watch an expert get excited and do his thing. His artistry came out when he was "drawing" up the little piece of lawn for the backyard. He asked about how much yard we wanted and then curved it up to match the curve in the cement - right in the dirt.  He is very particular in executing when we give him a vague general plan. He can turn it into something very nice.

Here he is comparing and showing how the smaller bucket had a bigger tree. 

Francisco was very particular about exactly which plants he wanted.

Taking out the buckets from the truck to scan, price, and check out to buy them, then load them for travel.

92 pots, three trees, 5 to 10 bushes, lots of grasses, all ready to go......we'll watch Francisco 'paint' his vision of an artistic yard in the next few days.