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"...if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong." (Buckminster Fuller)

..........Check out the New York Times - 1000 Gardening Questions & Answers book. It is a great resource with one limitation - every time a plant dies they blame George W.........."The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." - Albert Einstein..........Hungry for a math geek's take on the fidelity of the temperature readings used in the "Global Warming" debate? Check out "Our Climate Numbers Are A Big Old Mess" . P.S. Don't try these statistical manipulations with your tax return..........'Lavender Blue Baby' Daylily is the American Hemerocallis Society 2007 Stout medal award winner (be careful with it, it could make or ruin a garden)..........Any Guerilla Gardeners out there? (Guerilla Gardening: urbanites planting and caring for urban gardens on abandon plots). Check out YouGrowGirl.com by Toronto based Gayla Trail or CO2LED project from artists Jack Sanders, Robert Gay & Butch Anthony..........Next time your in Suzhou, China, check out I. M. Pei's gardens at his hometown's contemporary museum. He has so gracefully meshed the modern and ancient and the yang and ying that my suggestion for him would be this: Stay with architecture. The last thing us landscape designers need is another talented, insightful, well known competitor..........While Gertrude Jekyll is the most well known of the Edwardian English gardeners, perhaps Harold Peto's hillside gardens featuring steps and walls and terraces are a more instructive guide for the gardens of northwest Illinois..........Native plants can feed 29 times more kinds of caterpillars than nonnative plants (Fine Gardening)..........Had enough of the typical English Garden? Try the tour of the Poison Garden at Alnwick Castle in England. The garden is filled with poisonous plants (e.g. nightshade, devil's apples, death warrant, yew and monkshood to name a few). Strangely, my in-laws keep getting me tickets, so if you need some, let me know..........Can you imagine having a postmodern landscape that you have to see all the time (e.g. home or work)? Do postmodern landscapes bring joy to anyone? Discuss..........Need a salt tolerant plant? Try Bearberry..........Project Budburst tracts the timing of leafing and flowering of trees and flowers in an effort to determine any possible impact from any possible climate change. Check it out or help them out at Project BudBurst..........LSU & Penn State ranked as best undergrad Landscape Architecture programs in the U.S..........Blue Mouse Ears Hosta: American Hosta Growers Assoc 2008 "Hosta of the Year". Well named..........Nebraska Nursery Association Shrub of the Year (2008)? Euonymus atropurpurea (Eastern Wahoo)..........Nebraska Nursery Association has already named their 2009 plants of the year. While it kills the suspense, it was really the only way to contain the out of control wagering that ruined many a family..........Garden pest of the moment? Viburnum Leaf Beetle..........Geum triflorum (Prairie Smoke): Perennial of the Year 2008. It is hardy to zone 3..........Ostrya virginiana (American Hophornbeam): 2008 Tree of the Year..........Bouteloua gracilis (Blue Grama): Ornamental Grass of the Year 2008 (Nebraska Nursery Association)..........Weed control at Wrigley Field? They pull them by hand..........Oldest species of tree in Iowa? Eastern Red Cedar (at least 450 years old)..........The USGA announces that some putting greens are now being mowed at 1/10th of an inch..........We don't rent no pigs..........Got a moss jones? Visit MossAcres.com for moss starter kits..........Swiss economists find contractors (& doctors & mechanics & taxi drivers) are more honest when they are very busy..........Planning a Cottage Garden? Try incorporating small spreading perennials into a stone wall bordering the garden..........The Landscape Model in physics (a multi-verse explanation of the shockingly small observed cosmological constant based on string theory) is surprisingly more difficult than the Landscape Model in sod (i.e. "green side up")..........visit MinnesotaRocks.org for more info on the International Stone Carving Symposium..........Tasty plant that is hardy to -40 degrees? Try Nanking Cherry (prunus tomentosa)..........Noted garden designer Patrick Chasse' recommends planting the edges of your property with native plants so the landscape blends seamlessly with nature..........Martha Stewart's deer repellent includes cayenne pepper and white glue..........Beach Plum (Prunus maritima) is tasty and hardy to zone 3, but needs at least two plants for best results (no man or Beach Plum is an island)..........Although it is a boldly colored plant (yellow gold foliage with bright pink flowers) that needs the right surroundings (i.e. full to part shade), Dicentra spectabilis 'Goldheart' (Common Bleeding Heart) can bring punch to the darker sections of your garden. Use with caution..........Carl "Mr Flower Power" Linnaeus 300th B Day was just a while ago. For everybody who is not a complete plant geek, Linnaeus is the force behind the Latin naming scheme for plants. Visit Linnaeus 2007 or read "Linnaeus: The Complete Naturalist" (unfortunately, the only racy parts involve bees and pollen)..........Boulders placed in serpentine patterns in your garden can create surprise planting pockets, dramatic shadows and winter interest..........Perennial Plant Association plant of the year: Geranium 'Rozanne'. Blooms from late spring to mid-fall but is only hardy to zone 5..........Need a splash of early spring color that is short enough not to dominate the on deck flowers? Grape Hyacinth..........Pruning? Shrubs that bloom in the spring need all summer to produce flower buds for next year (i.e. get off your butt and get those lilacs pruned)..........Need a prepossessing Iris with the Vanderbilt colors for your alumni garden? Try 'Bumblebee Deelite'..........U of Illinois Extension Office tells us to prune back overgrown yews and junipers by 30% this spring and again the next two springs to get the plant to a manageable size. Yews have dormant buds along older stems that will grow new stems and foliage (i.e. yews will recover well from heavy pruning unlike junipers). Cut junipers back to green growth only..........Sophia Siskel is named CEO of the Chicago Botanical Garden. I am completely against this move by the CBG. My issue? She is younger than me by a couple years (otherwise I'm sure its fine)..........I'm just never gonna like "doubledecker" coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea 'Doppelganger'). It is just a little too "Three Mile Island / Marge Simpson's three eyed fish" for me...........Holy Mole Pepper named 2007 AAS Vegetable Award Winner. It is rumored that Holy Mole can be used in mole sauce..........The emerald ash borer, recently seen near Chicago, has offed more than 20,000,000 ash trees. The USDA is hoping a soil fungus can fight the beetle. Stay tuned..........I love the garden design theories of Tracy Disabato-Aust (The Well-Designed Mix Garden), but I don't usually enjoy her actual gardens. Is it me or her?..........The famed English Garden designer Beth Chatto has a "gravel garden" that has not been artificially watered since 1992. The garden is also cursed with low annual rainfall and terrible soil. Of course, her use of drought resistant plants is inspired. Jump over to bethchatto.co.uk for a look..........#1 amenity home owners desire in their landscapes? Outdoor fireplaces (source Garden Design and American Society of Landscape Architects)..........Funkiest use of box hedging in a garden celebrating the landscape of the Villa Ruspoli of Vignanello? The Latz family garden in Ampertshausen Kranzberg (Germany). O.K. - not a huge sample size, but it is still a great design)...........Love ornamental grasses that flow with nature? Check out www.rickdarke.com. He has been called a "Visionary Plantsman". This is almost as prestigious as my landscape title: Hillbilly Savant..........Green Roofs For Healthy Cities has released their annual Awards of Excellence. While the winners this year are stunning projects, does any landscape specialty get more meritless attention than roofscaping? It seems that, in the past, roof gardens were praised like first grade soccer players (i.e. everyone gets a trophy)..........The cicadas in my woods (2007) sound like Star Trek phasers..........University of Illinois Extension Office encourages us to water the garden before 10 a.m. Half of the water applied will be lost if you water in the middle of the day..........Yeah, yeah, roses are pretty and all that. But, customers (except for you gentle reader) constantly complain about the maintenance and problems. Well, if you must, click over to the Royal Horticultural Society's rose advise page (www.rhs.org.uk). This way, even when the roses look like heck, you can say that this is the way the Royal Horticultural Society says they are suppose to look.........."Every fall, we are out there, trying to reattach the face of respectability to our properties and our lives by patching, overseeding or completely redoing the ever-failing lawn. Seeking, in sum, to sustain the unsustainable" (Washington Post) or "(turf) an exotic crop ill-adapted to most American climates" (San Francisco Chronicle) - I know they mean well, but if you don't have a lawn, where ya gonna play football?..........Want the newest info on the best plants for this area? Click over to Illinois' Best Plants (The Chicago Botanic Garden). A great resource.........Best design advice ever? - "The bigger the space, the simpler the effect should be." (British landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith)..........Check out the American Society of Landscape Architects blog "The Dirt"..........Tim Thoelecke (American Academy of Landscape Design) has hit upon a basic landscape design truth - "In speaking with a colleague last week, we were discussing some new paving product being peddled by a reputable company. It has a nice-enough look and no doubt would look fine installed. Consider this though. Railroad ties and timbers were once "the thing." Remember the early concrete unit pavers? Exposed aggregate concrete with cedar decorative strips? How about segmental retaining walls? Show me one of those jobs and I can tell you when it was built. On the other hand, how about a natural stone patio? Or a walk built from traditional clay bricks? Those are timeless materials."..........Water trees and shrubs until the ground freezes. Evergreens will better survive cold winter temperatures if they have been well watered (Univ of IL)...........The world's largest indoor garden is under construction outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. More than 800,000 square feet of garden will recreate the evolution of plant life on earth. Think there is any money in oil?..........Fern Geek? (calm down, I'm one myself - not that that makes anyone feel better about themselves) Click over to the American Fern Society..........Animals eating your bulbs? Check out www.bulb.com for info on the least yummy bulbs (hyacinths are my favorite)..........Like homemade jams and jellies? Try the fruit from a 'Regent' Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia 'Regent')..........It is illegal in England to prune a hedge that contains a bird's nest that is in use or under construction..........Be on the lookout for webworms on birches, maples and crabapples. Webworms spin a web around branches and eat leaves. While the caterpillars that stay inside the web to feed are not fatal to the tree, it is best to prune the webs out (a gross job - get some gloves or make your kids do it (Univ of IL extension)..........Best time to plant winter radishes? Aug 31st. (Winter radishes will grow slower and larger than the spring variety)..........Run!! The Asian Beetles are coming soon. Yeah, yeah, they eat aphids off soybeans or something. Unfortunately, up to a quarter of the human population has an allergic reaction to them. Nothing better than the government making unilateral decisions to "help us". Run!!..........

Thank you for visiting the Timp Landscaping, Inc website. Established in 1992, we are a Landscape Design / Build / Maintenance firm based in Galena, IL (roughly 150 miles west of Chicago) and servicing the northwest Illinois, eastern Iowa and southwest Wisconsin area. Our work radius includes The Galena Territory (Eagle Ridge Golf Club), Apple Canyon Lake and Dubuque, IA.

Inside our website you will find photo examples (check out our Photo Tours section) and explanations of all the different types of landscaping work we do. All of the work photos on the site show only our landscaping work. The buttons on the left side of the page will take you to the appropriate section (e.g. Landscape Design). These buttons also serve as a menu of the landscaping services our firm offers. Some of the things we do that do not rate their own button (e.g. Ponds, Beaches & Docks, Under Decks, Fencing, Firepits, etc) can be found at Other Services.

If you don't know what you want or you are just looking for ideas or you wanna see if we know what we are doing, the Home of the Month, Greatest Hits (1992-2002) & Fresh Baked Landscape sections are great places to start.

As you can see, we are a full service design / build / maintain landscaping company (we are an Association of Professional Landscape Designers member). Whether you need a few weeds pulled or a complete landscape design / build meshing the hardscape realities imposed by the area's steeply sloped terrain with a garden design featuring four season interest, we can help prettify* it. Note: Please don't tell the other APLD members that we use words like prettify.

As you may notice when you click around (Site Map), our site is heavy on photos and light on explanations (if you have ever talked to Chris, you will find this rare economy of words refreshing). Consequently, we encourage you to contact us with any questions you may have (e-mail, fax or phone). Again, thanks for your interest.

Courtney & Chris Timp



P.S. A growing number of our customers are interested in using plants native to this area. We can help you with the entire process from the selection of authentic natives to the art of designing with these restrained plants. Planting with natives is a lot like being married to me: patience is required and the beauty is subtle. Click over to the Native Plantings section to get started.

P.P.S. Click the pic to view a photo of one of our landscapes as they appear this week, right now, today @ "Fresh Baked Landscapes". Latest update: February 7, 2008 (rural Galena): icy crabapples

P.P.P.S. If you are a landscape "Do It Yourselfer", check out the huge selection of landscape & mason stone we have available for sale at Hahn Quarry Products, Inc. At the Hahn Quarry website you can find veneer stone, flagstone, edging stone, wall stone, stone steps, stone benches, driveway markers, etc. Note to all the D.I.Y.ers out there: drop your shovel, grab your golf clubs and call us on the way to the course (or grab your Neiman Marcus card and call us on the way to the store) - in other words, always hire a professional.



P.P.P.P.S. Click on the pretty flowers to see some of the best work from our first decade in our "Greatest Hits (1992 - 2002)" section.

P.P.P.P.P.S. Every season we highlight a different customer's landscape in our "Home of the Month" section. This section is a great place to view complete landscape designs, to check out the quality of our work and to snoop on your neighbors.



P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Don't know what you should be doing this week to keep your garden looking good? Click over to the "Univ of Illinois - March Garden Calender". This calender is one of the most useful things any government body anywhere does, so please check it out.

P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Our prayers go out to the people serving in our military. Good luck and be careful.

P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. All original images and original written works on this website are copyrighted. Think & Create - don't steal.

*prettify vb (origin: 1992 redneck):  1. to prettify (all us rednecks already know what it means so we don't need no definition - duh) 2. to make beautiful and useful or to add beauty and utility to


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website design by:

Timp Landscaping, Inc.