What Would Eve Do? Ketzel's New Garden
Name That Series!
What series, you ask? The series beginning today, right now, here it comes...as I reveal just how wretched my side garden looks, take you step-by-step through my re-design process, and emerge at the other end with an urban courtyard that suits all my criteria.
Criteria #1: A Life Without Shame.
So consider me "out", a plantswoman with a barren garden, which isn't just in its winter doldrums, oh no. It's looked this way since the fountain went in last summer. Alright, it's looked this way for a while. Two years, ya' happy now? I have nothing left to hide — at least nothing left I'm crazy enough to reveal — and so we begin to take stock of what we're working with and get started with our design process. But first, we need a design series name!
The garden seems the classic courtyard, only 12' wide and 30' long. Its centerpiece is clearly the three-spouted stucco fountain. That's a story unto itself, which I look forward to going into later in this series — the design team, process, pix, price, the whole shebang. Today, though, I'm meeting with my design collaborator Nani Waddoups — the woman who helped me choose my house colors, and who I must reveal as a very close friend — as we get a few ideas and considerations down on paper.
Nani is excrutiatingly organized and detail-oriented, so I'm going to our meeting with nothing more in my head than a few years' worth of fantasies and a strong desire for change, trusting her to scribble it down and turn it into the beginning of an action plan.
As for Criteria #1, consider it addressed by the launch of this series. No more shame! But now I need your help. What is this design series' name? Your options do NOT include:
A Garden Makeover
Designing A New Garden
or any such boring invitation to what promises to be a lively process for all of us (and a savings account buster for me). My first thought is The Druthers of Invention, but no way will my cheery/cheeky web producer (have you met Wright?) use it.
But he might use yours...
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Here's the new name for your series:
Le Vines De Lavine!
Creating an Uncommon Courtyard
Ketzel's Uncommon Courtyard
Clever Courtyard
what about, Stucc-o' with this space
Cheeky, Gary; classy, Pat; very clever MB!
The Lonely Fountain Project
Ok - here is my first go
Alley Allee
(there would be an accent on the first e of allee, can't seem to do it in my keyboard)
Why you ask? Well, you have a narrow bordered space - both words can apply. Alley has a vernacular, informal feel to it, while allee is a more formal and classical word/form. That way you have options and a full design spectrum to draw from. Further the word allee sounds the same as allay - which is what you are doing to this space - setting to rest the ugliness and disuse of the past. Also, it kind of sounds like the finale to a great song.
That's it for now...
"Come into the Garden, Maude"
If Kailla seems like she knows what she's talking about, it's likely because...SHE DOES. Alas, my dear landscape architect friend, it just doesn't trip well off the tongue. Say it several times fast and it sounds like yodelling!!
Dormancy to Exuberance
Bloom with a View
You're right about the yodelling - or something you might holler at a bull who wandered into your garden. I'll keep thinking...
How about The Icarus Project--it looks as though this garden got its wings burned by flying too close to the sun.
Along those lines, The Garden Phoenix would work, but people might associate that with the Arizona Phoenix. Either way, it's apropos. The garden's previous life cycle is obviously played out and the ashes are ready to give rise to the new phoenix.
Never ask a geek nothin'.
How about:
Green Dreams
Garden Galactica
Love Lies Blooming
I've always adored the plant name "love lies bleeding," somehow reminds me of a quiet medieval cloister garden; and you've got the nice juxtaposition of something coming alive - blooming - from where it lays in its current state.
Backyard Renaissance
Or, if you put in veggies,
The New Garden of Eatin'
Dirty Designing Woman
Clematis Envy
This Good Earth
Dirty is the New Thirty
My Other Yard is Fabulous
Talking Dirty with Ketzel Levine
Green Incarnation
What Would Eve Do?
Ketzel's Transcendental Vegetation
Coming To Terms with Terra-Firma
OR
Terms of En-dirt-men(In-Dirt-Ment)
Finest Bliss
Hmmm, I gotta say, I'm leaning towards WHAT WOULD EVE DO as a series name. Just leaning, mind you, no decision yet...
Ketzel:
Did you move? Didn't you engage us in a site design of your property back in 2001?
yard-a-rye
garden-awry
-you get it...teehee...
emmmm...that's all I got
Neglectful Gardener
I always thought this would be a good idea for a show about low maintenance gardening.
Garden of the resplendent Ketzel
The Garden Phoenix -- Rise Up from the Ashes!
From Blight to Bliss
But really I like the one about Eve.
Such pure potential in that space, beautiful.
Does Ketzel translate into something? Levine, the vine is kinda cool.
Green expectations: a fountain diary
Saving the Dogged Garden
The Awakening Garden
I understand not wanting anything too mundane, but please don't over complicate things either. While I know NPR listeners are of above average intelligence, many of us are just normal folks leading normal lives.
Many of us have spaces in our yards, especailly side yards, that are nasty little areas. Good luck turning yours around.
I put forward: Pardon This Garden
Aside Project
Holding Court
My secret garden
How does my garden grow?
Garden garden of my
How do thy vines grow
Where do thy flowers go
Somewhere there is a trellis to climb
Somewhere there is a ray of sunshine
Sweet garden divine
how about, "make it grow"
Green by Design
A Garden is a Journey
name that series...
possible name:
repairian zone
How about "From the Ground Up"? Although "What Would Eve Do" is quite amusing.
dirty hands are the gardener's work
A New Leaf...
Possible name for the show:
The Miracle Garden
Courtyard Renaissance
Fountain of Ideas
New Leaves (Turning)
A Shade Newer, or, A Shade Brighter
A gardener I wish I were, a wordsmith I try to be. Humbly I submit:
Order in the Courtyard
Garden on the Side
A Sideyard Reborn
From Plain to Perfection
Sideyard Glance
And good luck with the project!
Tapping earth's gifts: a backyard eco-revival
A few name ideas:
Fertile Edges
Blooming Wonders
Urban Earth
Green City
Garden Scape
WOW! Good stuff. I'm completely enamoured with ORDER IN THE COURTYARD! Whadya'll think of that? Riperian Zone is awfully clever but Mr. Dodson will never go for it ;-}
And yes, I did engage the NPR audience in helping me decide on a design for my front yard fence. We're not going there until I get it cleaned up, if only to prove I am not a total slug.
Although I am certainly qualify for a supporting role in The Negligent Gardener...
How 'bout
Byline Botanical
Garden 360 (allusion to the square footage of the space)
Apologies to Kurt Andersen
Rebirth: A Garden in the Remaking
How about "How Green Was My Alley"
call it the Nani Diaries
Whether it's the process or the price, I'm betting there will be lots of "Agony and Ecstasy", so that's my suggestion....
A fellow avid gardener
The Plot Awakens - One woman's quest to revive her backyard.
Here's another:
The Prodigal Gardener
Oh man...The Plot Awakens, or even THE PLOT BEGINS (not literally true but unforgettable, yes?). I fear this part may be more fun than the process itself!
"From the Ground Up"
Ketz's Litter Box
Litter Box MakeOver
Ketz's Litter Box MakeOver
Get Down and Dirty with Ketz
"Speaking of Faith" is already taken by another program, though it does seem somehow appropriate, but how about "On the Trowel with Ketzel" or "Troweling Around"?
Mothers of Reinvention
Lo a Rose Er Blooming. It's the title of a Christmas Carol.
"Everything's Coming Up......... (whatever happens to be coming up or happening in that episode.)
Outer Space
And you can open with "Greetings from Outer Space"
American Idyll
How about...Laisses le vert temps rouler!
Since I belatedly discovered that my first choice had already been suggested (you go, Larisa!), how about:
How Grey Was My Garden
The Urban Courtyard Experience
Pimp My Yard
How does my garden grow?
-a nice play on the song/nursery rhyme and a good way to start the segment by, you know, asking the question
other options:
Fountain in need of friends.
Ketzel Levine has a bad garden?
just some ideas...from a tired mommy that awaits the laundry to be done...
How about "The New Urban Renewal"
"Growing Up"
Repairian Garden
Repairian Zone
("A riparian zone is the interface between land and a flowing surface water body. Plant communities along the river margins are called riparian vegetation, characterized by hydrophilic plants. Riparian zones are significant in ecology, environmental management, and civil engineering due to their role in soil conservation, their biodiversity, and the influence they have on aquatic ecosystems. Riparian zones occur in many forms including grassland, woodland, wetland or even non-vegetative." WikiDef)
Feel free to use the name that we master gardener ladies call ourselves here in central Alabama -- Dirty Girls
Death of a Gardener.
"Green Thumb Rehab"
How about "From the Ground Up" ?
Reading over you intro, I come up with "The Barren Garden"
or even
"The Barren Garden: Neglected Fantasies"
For something complete different, with a hit of zen,
"Awakening the Hidden Garden"
I was trying to think of a clever name and can't think of anything to beat "What would Eve Do?". That's a winner for sure.
Ann beat me to it, "How Green Was My Alley."
Maybe another idea on my second cup of coffee.
Ketzel, you always brighten my day when I catch one of your reports! Thanks!
Hmmm, some suggestions:
Plant Parenthood
The Ketzel Project
Fountain of Mirth
Save My Garden
Tame This Garden
Re-designing Dirt
Don't Look Yet, It's Not Done!
Garden, What Garden?
"Evolution of a Garden - Straight and Narrow" This picture actually reminds me of the back yard of the house our family lived in in VietNam in early '60s. We had baby ducklings that would paddle around in a rectangular cement trough like the basin of your fountain.
It will be lots of fun to work vertically in such a lovely shadey, tucked away santuary. Have fun! MRM
Fertile Ground
How about 'Reincarnating Eden'- it would most certainly germinate attention.
"Let There Be Life: One Woman's Attempt to Birth a New Garden" by Ketzel Levine
The Pyrrhic Victory Garden
Blooming Abandon
or
My Vacant Garden
what about a one word show... either "rebirth" "renewal" or "revive"
or maybe something like "backyard revival." i'd listen to it...
Not in my backyard!
How about "The Garden of Pleadin"?
Follow the Yellow Brick Road
Blooming Potential
Paradise Found . . .
Digging for Beauty
I like this French spin:
"Jardin de Levine"
till tomorrow
ooh, I've got one. How bout:
The Garden Hoe
?
"Will someone please pick up that watering can?"
You are correct, my green-thumbed friend. RIPERIAN ZONE & WHAT WOULD EVE DO are both way too intellectual, sorry.
If PARDON THIS GARDEN didn't make your flower bloom, how about HOEING IT OUT.
I am sure your producers would love the ratings this title would generate.
Garden Hoe? Hoeing It Out? I think it's time to close the contest! Thomas, I'm leaning towards Order in the Courtyard. Surely that's not too erudite for the likes of you...
Obviously it's your call, but if I heard a tease that went something like this, "Join Ketzel Levine for Hoeing It Out", my radio dial is staying put!
Best of luck.
Second Nature with Ketzel Levine
Ketzel's Eden
From Gloom to Bloom
A Place of Her Own!
Herbaceous Engineer
How about "The Lazarus Garden"
How about "The Red Queen's Raceway"?
The Eden Chronicles
How bout something like:
Doomed if I Don't
or
From Downtrodden to Divine,
My Garden Redesign
Thanks,
Miss Swift
so what's it gonna be?
something n-p-r-ey
How about Morning Glorious Garden
(A play on morning glories which would look amazing climbing up and arching over the fountain if you have enough light.)
Ketzel,
The thought that popped into my mind was "Paradise Regained:Restoring a once proud garden"
I thought "From the Ground Up" was among the best, though "Pardon this Garden" was a close one!
Ketzel runs with Clippers
The Grateful Bed
Ketzel's SideScape
The Grateful Bed, wow. I'm starting to think that these can all be "chapter" titles (Chapter One: The Lonely Fountain), they're just too good not to use. I'm weeding, whiddling, closing in on a decision...
A Gardener's Work is Never Done -- because it isn't.
You already came up with it in your discription -- Garden without Shame
How about
The Fountain Revisited?
What about "Spring to Life"
Plantsformation
beloved be latent
I fell for 'What would Eve do?". But something with dirt in its title would seem a good start: a patch of dirt and a promising fountain.
How about?
From Dirt to Eden in one season flat
or
From here to blooms in my alley.
Good luck with the titling, the series, and the garden rehab.
That's it: one last suggestion.
Garden rehab.
This I BeLeaf
"The Chronicles of L V Ally"
I. "In the Beginning the earth was void".
described present state of affairs.
II. "In the middle flowed three rivers" from a fountain!
III. What will Eve do.
IV. The earth crys out. (how to nourish the soil info)
IV. Am I my gardens keeper?
V. Levines vision
V. Planning the plot.
VI. "The greatful bed"
VII. Herb Alfalfa and the Tiawanna Grass
etc...
VIII. "Flowers for" A-linda
IX. The hanging gardens of Bab-ally
ETC.......
Last chapter
Life after rehab
blessings DOC
The Living Landscape...or...Landscape's for Life!
"Her Garden, Herself"
"Levine's Green Scenes"
"Ketzel Logic"
I do think that the theme music should be "The Golden Afternoon' which was in Disney's "alice in wonderland", where alice was serenaded by a chorus of flowers.
Ketzel, with your love of food and the high probability that some edibles, a few herbs at least, will find their way into your courtyard, is there really a more fitting name than "My Garden of Eatin'"?
I like 'the plot awakens'
What love of food? I'm eating peanut butter out of a jar right now for dinner. Check it out: www.npr.org/talkingplants
Paying Court to Elegance
How about A Rose City Garden not Living up to its Name.
How about: Ketzel Re: Vine ?
I recently moved to Portland (Oregon) and developed a bad case of garden fever. Who knew what a crazy group I entered into.
I vote for 'pimp my yard'
It's all about the GREEN!
How about "Pimp My Fountain"
Genesis 101 (after all, in this corner of your world, you are god-like)
But, so you don't get the Big Head, you can play the part of Lilith.
I like Pimp My Yard submitted by John Watson, but what about "Primp My Yard"?
paradise found
How about:
Pimp my courtyard
The Green Life-TGL
Who Let The Dogwoods Out?
The Daylily Show
Ace of Spades
CSI-Neglected Gardens Unit
No Garden For Old Zen
Backyard Contessa
Heard it under the grapevine
Porch Breakers
Gin and Garden Tonic
Barren to Beautiful
How about, The paradise lost but found project. It doesn't roll off the tongue but I think that's what's going to happen here. Good luck and have fun.
Back from Brown
Yes, loved Order in the Courtyard, What Would Eve Do (WWED), and The Plot Awakens....
My first thought was "UNEARTHED-A Garden Rebirth", but The Plot Awakens is clearly descriptive and engaging.
Have fun and get dirty!
"Order in the Courtyard" should be reserved for Nina Totenberg's garden.
Okay, last one: Living La Vida Verde.
The promise of a garden without shame.
i love that this is getting so much response. i like "what would eve do?"
The Guilt Strip
With no water flow in that fountain consider calling your series "Mosquito Lake." BTW Mosquito Lake was a result of a federal project to dam the Mosquito Creek. Its goal was to reduce flooding in the region and provide water to my hometown, Warren, OH. Now it serves as a water reserve and wildlife preserve. Beautiful!
I'd be amazed if someone hasn't already suggested "Roots."
How about:
Botantical Resusitation
Garden 911
The NIMBY Chronicles! (A nod to Toni Lynn)
or just "NIMBY."
Yes, I like it.
It seems like Ketzel Starts Over is very plain, however it always catches my attention. As does: Ketzel's Dirty Plot (with all connotations) if there's a need to get cute. The real reason this old dirt girl listens is because I hear the NAME: Ketzel. So please include it in the title or the tease if possible.
How about "Secrets of my Garden"
