Gardening

It's spring and I'm finally done with our big conference, but I'm not gardening. Despite having had an internship in highschool at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, and having worked for both a nursery and a state park, I don't garden. I lack the follow through necessary to maintain a garden throughout the heat of the summer months. I am, however, interested in gardens and I certainly enjoy visiting gardens and eating the bounty of other people's gardening work. If I did get around to gardening (and I hope someday I will), it will probably just be a vegetable and herb garden. But I wish I had the skill to undertake a really amazing garden. I recently finished reading Martin Edward's mystery, the Cipher Garden, and I'm intrigued by the idea of a garden with a hidden message. I'm familar, as probably many of you are, with the Victorian idea that giving flowers was an opportunity to send a secret message to the recipient by choosing specific varieties. And many plants have taken on other meaning over time as well. After reading the Cipher Garden, I was sure that this idea wasn't orginial to Edwards and that surely there must be other Cipher Gardens out there planned out by genious gardeners. However, my non-exhastive, minimal google search has turned up nothing (but I did see some amazing photo's of the Innisfree Garden in New York). Does anyone else remember reading about gardens with messages hidden in their layout of plantings? I'm thinking there must have been a Rosemary and Thyme episode about it as well, but I can't track that down either. If anyone comes up with something shoot it my way. In the meantime...watch out for those rhododendrons, they mean danger.