{"id":10404,"date":"2020-05-26T11:11:58","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T18:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=10404"},"modified":"2020-05-26T12:04:02","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T19:04:02","slug":"the-original-garden-wise-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=10404","title":{"rendered":"The Original Garden Wise Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From Santa Barbara Independent, May 14-21, 2020.<\/p><\/div>\n

Landscape\u00a0Architect and\u00a0TV Host\u00a0Billy Goodnick<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNobody ever says it\u2019s too easy to take care of my garden,\u201d laughed landscape<\/a><\/p>\n

architect Billy Goodnick<\/a>, host of City TV\u2019s popular Garden Wise<\/a> series.<\/p>\n

His approach to working with clients is straightforward. \u201cI\u2019m a service provider,\u201d\u00a0he said. \u201cMy attitude is not that you\u2019ve hired some high-end person and you\u2019re lucky to\u00a0have me. I try to design as egolessly as possible. If I\u00a0step over the bounds and they need to rein me in,\u00a0that\u2019s fine because I\u2019m just there to provide a service.\u00a0I know about this stuff, and they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

After working for City of Santa Barbara Parks\u00a0and Recreation for more than 20 years, Goodnick\u00a0learned that \u201cmost park planting is about getting the\u00a0most cluck for your buck out of the site.\u201d He applies\u00a0that same philosophy to working with clients and\u00a0teaching classes for home gardeners, which he does\u00a0around the country. \u201cI always start with a slide that\u00a0says we have three goals: Make it beautiful, make it\u00a0useful, make it sustainable \u2014 and those are the three\u00a0touchstones for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A natural entertainer and raconteur, Goodnick\u00a0began his career as a musician and still performs as\u00a0the drummer for King Bee<\/a>. His sense of humor is\u00a0evident from his lecture titles: Life After Lawns; How to Kill Your Lawn Without Using Napalm;\u00a0Gone with the Wind: What to do with Your Drought-Stricken Lawn; and Crimes Against\u00a0Horticulture: When Bad Taste Meets Power Tools.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a monstrous ego, and I like to see people nodding and laughing because it\u2019s edutainment,\u201d\u00a0said Goodnick. \u201cSomebody once said, \u2018You\u00a0could charge a two-drink minimum for your\u00a0lectures.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After some initial conversations with clients,\u00a0Goodnick uses a website called PlantMaster to\u00a0provide a big list of plants that meet their criteria.\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re stocking the pantry,\u201d he tells them. \u201cYou\u00a0don\u2019t know what the meal is \u2014 you just went to\u00a0Whole Foods with a $500 gift card and threw\u00a0everything into the basket that you like. I\u2019ll figure\u00a0out how to turn it into a meal.\u201d<\/p>\n

It really comes down to what the customer likes and what will work with the site. Though he\u00a0recognizes most clients don\u2019t have Oprah\u2019s budget, he does ask them to pretend they won the\u00a0Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes in the beginning. \u201cLet\u2019s design as if money is no object,\u00a0and let\u2019s explore all of the different things that could happen here,\u201d he explained. \u201cThere may\u00a0be a great idea, without being too terribly constrained at first, that we can simplify or downsize\u00a0to make it less expensive later.\u201d<\/p>\n

He sees his role as a problem solver, and he is happy when gardens are being used as designed\u00a0a year or so later. He\u2019s also satisfied when plant choices succeed. \u201cThere\u2019s that whole biological\u00a0side of landscape architecture and not mixing it with other plants that want twice as much\u00a0water and spacing them properly so you don\u2019t end up with plants colliding into each other,\u201d he\u00a0explained. \u201cI\u2019m trying to make it easy on them, make it fit their lifestyle, and also be drop-dead\u00a0gorgeous.\u201d<\/p>\n

See billygoodnick.com<\/a> and waterwisesb.org\/gardenwise.wwsb<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Stay at Home and Garden, special issue of SB Independent May 14, 2020.<\/p><\/div>\n

This story was originally published in the Santa Barbara Independent<\/em><\/a> on May 14, 2020. Click here<\/a> to read it as it appeared in print.<\/p>\n

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