Plants as surrogate children

"It's ... developing a piece of land in your own image? [laughing] Maybe because we don't have children, and this is something we can care and nurture for?"

-Ron Wagner, Portland, OR gardener, asked on HGTV's A Gardener's Diary about his and his wife's reasons for devoting so much time and energy to their beauteous Thai-influenced garden. With its animal-spirit topiary, hand-constructed clay oven, and tea room, it looks very labor-intensive, although we do learn that the couple's elaborate stone pathways were constructed by students in a pebble-mosaic workshop they taught on the premises. Smart!