![]() ![]() How could I write a book and be lazy about it? So the book started out as CAH and consisted of a collection of my numerous CAH blog posts, with a strong underlying theme of sustainability. I had no dreams of writing the next great garden design book I never thought of myself as a writer. I realized that to get the speaking gigs that I really wanted, I needed to be an author. On top of promoting the CAH message, I have a book out, “Yards”, which is mostly about garden design. I do the same for the Facebook page with a caption contest, giving away a roll of CAH crime scene tape. Somebody calls a topiary hedge a meatball, another person calls it a testicle, the testicle is gonna win. ![]() Usually, it’s the most adult humor that wins. It’s fun, and if you’ve seen the CAH website, the CAH crime scene tape, I give away a roll of that for whoever can come up with the silliest, snarkiest comment in response to an image of a CAH. So, I’ve probably done six CAH talks in the last six months. So people won’t put a plant in too small a space, that they’ll choose the right plant and maintain it correctly, and at the end you’ll have an appreciation for the aesthetic, so if you do end up having to do something to the plant it won’t end up as fuel for my rapier wit. I’ve had to innovate, because it gets really old real quick after five slides and five snarky comments, so as a takeaway, sustainability has become a focus of the talks. and now I offer a CAH talk, among others. I also have been doing a lot of talks at gardening clubs, shows, and botanic gardens across the U.S. Image credit: Billy Goodnick | CAH FB Well, Facebook is the primary way of connecting with people, and anyone who has a camera and Facebook connection can contribute. So, maybe some of that fascination spilled over into CAH … and why everyone hates me! Then people would come over and disagree with which brides was ugly and which wasn’t, kinda eye of the beholder type of thing. Image credit: Billy Goodnick | CAH FB The only other thing I can also attribute to founding CAH was that as a teenager, I used to cut out what I thought were ugly brides from the LA Times in the newlyweds section and stick them up on my bedroom wall. ![]() ![]() I started uploading some photos and redirecting people from my own Facebook page, and now it’s grown to over 2,000 fans and I have people from all over the world posting and contributing to the page. About two years ago, I came across some of the Santa Barbara Not So Beautiful photos on my computer and set up a Facebook page called “Crimes Against Horticulture: When Bad Taste Meets Power Tools”. We even have Billy answer that one divisive question: Who is the biggest perpetrator of Crimes Against Horticulture - the landscaper or the designer? How did Crimes Against Horticulture come about? “I was writing for EDHAT and was part of the Santa Barbara Beautiful Awards (a competition for the most beautiful gardens) and decided to take some photos that I had collected through my work and do the Santa Barbara Not So Beautiful Awards, and I had categories like the silliest place to put a Bougainvillia, and continued doing the “Not So Beautiful Awards” the following year. We discuss CAH’s origins, mission, role, importance, reception … and … testicle-shaped hedges. In this interview, LAN talks with Billy Goodnick, founder of Crimes Against Horticulture and author of the book “Yards”. ![]()
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