Different cultures around the world approach gardening in such vastly different ways, and with such uniquely beautiful aesthetics, that when I am traveling, I am constantly trying to figure out how I can bring a piece of that beauty home with me, to my own house and yard.

Whereas many people have a tendency to fall in love with their vacation destinations, and start imagining, "Is there any feasible way we could move here?" I, on the other hand, start thinking, "How can I distill the magic and essence of this place, at least in some small way, and re-create a little piece of that back at my home in Dallas?"

Granted, this is often easier said than done (I’m looking at you, ICELAND!), but driving down many a lovely suburban street in America, I can easily see that I’m not the only person who feels this way. I believe we take for granted how many vastly different landscape styles, harkening from all over the globe, you are likely to find on any given residential street here in America; and I also suspect many people do not realize what a uniquely American phenomenon this is.

In Dallas, we choose our landscape styles just like we choose our nightly dinner: with a seemingly endless number of options on the table. Are you in the mood for Mexican or Italian tonight? Do we want a Mediterranean style yard, with palm trees and exotic tropical plants? Or do we want a Southwest style landscape, filled with bristly cacti and gorgeous succulents? It is not unusual to find two families, that have made these two drastically different choices, living right next door to each other.

I want to emphasize that this level of variety is much less common in other parts of the world, and certainly not with such broad strokes, and in such close proximity, as here in America. You have probably seen photographs of the iconic dual-toned buildings on the Island of Mykonos, in Greece, all clad in white stucco and all adorned with that identical royal blue paint color. I acknowledge this is an extreme and very specific example of exterior uniformity, but I want to use this hyperbole as a mental image, because I feel that it is with this same homogeneity and adherence to a very limited palette of plant materials and gardening styles, that the rest of the world uses to paint their residential landscapes, in any given geographic location.

In most of the world, adjacent landscapes in a given region will tend to look more or less the same, because the predominant tendency is to use plants that are readily available and native to the area. This makes good sense; it also lends itself to more people appearing to have a “green thumb,” with thriving plants around their homes and yards, simply because they are working with plant species that inherently want to grow there in the first place.

I had a neighbor a while back, who was obsessed with having only the most unique and unusual plants in his yard, stuff that certainly no one else on our street had. He would proudly show me the beautiful things he had managed to procure, exclaiming, “Look at this beauty! Isn’t this amazing!? Can you believe that no one else has one of these in their landscape?!”

And while many a plant was undeniably beautiful, I would always simultaneously be thinking, “Yes, Jonathan, I can believe it, because that plant doesn’t really belong here. Or even in Texas, for that matter. I’d be shocked if it survived even one summer here, much less our winter. How uniquely beautiful will it be when it’s dead?"

Likewise, it is not all that helpful for me to share with you beautiful plant species that I have seen around the world, if those plants will undoubtedly struggle here, and have a slim chance of survival. North Texas has such a wide-ranging climate, that the number of things that will both live and die here is extensive. You have to find plants that are capable of not only withstanding several sweltering months, where the temperature hovers around 100 degrees, but also can endure relatively harsh winters with freezing temperatures of ice, sleet, and even an approximation of (what Texans call) snow.

Instead, I want to share with you some ideas, some over-arching concepts, that have inspired me from around the world, and helped expand my view of what is possible at my own home, here in Dallas, Texas. Although I currently live in a small, 400-square-foot principality I founded called MOROXICO, I am building a proper house, and it is going to be one wild bastard. Or rather, it shall be a the weirdest, weightiest portmanteau you've ever encountered. It will put Moroxico to shame. Essentially, it is shaping up to be just a post-modern amalgamation of all the styles and cultures from around the world that fascinate me and bring me joy.

I call the style "Bohemian Sophisticate." That's BS, for short.

Stay tuned, because I intend to start posting these photos very soon!

Similarly, I do wonder if people visit America, and then come back home to their own county and tell their families, "I’ve seen the most amazing thing! I know we only have a tiny backyard, but we are going to see if we can replicate the American style, and fill the entire thing, almost to capacity, with a giant, hulking trampoline."

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You can read more about my yard HERE, and more about Moroxico HERE!