Archives for 2014

A Favorite Client

It isn’t hard to identify the favorite clients. The work you do for them-they appreciate it. They are not afraid to ask you to detail every step you went through to arrive at a recommendation. Once you provide all of the details, they respond, kindly. They think over everything you say, carefully. Better, yet, they are interested, and committed. They are clear about what they like, and polite about what they don’t like. They are willing to weather any storm. They can be persuaded. But they know their own mind and life, and are not afraid to stand up for that. I don’t often visit this client, for whom I did a landscape for her new house some three years ago. We had cause to meet recently-a few new issues needed solving. Her opening topic-a leaf that had fallen from her katsura espaliers. That heart shape leaf falling on an under planting of boxwood-a cause for celebration. That randomly falling heart shaped leaf was the first topic of her day. The beauty of nature was number one. All else was a distant second. How like her, to feel this way, and show it to me. We spent a few moments, in celebration.

Celebration energizes and organizes all sorts of expression. The landscape is, in its most basic form, about defining spaces, directing traffic, and nurturing a love of nature. As much as a home is a three dimensional representation of the story of the life of a family, the landscape is a story about how that home interacts with nature. That relationship with nature is about a lot of things – materials impervious to weather, and the plants. The shapes of spaces, and their dimensions. Color, and dimension. Depth. Places to be. What grows and lives in the landscape parallels a life some describe as a life well worth living.

This landscape just three years old. It is starting to is take root, and become part and parcel of this property. It will take a few more years to see what the landscape screens, what it frames, what it features, how it thrives, and how it enriches this household. A mature landscape will take a good many years to achieve, but the early signs are good. Establishing the landscape has been a battle. Very heavy clay soil close to the water’s edge means the soil is usually saturated. We have had casualties. But the peonies have taken hold, as have the climbing roses and the clematis. Once a garden built on clay soil is established, it it long lived.

This favorite client took my recommendations about pots and benches, steps, porch stone-this was just the beginning.. This year she had a mind to change her color scheme for her containers. Lots of color, please. Container design can take a last minute cue.

A meadow garden near the water was too tall, and too green. Some of the beds got a subtle punch of color from the addition of mid height annual plants. We planted a few low growing shrub roses-just to see if they would take to the placement. Any successful garden depends upon the willingness to experiment, and evolve. Tinkering is is the hallmark of every inventor. Among that big group of inventors – gardeners.

My client’s property is overrun with rabbits. Rabbits that treat her gardens like a lunch buffet. Her sculpture collection of minks, foxes and dogs that inhabit the landscape are a personal signature. She may never defeat the rabbits, but her landscape is endowed with with her hope, interest and commitment. She is a favorite client, yes. The relationship is a regular pleasure, and routinely full of surprises. She thinks about her landscape in a way that I never could. It is hers. I so appreciate that she thinks about every issue, personally.

water’s edge garden

bright colored containers

saturated color

a view of the garden

I have never seen streptocarpella thrive quite like this. Bravo, Harriet.

Posted on: September 12, 2014 14 Comments

Filed Under: garden maintenance, Garden Design, Landscape Design Tagged With: Landscape Design

A Path To Somewhere

This terrace sits a number of steps above the surrounding landscape and garden. I would guess the terrace sits almost 3 feet above the ground plane. There are plenty of places to sit. Lots of chairs with plump cushions make this experience of the outdoors comfortable. I would choose being outdoors above any other place to be, like most gardeners. Anyone who sits here has a great overview of all that is going on here. A landscape structured around a sweep of old hornbeams, blocks of hydrangeas and boxwood framing, is softened by generously sized perennial plantings. All of the pots and boxes help to bring the garden upstairs, and up closer.

Landscapes that are viewed from afar, or from up above, have their charms. The stray weed, or problem plant will not read all that well. The overall impression is stronger and more lasting than any individual detail. My deck is five feet above the ground plane – I can take in the whole garden at a glance. From a design perspective, the organizing idea may be much clearer from a distance. A bird’s eye view of a garden looks much more like the landscape plan drawn on paper. For the same reasons, spotting problems with a design is easier, if that design can be seen all at once-in plan view. The ground floor view of a landscape in three dimensions can be very different than a 2 dimensional drawing that describes it.

Immersion in a garden can be great. All of the subtle details, the contrasts of textures, the relationships of one plant to another, and the flowers can be better appreciated up close. I have spent lots of time over the years wading in to people’s gardens-to pull weeds, or dig plants that needed dividing. Up close can also mean that bugs, disease and snakes become part of the experience. It is tougher to spot the ground hog burrows and ground bees nests. The whole point of layering a perennial garden is so that depth of the space can be appreciated from the perimeter. Gardens planted from a variety of plants close in height have a beautiful undulating rhythm, provided those plants mature at a height below eye level. Gardens planted with with plants taller than eye level need a way in, or a place to step back.

A tall shallow garden without a place to step back is like having a seat at a movie that is too close to the screen. That movie experience makes it impossible to focus, and make sense of any visual information. Up close to a field of sunflowers is the same visual experience as up close to a row of them. There is no sense of the depth of the garden, unless there is an alternate way to view them. These gardens have plenty of space to step back, and take it all in. The plantings are graduated in height. For some, a grass walkway is all it takes to bring the garden up close. For others, a walkway is a better solution. A garden walkway makes it possible to enjoy a garden after a rain without risking soaking wet shoes. Its easier to push a wheelbarrow or cart on a hard surface. For those that like to walk the garden in the evening, a path can help light the way.

This all around the garden walkway is a long one. A gravel path was an obvious choice. A stone walkway of this width and length would be overpowering visually, especially given that it is set close and parallel to a large stone terrace. A decomposed granite path is simple to install. We dug out 6″ of soil, and installed in its place 4″ of crushed limestone, and a 2″ top dressing of decomposed granite. This was a very long and fairly wide walk. We have 2 clients who like to cruise the garden, together. Four feet wide is a comfortable width for 2 people who are friendly with one another to walk side by side. So 40 yards of soil went to the compost pile at our landscape yard.

This property is notorious for retaining water. Before the landscape construction began, we did install a fairly extensive drainage system. Forty yards of gravel in place of forty yards of soil can’t hurt the drainage effort. Decomposed granite is composed of granite chips, 3/8 of a inch and smaller in size. The very small pieces are known as fines, and have the appearance of sand. Once the gravel has been compacted, rain will wash the fines down, and help to interlock the larger pieces. This water permeable walk is quote hard, once it has a little age. It would be easy to ride a bike here. It is a lot of work to haul stone and soil, but there is little in the way of materials.

The most expensive material is the edger strip. These 16 feet long by 4″ high aluminum strips keep the gravel where it is intended. It also keeps the grass out of the walk. Just before the stone goes in, we use a layer of non-woven landscape fabric that is permeable to water, but discouraging to weeds. If a decomposed granite walk goes through a garden, there is little need for edging. We may mulch the perimeter plantings with the same stone. Perennials that seed in the walk may be welcome.

Once the granite is in place, we go over and over it with a compactor so the surface is firm, and level. Given the inch and a half of rain we had this afternoon, this path looks a lot more like gravel, and a lot less like sand. Gravel is a friendly material to use when there are irrigation valve boxes and heads set close to the surface. We just go around them. Given a little dry weather, my clients will be able to go around too.

Posted on: September 10, 2014 11 Comments

Filed Under: Landscape Design Tagged With: decomposed granite walkways, walkways in the landscape, garden paths

Sunday Opinion: Aging Trees

A good client has lost 6 very big and very old trees in the terrible storms we have had this season. The damage to her landscape is considerable. The remaining old trees in the same proximity look lonely, and off center. She is asking me what to do. I haven’t answered her yet, but she will most likely need to start over. Just yesterday we had a storm, wind driven and rain laden, blow through such that Detroit Edison counts it as their 10th worst storm on record. Luckily my neighborhood was spared. At the shop, a giant limb of a willow sheared off, and landed on our neighbor’s roof. Lots of people lost their power in the greater Detroit area. The big winds and the big rain took down trees in a wide range of communities. Big trees. As in, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Miraculously, no person was injured.

Big storms are the plague of the weak and the big old trees. A sapling can gracefully bend under the duress of a straight line wind. No harm done. Old trees whose wood is stiff with age do not bend-they break. The canopy of a big tree is like a a giant sail. A wind that is too strong can stress that trunk beyond reason. For certain, large caliper trees that are snapped off above the ground, or uprooted in the height of a storm are victims of the unpredictable direction and incredible strength of that force we call nature. If you have ever seen a big tree uprooted or snapped off you understand the meaning of the word “force”.

Other trees in poor condition go over or shed big limbs without much in the way of protest. A lack of health, or a lack of regular maintenance makes them a target for the effects of severe weather. There are a lot of limbs on the ground now. The pruning that violent nature does is extreme. No judicious or clean cuts. I suppose storm pruning is effective. Any limb that is weak, or growing at an unsustainable angle gets a haircut in a matter of seconds. There is no time for a second opinion.

Our trees are our biggest plants. Old trees are up there, dealing with the brunt of the weather. All kinds of issues challenge their health. As they age, they need care. Maples in the tree lawn develop girdling roots. Sun loving deciduous trees in too much shade grow towards the light. Lots of our evergreens are being threatened by needle cast disease. I could go on and on about the illnesses of trees, but that is not my point. Trees need a gardener in charge to look after them, routinely-unless being at the mercy of nature is a place you don’t mind being.

My city does no pruning or maintenance on the street trees. I would guess this is a budget issue. So the three trees in the tree lawn on my corner lot that they finally took down this spring – I had to make a case that not to take them down would expose people to serious danger. They finally agreed. They were all maples, more than 2/3rds dead, suffering from girdling roots and seriously weakened by fungus. The maples were a poor choice to begin with. Their roots need room. They are much too large growing to restrict to the space in an urban tree lawn. Years of neglect made them a disaster waiting to happen. One giant limb at a just about horizontal angle arcing over my street featured a home trunk entirely rotted on the interior. That tree worried me to no end. I am glad it is gone now, before it collapsed under its own weight. In my next life I would like to be in charge of street tree plantings. Not that I have an agenda proud of the history of street trees in my urban community. I just have a big love for trees, and want to see them take hold and thrive. Old trees ask for some care. Loosing one – grievous. Certain neighborhoods in Royal Oak have incredibly gorgeous and substantial London Plane trees, thriving. These trees have been looked after all along the way.

An landscape asks for a regular hand. An aging landscape asks for a better than regular hand. There is no substitute for regular care. This is not to say that regular care will insure you will never have storm related damage to your trees. But it will provide them a fighting chance.

As for my dead maples, I have had the stumps ground down 24 inches. I had to transplant all of the hosta planted around them like skirts. I raked and seeded each 6′ diameter circle of bare dirt. Now it’s time to think about how I will replant that tree lawn. All living plants have a life span. Long and short. Expected, and unexpected. Looking after a property also means starting over.

Posted on: September 7, 2014 18 Comments

Filed Under: garden maintenance, Strictly Opinion Tagged With: storm damage to trees, watering trees, maintaining trees, feeding trees, pruning trees, landscape maintenance