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Trouble


My fountain has given me so much pleasure; I would not want to have to do without water in my garden.  As I have written before, I built it with some money my Mom left me.  She disapproved of my habit of working long days and every day, such that her last birthday present to me was a set of beach towels.  I think this body of water not only honors her wish for me, but proves her right.  A little relaxation and reverie is a very good thing.  For six serene years all was well, until this spring.     

Barely visible in this picture-a white line some three inches below the bottom step of the pool.  I have been in the landscape business long enough to know leaching concrete when I see it-I can only describe my feeling seeing this as pure and unadulterated dread.  It appeared that the fountain had developed a crack-running all the way around the inside.  I was especially taken aback, as we had had a particularly mild winter.  What had happened?

The only way to find out-dig it up.  It did take me a week to get to this point-the shock, I suppose.  Who would be looking for a giant mess at the start of spring?  Though the timing of this trouble was terrible, I did not have a choice.  Buck was sure the pool would leak, and leak a lot.  My crew excavated a 20 inch deep trench all the way around.  I called Wes Gillette, from Gillette Brothers Pools-who else would I call?  He and his company have an excellent reputation.  They build pools and spas and fountains; they do repair.

The first step was to fill the pool with water, and observe.  I was holding my breath-as if holding my breath would make the pool hold water.  Wes did not build this fountain-it was done by a stone mason.  In retrospect, this was a bad decision.  If you need something to first and foremost hold water, hire a professional pool contractor. That is what I would advise any client-what was my problem?  In all fairness, said stone contractor did build other fountains that do not leak.  I frankly would much rather the leaker to be mine, and not a client.

It was not long before water was pouring through the wall into the trench.  Wes’ brother Carter supervises and runs the repair division.  He suspected that when the original concrete pour was finished, it was not level.  A layer of mortar-3″ thick at one end, and 1/2 inch thick at the other, was applied to level the surface.  A cold pour, they call this-and a non-bonding pour.  No steel reinforcing.  The mortar layer you see squishing out wider than the finish stone-this is called a hip.  Imagine the frost coming out of  and heaving up the ground-that frost took hold of that hip, lifted and cracked the entire top of the pool along that weak mortar joint.  To put it mildly, this was not proper construction. 

Though the corgis thought it was great fun to leap over the trench, I was heartsick.  I do know that the force of frost action is considerable, and implacable.  This is why in early April, when the frost is coming out of the ground, trucks above a certain weight are banned from using our roads.  The frost laws help keep the roads from cracking and breaking up.   

Mercifully, they did the demolition, hauled away all the debris, and prepared the lower surface to bond with the new one-in one day. This new concrete cookie would have no mortar-cream filling.  They sawcut a trench in the original foundation, so the new concrete would interlock with the old.  They inserted steel rebar into the existing concrete, and formed it tall enough to reinforce the layer that was to come.  They covered the drains with rubber stoppers, so as to keep stone debris out of the filtration lines. 

The next day, Carter and crew were there to build the new forms.  Getting the forms level with the horizon-crucial to any vessel holding water.   Almost none of the original stone survived the jack hammering that went on.  Everything had to be removed down to the crack, so the pool step could be redone-properly, and professionally. 

It was an education to watch how they handled putting to right was was not done right.  It is hard for anyone to consider redoing that which is already done; I have had lots of clients with plants placed improperly, or over irrigated, or sick; I have seen lots of just poor design.  It is very hard to convince a client to put more good money to that which took a batch of perfectly good money in the first place.  I understand this now, in a different way.

Yesterday, they took one wheelbarrow load after another to the back yard.  By time I got home, the new concrete was poured.  This will need to sit, to cure.  Not that there will not be time; it will take 3 weeks to get the replacement stone cut and shipped. 


It could be that by the middle of May, my fountain will be back up and running; I have hope.  Like replacing a furnace, or hot water heater, or air conditioning unit-a lot of money gets spent, and things just stay the same.  This is very different than taking home a new pot, or sundial.  Carter tells me the fountain will look exactly as it did; this part I like. This may be more than you ever wanted to know about concrete, frost and fountains, but thanks for listening to my story.

Posted on: April 22, 2010 8 Comments
Filed Under: Garden Ornament Tagged With: , ,

The 2010 Espaliers


I have been awaiting with great anticipation the delivery of a group of espaliers from the West Coast.  Even in photographs, I knew they might be among the most amazing trees I had ever seen.  I buy only a small amount of nursery material every year; those plants that have the potential to organize and electrify an entire landscape particularly interest me.  A few weeks ago, I did write about these trees, and post pictures of them from the grower. But today was the day I would finally lay eyes on them. 

The pictures did not really prepare me for what came off that semi-truck.  I was star struck.  They are very large caliper trees, whose years and years of training have produced an entirely unique and compelling living sculpture.  The intersection of nature and man can be a disaster, but in this case-breathtaking. 

Of great concern to me-the travel.  Thousands of miles these trees were trucked- under refrigeration.  Spring weather can be unpredictable-a warm journey across the country could cook the emerging foliage. A truck ride is not the smoothest-those of you who travel in trucks regularly know from whence I speak.  My eyes were on the rootballs before I even looked at the plants.  A broken rootball will kill a tree.  These rootballs were solid as a rock; the balling and burlapping the work of a consummate grower.  I breathed a big sigh of relief.

Plan A was to ship the trees via the rail as far as Chicago, and truck the last leg.  This plan depended on the grower being able to dig the trees well in advance of any leafing out. Fields too wet from spring rain prevented them from digging the trees early-we had no choice but to go to plan B-a truck coming across the country, carrying trees in the process of throwing leaves.  There is worry attached to this plan. A long trucking siege challenges and wears away at trees already stressed from the process of digging, balling, and burlapping.  Nursery people understand how much the trucking cost influences the price of a tree.  Unless you are buying trees and shrubs grown next door to a nursery, a chunk of the eventual price is very much influenced by the cost of transport. I know of no grower in this country growing espaliers of this caliber, so I shut up, and I  paid the freight.   

Seven of the trees are katsuras-Cercidiphyllum Japonicum, for those of you who want to know precisely what tree to which I am referring.   A katsura does not have showy blooms-I would describe it as an unusual tree, very architectural in form.  The leaves sprout red, grow large, and somewhat heart shaped, and mature with a decidedly blue cast. Mature trees are densely foliated, and sculptural.  In this group, I would put the beeches, the dawn redwoods, the weeping Alaskan cedars, the lindens-I am talking green sculpture when I talk katsuras.  

These katsuras have been grown and pruned with strong and precisely spaced lateral branches.  What does this mean?  In leaf, each tree will provide a green wall every bit of 10 feet tall and ten feet wide that takes up not 24 inches of width, in ground.  A living wall of green of astonishing size and very modest footprint-amazing.   If beautiful plants have the ability to astonish you, feel free. 

How these leaves survived a a week in a black, cold, and irregularly vibrating box-most plants have a huge will to survive.  This instinct served these trees well.  The katsura group of 7 weathered the storm like troupers.  The linden group of 7 are just budded-they had a much easier trip.  In my landscape practice, I try very hard to do no harm, to not impose.  How nature works is a miraculous event that needs little in the way of suggestions from me. 14 trees of astonishing provenance came my way today.  In short, thrilling.    

We soaked these trees immediately after delivery, but they had in fact been well prepared for their trip.  I sat on 6 randomly selected rootballs today-I could feel the cold, and the damp.  The rainy weather and cloudy skies the past few days-a better than good re-entry.  I made it my business to go out to see them 4 times today; every gardener understands what it is to be responsible .    


Here is a picture of my group of fourteen espaliers-are they not incredible? Barely leafing, like a crowd of teenagers, I see so much ahead for them.  Some time ago I wrote an essay about the provenance of espaliered trees-Palmette Legendre-should you have an interest.  I have a big interest in outstanding plants-this drives just about everything I design.  These espaliered trees-my only hope for them is that they have thoughtful gardeners in their future.

Posted on: April 7, 2010 3 Comments
Filed Under: Garden Ornament, Landscape Design Tagged With: , , , ,

Layering

I spent the better part of this week walking from one end of my property to the other- watching Rob and a crew haul out everything he had ordered for spring, tear the entire existing space apart, and put it all back together.  I could not even guess how many thousands of pounds of terra cotta, stone, wood, lead, were involved all told-but I would guess many.  I thought his method was smart-everything got moved into the driveway lane, leaving each side ready to be cleaned up, and re-raked.  Though our all over surface is compacted decomposed granite, it doesn’t feel like spring until it every vestige of last year gets raked out. Those of you who know of the late Allen Haskell-he took up, washed, and relaid all of the gravel in his nursery every spring.  Think of it.  Beyond relevelling the gravel, even more interesting was how he put things together. 

I would not have a word for this, but for Pam.  She designs, plants, and maintains gardens, so she has a point of view about it.  She was telling me she admired another desgner she knows for her ability to “layer” in plants.  By this she means plants are paired or grouped so while one is going quiet, another is coming on.  Daffodils with daylilies, or oriental poppies with phlox, or phlox with Japanese anemone.  Skilled perennial garden designers are adept at arranging plants to avoid what I call a gaposis. I like treating these perennial spaces with big growing annuals, but some like to handle this perennially. A large clump of oriental poppies going dormant is not such a pretty sight-something needs to be coming on strong in the spot in front of that poppy-otherwise a gaposis. 

I think this is a good description of how Rob has arranged the outdoor spaces. He packed materials in close quarter that seemed to like each other or play off each other.  In this case, the steel striped bench echo the wood stripes; its scrolls recalls the scrolling corbel detail.  Surfaces and colors are different, but friendly. Lots of materials and styles are represented here.  His arrangement is a conversation about choices.   


Contemporary garden ornament can include a wide range of objects. This early twentieth English wood trestle table is clean lined enough to be quite comfortable with some galvanized steel wire crates, and some painted French garden chairs. The round acid washed steel pots are finished with a nod to traditional forms, but have a subtly more modern shape.  

This space is densely populated.  On the table, below the table, in the air, on the ground-everywhere you look, something is going on.  I am surprised how amiable the contemporary limestone balls are to the modern lead sculptures of classical design.  I do not see any argument about to erupt.  I suppose any object for a garden implies that partnership-all of these things have a landscape to come in common.  Maybe this accounts for how they all get along. 

A pussy willow stem and a trench drain have almost nothing intrinsically in common.  What they do share is how they are arranged in a similar V-shaped fashion.  The color of the iron repeats the stems of the still dormant Boston ivy. What a different view will present itself once that wall is green. But given the early spring season, I like the bouquet shapes.

These steel tuteurs are Rob’s interpretation of some formally trimmed yews at Versailles.  I have already been scheming about what could be planted inside them, that would still reveal the outer form.  But it is the multiple forms in multiple pots that makes for such a big impact.  The blue/grey and terra cotta color scheme is repeated in the background in a very rhythmic way, alternating pots of different shape and height.  

An arrangement of geometric shapes is so pleasing to the eye; the V-shapes in differing materials compliment that.  The color is strikingly contrasting-black and white, with just a little in between.  A restricted color palette is a modern gesture; the twigs soften this.  


He has quite an eye, and an ability to layer all his own.

Posted on: March 19, 2010 1 Comment
Filed Under: Garden Ornament, Detroit Garden Works, Landscape Design Tagged With: ,

Design Elements Matter

 

Those of you following this blog on garden design may be crossing your eyes and feeling like blacking out this past few weeks.  I have gone on about the elements of design-maybe too long. I try the best I can to illustrate, and not instruct.  My ability to peel off into a snow bank, or winter weary meadow, is a little compromised right now, so I have been photographing close to home and on solid ground.  When I am done apologizing, I am still left with the conviction that a clear understanding of the elements of design applies to any 4 square feet on your planet-your dining room, your kitchen, your garden, your driveway. No kidding.  I hope to illustrate and not instruct- via this very small property I landscaped some years ago.  Though the front door is massive, the property square footage is very small. No need to put the landscape under a microscope-the house came with an intensely small space. Every move counts.   

This landscape relies much on a configuration of evergreens that stand fast every month of the year. Whatever the weather. My original client sold this house some time ago-my new clients are grade A stewards-any beautiful old landscape is a direct result of the intensive care of the present, and not age-this idea via the essays of Henry Mitchell. The yew hedge fence, and its black stained posts and rusted finials, echo the rusted obelisk placed front and center.  A pair of pots on pedestals placed side to side, and planted for each season-who knew a pair of pots could rule a garden like these do.  


It cannot be 20 feet from the street to the front door.  I persuaded my clients to install a wood sidewalk-each length of pressure treated lumber was routed to resemble bricks-after one year of weathering, I stained them black.  There was a time when roads were made of wood-that history is not especially pertinent to this design. What is pertinent is what one sees.  A look needs to stand on its own, no matter any history or explanation.   A short walk needs a distinguising feature-a new thought.  Any gesture, no matter how short,  can illustrate a love of the out of doors without instructing. A wood sidewalk-different.  Still looking great after all these years-this I love. 

The rear yard-a patch of ground that would comfortably accomodate 12.  The simple solution-gravel the entire area.  Plant four lindens at the four corners, to provide some natural shade corner to corner.  The steps to the back door-I did not switch materials.  Simple in a small space means the repetition of one material amounts to the impact of many hands to the same end.  These corten steel risers retain the gravel surface steps.  On the floor, everywhere else, gravel.    

When winter comes, leaves are shed. Shrubs of great volume are but a shadow of their summer self.  The evergreens keep on going on- but what is remarkable here, given it is mid-January?  Those two pots on pedestals, stuffed with materials for the winter, carry the day.  The design elements in play here are many.  No need to know the words, if you can see.  

No matter the late lame snow, the design elements of this garden are strong; grown in. There is a living presence, and pattern, that pleases the eye.  Their garden ornament takes on a bigger role in the half year we know as winter.  I like my front garden and landscape to be eye-ready, no matter the season.    

Once spring comes, we change out those pots.  Their idea of spring brings the neighborhood to life -many houses on this street do much the same.  Designing thoughtfully to the betterment of all -what a great idea.  Those elements that make a difference-take some time to look, and make them work for you.    

Posted on: March 17, 2010 1 Comment
Filed Under: Landscape Design, Garden Ornament, Garden Design Tagged With: , , ,