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Sunday Opinion: The Bucket List

Buck rode his soft tail deuce Harley out to Harsens Island today with his friend Fred-the roundtrip trip took 5 hours.  Eggs Benedict for them at noon at a restaurant called Buck’s Good Food-how funny. A 120 miles round trip on a motorcycle-thank heavens I had to work. Twenty years ago, Buck had a dear friend and client with a cottage there; he would visit out there often.  The memories are good ones.  But today’s trip for him is more about what has changed in the past 20 years. There is a big house where Jerry’s cottage used to be.  The entire island looked much more tailored and city like-in a way, unrecognizeable. No more marshy fields and tiny cottages.   Only the Sans Souci bar and the marina look the same now as they do in his memory.  But he tells me he was glad he finally made the trip back, so he can take it off his bucket list.  Bucket list?

Apparently the bucket list, from the 2007 movie of the same name, is a list of those things you really want to do before you die. Everyone at the office knew of and had seen the movie-oh well, I do not get out much.  But I did love the idea of it. Some things I do throw myself at like I have 10 minutes to live; I get the concept. What do I want to do before I kick the bucket?  I have given this some thought.

 When I turned 50, it occurred to me that my own garden and landscape had taken a back seat to my work.  And that if I had the idea to make a garden of my own design, I needed to get going.  Nothing happens overnight in a landscape except the weeds.  Deciding  to take on my own landscape in a serious way implied a decision to stay put.  I have read no end of home and garden improvement columns that advise never to put any money into a property that cannot be recouped at sale time.  I have no interest in sale time-who knows when that might be.  I am interested in ther substance and quality of my life-every day, day to day.  I have no expectation that some other person should bear the financial burden for what brings joy into my life. But I understand how young people shy away from a substantial committment to a property that they may not recoup; more than likely, they will move out, up, or away.  But at 50, I knew if I wanted to bask in a garden I had given my heart and soul to at 80, I needed to bust to move.  Of course my bucket list is topped with a landscape and garden of my dreams-that line item on the bucket list is in progress.

What else would I really want to do before I kick the bucket?   OK, I would like to grow some decent stands of columbines, and have them come back lustily the following year. I would want peonies lined out and grown in rows like crops-every variety ever introduced that suited me.  The single rows, the double rows, the anemone flowered rows.  On my bucket list, an acre of fertile land devoted to raising peonies-just for me. 

Next on my list, a wildflower garden like I had 30 years ago.  How I miss that garden.  Violets of every description, anemone nemerosa, double bloodroot, the hybrid trout lily Pagoda, variegated solomon’s seal, scads of hepatica, trillium of every description, celandine poppy, European ginger,  and cyprepediums-the yellow, and of course, cyprepedium reginae-the queen of the slipper orchids. Thalictrums of every species, mayapples, hellebores, virginia bluebells, sweet woodriff, anemone blanda, -the whole and the best of those wild plants whose ephemeral beauty makes my heart beat faster. 

My bucket list has not much more on it, beyond this.  I have no need to climb Everest, appear on Oprah, or set a world record for speed.  Buck’s explanation of the bucket list made me realize that my list is wide and deep, but short and modest.  I have no need to be in Monaco for the formula one race, or climb Everest, or invent a reasonable process by which sea water could be converted to fresh water.  My bucket list is really pretty simple.  Any landscape in which I have a hand is my bucket list.

Posted on: October 11, 2010 Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Strictly Opinion

Sunday Opinion: Rob Overseas

As I write, Rob is winging his way towards Europe. He sent me this photograph from his seat on the plane as the sun was rising behind the curvature of the earth-breathtaking.  The plan-a two week buying trip that will include antique shows, and visits to dealers in garden ornament with whom we have long standing relationships.  He has not shopped for Detroit Garden Works in Europe for a few years-I have my reasons. The purchase price of any garden ornament in another country is only the beginning of what it costs to have that object in the shop.  Rob has to fly over; he needs food and lodging every day.  Anything he purchases needs to be collected, stored for a time, maybe crated for shipping,  get shipped to New York or Montreal, loaded onto a train for Detroit, cleared through US customs via a custom’s broker, trucked to the shop, and unloaded.  Everything that gets unloaded needs to be uncrated and inspected.  All of the crating and packing material needs disposal.  This is an arduous and expensive process.  Furthermore, the currency exchange rate has not been so friendly the last few years. One year I had a container devanned in Norfolk Va.  US Customs randomly picks containers arriving from Europe to be completely unloaded, and inspected.  The expense incurred by this “devanning”-mine.  In the process of offloading, and reloading, I had many objects damaged by fork lift forks, and careless repacking. Though I insure my European shipments, it took 2 years to negotiate a settlement for a fraction of the worth of the damaged load.  Every time I shop overseas, I hope for smooth sailing over the ocean, and a lucky number in customs. We concentrated on shopping the US the past few years, with good results. But no matter the origin, that unique mix of antique, vintage and one of a kind objects is what makes the shop an experience unlike any other.  Rob goes to a lot of time and trouble to insure that should you walk through the door, the odds you will find something you have not seen before are good. The odds of finding something that will delight or enchant your gardening self are very good. The only routine he observes is the change of the seasons.  To that end,  Rob is on his way back to Europe to shop.

Rob’s first scouting trip to Europe for me was in 1993. I wanted a shop devoted to interesting objects for gardens in the worst way, and for a long time.  What was available to me locally to place in a landscape or garden-not so swell. Rob had a winter ski trip he had planned to Austria; to this I added a two week trip through France and Italy.  Just to look around, and see what was available.  To meet whomever he could who shared that interest in garden ornament.  How excited we were about the arrival of 2 pallets of French pottery from the Poterie de Biot, and two pallets of Italian terra cotta from Mital- hilarious. I sold every one of those pots to landscape and garden clients.  Three years later, when I bought the building that would become Detroit Garden Works, he had a plan in place for shopping and shipping from overseas. 

That plan has changed dramatically in the past 18 years.  No longer does he haul around articles from European design publications and travel guides in a briefcase. Monica and Jenny joined forces to produce a map detailing his intended stops- courtesy of Google Earth.  A GPS gizmo called a Garmin into which he downloaded country maps and travel guides will get him where he wants to go efficiently and predictably.  Gone are the days of winging his way through the Alps trying to find France.      

Many of the relationships he made years ago are still in place.  Though he will be seeing friends he has not seen in a long time, I am quite sure there will be new people, new places-the unexpected. The Monday morning update-he’s busy shopping some place he has never been before.

Posted on: October 4, 2010 2 Comments
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Sunday Opinion: Imagination And Precision

I owe the idea for this post to Nanne; she commented a few days ago about a sculpture of mine she thought exhibited imagination and precision.  What about it? Imagination may be defined as the ability to form a mental image of something which does not yet exist in any other form other that a thought.   No one will ever hire me to write a dictionary, or teach a course in philosophy, but the word imagination does suggest an activity that floats like a cloud above that stormy sea I call the Sea of Execution.

I am in the process of a series of sculptures about the landscape I believe no one will ever hire me to build.  Why would I do this?  I like making things, whether they be terraces, pinetums, bouquets, or paintings.  But more importantly, the idea of designing an object that could represent the landscape free of responsibility to make it work, live and go on growing seemed like so much fun.  At the top of my top ten list of mistakes gardeners make-and this includes me-is the expectation that a plant will obligingly represent an idea.  An idea about space, beauty, gardens, or  landscapes.  My Honorine Jobert anemone flowers are making me pretty happy right now, but my happiness is the last thing on their blooming minds. They have their own agenda; I just get to tag along.  They do not look the same as they did last year.  They are older; the summer weather is different this year. Nothing stays the same with them; what stubbornly stays the same is my effort to get them to represent  my design.  The lilac planted right next to the kitchen window in hopes that the fragrance will fill that room does not account for the 20′ rangy shrub that comes with that fragrance.  A perfectly good plant in the wrong spot is a product of the idea that design will prevail over biological destiny.  Junipers pruned into spirals, cloud pruned boxwood, stick like burning bushes with a thin frosting of leaves on top, my pollarded Palabin lilacs on standard-they tell a story much like a fairy tale.  Giant shrubs pruned down to half their mature size to fit a space-not so sweet a tale. Making these sculptureswould circumvent all of the frustration of imagining a design, and making it work; it would never have to work.

Every landscape designer has design work that never escapes escapes the page, and breathes. Pieces of that work may go on to become part of another project-like my sculptures.  Or it gets the saucing up it needs to really taste good. Every design relationship is precisely that-a relationship.  Maybe the design work has not met its intended yet. Perhaps it wasn’t worth a hoot anyway, and I should feel relieved I was never asked to transform a pig’s ear of a design into a functional landscape.  

 But I do know that the sum total of my imaginative worth needs a different measure than the the sum total of my bank account.  If I spent every day of the next 100 days giving my imagination free rein, I would still have just as much of it available to me on the hundredth day as I do today.  You need and should have this confidence in what you imagine, as you will need that energy to transform an idea into a living space.  Some ideas won’t stand for being transplanted into a landscape. It is good to know this beforehand.  The day comes when what I have imagined has to settle up precisely with what and how it will work.  The best design work in the world cannot circumvent this.  Once I buy plants in fulfillment of a design, my bank account does get involved.   Putting money to something only to find that it will not or does not work is no fun at all. 

Some issues are a matter of inches.  A bench 4 inches inches higher may be more comforatble; 8 inches is the difference between a garden and a sunken garden.  A tree planted 8 inches above grade may thrive or die, based on soil and water conditions.  A  garden gate off center by 7 inches will always look wrongly placed. A step riser taller than 8 inches is a pain to negotiate.  Paying attention to inches implies a certain precision.   

The sculpture of plastic grass that Nanne referred to in her comment was very precisely constructed.  The materials made it possible for that to work.  Had they been covered in sod-oh my.  I guess I try with my design work to make big simple gestures, as the plants that I will ask to be a party to what I imagine need the room to be what they do best-grow.  The big surprise of the construction of my sculptures-they do need to work.  I am stopped dead, trying to imagine precisely where to take them next.

Posted on: September 27, 2010 Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Landscape Design, Strictly Opinion Tagged With: , ,

Sunday Opinion: Cheap Tricks

Mow the grass to perfection.  This will make your landscape look well cared for, even if the garden has gotten away from you, and fungus is running rampant in everything from the maples to the sweet woodriff.  

The sweet woodriff might need a little more room-cut the bed 6 inches bigger.  If it has spread into a spot where it is not so happy, move the edge back.  Mind your edges in general.  Compositions, beds, properties, views, walkways-they all have edges.  The effort you put to good edges, as in deep verges, edger strip, brick edges, stone walls-all of this will result in less maintenance, and a better look that costs nothing more than your attention and your timely intervention.

Maintenance is key to a beautiful garden, so do not buy plants on impulse.  Read the literature, visit any trial garden within driving distance, decide if a plant meets your aesthetic or practical criteria for inclusion in your garden-before you plant.  If it does not, there will lots of extra maintenance trying to get it to deliver, or work visually.  I do not mind hard work.  What I mind is hard work to no good end.  Nine times out of ten, I own my own troubles. I try to think before I buy. 

Buy plants on impulse. Your impulse comes from you and you alone; your unique point of view is what fuels the success of your garden efforts.  Having something the way you want it is fun. Make everything you love work together, as in move things around until they are in just the right spot.  You are after all the President and CEO of your garden.  Exercise your executive power, and then your executive shovel.

Shovel out those ideas you believe to be true without having looked at them with a cool eye. Take photographs of everything you do, and look at the pictures. Your relationship to your garden is emotionally charged.  Step back-get that dispassionate lens looking at what you have trouble seeing clearly.  Cell phone cameras-fine.  You need to see the big picture-not the details.

The details could not be more important. Stake those things you know will go over. Water when you need to, even when you don’t feel like it. Deadhead, divide, weed, grow from seed. Be good natured about the fact that the work will never be finished. The difference between a successful garden project and a so so garden project has everything to do with an energy that starts out big, stays big, and finishes bigger.

 Big, broadly conceived moves will draw, engage, and delight the eye.  Express your design clearly. Should you need to write an explanatory outline of your intent and post it at the entrance to the garden-go back to square one. Figure out how to make that garden look like what you intend.  Arrange plants and spaces coherently.  What do you have going on in the air space?  What is going on underground?  Are your social surfaces level? 

Level headed-there are those times when it is a good idea.  I pay my bills, pass by the potato chips in the grocery, and get a yearly checkup.  There are times when this mind set applies to overseeing the garden.  If you plant a tree, will you hand water it until it has rooted in?  If you add a perennial bed, will you mulch weed and water until it fills in?  Plant only what you will look after faithfully.  Make a plan to get where you want to be, one step at a time.  Plan.

Plan and re-revise your plans every season.  A great landscape and garden takes many years. The years that represent hat time is equal to the time it takes you to mature as a gardener.  Take the time.

Time is not on your side.  Make a move-now.  Plant a tree or 3. Redo.  Hire a professional.  It is ok to ask how hiring someone could possibly be a cheap trick. If you buy and plant and don’t get a garden you love, a good professional could save you lots of time and money.  Expose yourself to places that can inspire you.  Beautiful gardens both public and private, books, a garden club or association, a local garden center may have something that enchants you.

What enchants you?  This is the cheapest trick of all, sorting out what seriously interests you from what mildly amuses you.  Take the time to understand what matters to you about the garden.  This might be a complicated topic, but the more you think about what you love and need from your landscape is like is two aspirin and a beer for your design headache.  Any knowledge is a good thing, and it can be had for nothing more than your effort to obtain it.  An inspired landscape and garden of your own will energize and enchant you. 

I like to talk to people who visit my shop. I am in an out of the way location, so I know people come for a reason. They will tell me why the came, or what they are looking for, should I ask.  So many tell me they come here to be inspired, to get ideas, to feel better, to add or change something in their garden. They happily complain that there are too many beautiful choices. They may tell me that something they see makes them change their mind about what they thought they wanted. I like hearing this.  I intend that anyone who comes here gets visual access to my ideas about gardening, beautiful ornament, and design. The store display gardens, how we choose and arrange what we buy, our willingness to talk things over, coach and care-how we put it all together, makes for an experience.  Take advantage of anything or anyone out there that strikes a chord.  

  People do hire me to design and install landscapes and gardens for them-thanks heavens they do.  People who shop at Detroit Garden Works have kept me in business for going on 15 years; I so appreciate this. It is my idea to keep working, keep evolving.  Lots of people have a hand in this-thank you all very much.   We are in the thick of redoing the shop for the fall, and the upcoming winter season. We have a few tricks up our sleeves. Given what lies ahead for gardens and gardeners alike, we are running a special on enchantment this fall-you’ll see.

Posted on: September 19, 2010 Leave a Comment
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