I get calls from people with trouble. More than landscape design, they need emergency services. When the basic requirements to sustain life go awry, and awry over time, an entire landscape can be threatened.  The storage facility next door to Detroit Garden Works had me landscape their property when it was built-some 10 years ago.  A company in Texas committed to enhancing and softening their buildings engaged me-a plan was installed.  3 years ago this facility was sold-to a person who has never activated the irrigation, never prunes, never feeds, and barely mows.  I have been forced to watch this landscape decline-it is next door.  I do not understand the thinking here-a landscape that was considerable to install does not take that much to maintain.  Should the landscape need replacing-very expensive.  What is the thought process here?  The property next door-shabby.  Making things grow is really not all that tough, if you are paying attention.  Like every living creature, plants need food, water and shelter. The water laying below the sod, and on top of the soil in the picture above-dreadful.  A lawn mower ripped the sod away-grass floating in water does not root.  I knew I had a client in trouble.  

My client-her only clue that something was wrong was her poorly performing impatiens.  Yellow leaved, stunted-and not growing. This picture was taken August1-terrible.  No kidding, this property was not draining.  Every plant was overboard without a life jacket.  Drowning.  I see this more than I would want to.  The process of creating a subdivison-not so pretty. Some are built on land that does not perk-or drain.  Giant basements come first-the stinking and metallic clay from that basement excavation gets spread on the surface of the property being built.  The native topsoil has been scraped off, and sold.    

This old and regal fir has been drowning for quite some time-the end is near.  The new growth at the tips drooping-a dead giveaway.  Too much water rots the roots of trees, shrubs, perennials.  No matter how much water is available, the plants cannot absorb it.  Rotted roots-terrible.  Ironic-a plant or tree wilted from root rot cannot be helped by more water.  Plants need drainage away from their roots-unless they are lotus, bog plants, or banyon trees.  When I water a tree, or a perennial, or a pot, I have every expectation that the water will drain away.  Should it not-big trouble. 

There are those landscape companies that make a business of rocking up and planting new suburban homes.  They build great grindstone rock outcroppings without one clue as to how to plant them.  This opera of a bed-left blank.  The soil that does not drain-in their defense, I will say it is very difficult to explain to a client that wants flowers and color that they have to deal with the dirtiness underground.  I have some skill in this regard-I brought that to bear with this client.  Her landscape was in great distress, and in danger of dying altogether.  Not that I love delivering that message-I still try to help, if I can. 

No one likes to spend their hard earned money getting water to drain.  You get this-do you not?   I like to show my friends my pots, and my fountain-would I take them to the basement to show them my new furnace?  No.  If I spend money, I like that expenditure to be fun-and an event I can share.  A new set of dishes, new garden chairs, a new pot-you get the idea.  Persuading people to drain their property-a tough go. 

This client had other landscape issues.  The design of this boxwood square implied some object of interest that was missing.  A barked bed hosting two plants not related to each other-whoa.  My client was at the mercy of a design build company that had little idea of how to design, and even less idea about how to build. They planted in soil that did not drain, topdressed with some dark bark so all would look good, and moved on. 

I did persuade her to add a pair of artichoke finials from Garden Traditions to her rear yard-the giant stone pergola and pool needed some company. The triangular growing junipers in the above picture-who would plant this plant as a hedge??- we replaced with arborvitae.   

Solving her water issues was the organizing metaphor of our relationship. We installed drains, catch basins, regraded, planted- all at enormous expense.  The company that installed this landscape rolled in, made a few moves, and drove away-leaving my client to pick up the pieces.

I did replace the drowning boxwood in front of her pool, after excavating and replacing that basement blue clay with soil that would sustain life.  I did a giant amount of work for her-none of which blooms or can be shown to friends.  The entire process wearied the both of us.  I cannot remember how we parted ways-but there was a point at which I could no longer convince her to go on cleaning up the dirtiness that was going on underground.  I happened to drive by the other day-looks to me like all of her plants have proper food, water and shelter. Her landscape is thriving.  I feel good about this.  Food, water, and shelter-simple.

Mary Starnes is a reader.  I know nothing of her, her life, or her garden. We have never met, nor have we corresponded.  But her comment on my blog yesterday (or was it the day before or last week?) struck a chord.  Facing flats of flowers on her drive, in blistering heat, she had the time to write to me.  I do not know how you do it, she said.  My first reaction-I am not sure I know how I do it either. With the first three weeks of June-the busiest and most intense weeks of my year-looming large on the horizon, I am under siege.  I am adamant about the design and installation being of quality.  This is in diametric opposition to the need for speed. Our annual planting season is short, and every client has a good reason why they would want their plantings done sooner, rather than later.  I wake up in the middle of the night with a discussion of this planting or that already underway.  I worry my way through the three weeks to come.  No kidding. 

Planting during annual season is loads of work.  Just making sure the proper plant material is on site for a job is a full time job some air traffic controller might want to take on, in the interest of some marginally less stress. Contact me, if this seems like a good idea-please.   I dream about that person coming into my life,-but in fact, I select all the material.  I travel, review, order, and arrange for.  I work 7 days a week most weeks of the year-but these particular seven days a week threatens to knock me to the ground. Designing, locating, and getting plant material delivered, instructing a crew on the installation-this seems to me the full time job of three people.      

No matter how carefully I plan, everything out of my control holds all the cards. Weather, plant availability, a crew person out due to a car accident, a client who changes their mind-the list of what I do not have control over is long and extensive.   Though it may appear that all goes smoothly for me, usually nothing goes as planned.  I can count on this.  Rough around the edges does not show particularly well in photographs-thank God. 

My clients-I cannot count on what they signed up for.  There are invariably extenuating circumstances. Being asked to shift gears midstream-this is my life. I can count on a big fluid situation.  I cannot count on what I contracted to have grown being ready and available-crop failures, mistaken sales to others, disease, too much heat, too much cold-this list of what is not ready and available to me is long. My job involves switching gears on a dime.  My job part two-I assess the big picture, and make a plan for what will work.  It is not my idea that a client needs to know about any problems.  They need to be pleased-satisfied. 

My crew superintendent forgets to charge his phone.  Construction traffic makes me 20 minutes late.  A crew person blacks out, and forgets to load a flat of pink polka dot plants. The heat soars to ninety for two weeks in late May.  The maintenance/watering issues for plants in four inch pots-huge right now. Much of what I had counted on has gone south.  Should this writing read to you as all over the map, I am  pleased.  My life in late spring as best I can represent it-as usual.

No pictures today-I would not dream of touching my camera given the dirt stuck to my hands.  Please just imagine; thanks.

Would that the only thing on my mind were the flowers-so fabulous.  OK, I take that back.  I love nothing better than a landscape that has been designed and agreed upon, under construction. Last July I finished the design for a client who purchased an adjacent property, and required a landscape design that would take their property and and a planned addition on an adjacent property, which would meld them together gracefully.  My plan called for a lawn plane over 120 feet wide, spanning both properties, that would erase any visual reference to previous boundaries, and make whole, what was once separate.   

The rear yard on the river was a study in irregular terrain.  It would be off limits to me, given my new knee.  People friendly spaces require level ground-do not forget this.  Should you want to make your guests and your family to feel comfortable-give them level ground.  Though it is the toughest job on the planet to convince a client that the grade of the land might be the most important landscape gesture they might make, my clients had not one problem grasping the concept.  The drawing I submitted to them was simple; the work that would be necessary to get there-complicated, long,  and exasperatingly involved.

Every square foot of existing grass was scraped up, and hauled away for compost.  Not pictured here, the bulldozers, and dump trucks hauling and delivering soil. The rough bulldozer gestures.   The hand raking.  The checking of the grades.  We restructured the entire rear yard ground plane.

Every square foot of ground from the emerging addition to the water was revisited, regraded, and in the end-hand graded with giant levelling rakes empowered by the hands of my superintendent, Steve Bernard, and his crew. I had not one worry in the world.  I could drop him at a project and visit 6 months later-everything would be thoughtful, well executed-flawless. 

This past November, we sodded the grass plane.  The story of the construction delays-suffice it to say that we had plenty.  We closed down the landscape season on this project one very cold and stormy day.

Spring came-every last piece of sod survived Steve’s careful installation.  The grass plane was level, and intact.  Not so clear in this picture-the entire rear river side of the house and new addition had a sculpted piece of ground on which to sit.  In my mind, this was a considerable contribution to the unification effort, and a giant step towards a beautiful landscape. 

Per the drawing in the first photograph, this grass plane was bisected with gravel X’s.  These gravel lines are 12 inches wide, and precisely contained by aluminum edger strip. My client’s personal space-on the second floor.  This space not only will accomodate large parties and family gatherings on a level plane, they look beautiful from that second story balcony. 

Many months have been involved in transforming a construction site into a functional and beautiful landscape. A gravel walk traversing the entire walkway sits next to the lawn plane.  My client thinks it might suffice as a mini bocce lane-what fun.   

Progress-we have that.   See for yourself.  The final finish-we are closing in. This area will have grass tomorrow. The vegetable garden boxes are done and ready to plant.   Patience I have-should it involve a landscape or a garden.  I have three landscape projects out there now, under construction.  More to follow. This project-a dream come true.  Most projects involving lots of land and plants are slow to finish-as well they should be.  How slow they are to finish, given the change of the seasons, gives me the chance to look over, and edit  an idea. The natural turn of events-comforting.

Lat fall I had a client interested in an outdoor fireplace.  I winced.  I am not very fond of those giant chimney and mantle affairs that look like they belong inside a house, rather than in a garden. Indoor and outdoor spaces may be created equal, but I do not subscribe to the notion that they are the same.  Thus, I have an aversion to rugs outdoors, giant stainless steel heaters, refrigerators and the like.  Outdoor fireplaces need be friendly to the landscape, and not impose some object completely out of context.    

I would always favor an open campfire type affair over a massive stone fireplace and chimney floating in the garden, weirdly disassociated from a building.  But campfires have that informal air that do not particularly work well visually in every situation.  My client likes contemporary design, and furniture.  She likes every element of her garden to have that same spare but strong look.  Some years ago we built a large cypress deck which overlooks an L-shaped pool.  This steeply sloped area of her yard was the only spot that would permit a pool. The grade change allowed for an infinity edge on one end of the pool-this was interested and good. The deck terrace was spacious, the steps to the pool generous.  But how to add a formal and contemporary fire feature to the existing mix-I did lots of drawings. Once we had a design, the existing landscape material was moved out of the way of the construction.      

A placement in the lower yard was out of the question; I was dealing with a considerable slope.  I did not want to give too much of the deck terrace space to an activity that would be intermittent.  I did not want to interrupt the flow of one level to the next.  The result of all of this-a 54″ diameter brushed stainless steel firebowl set half in, and half off, the existing cypress decking.  Though I hate to take apart any just recently finished hard structure, I thought the back tracking would be justified in the end.   

We finished the work last November; I was happy to see the result this spring.  From the entrance to the pool yard, that firebowl is subtly tucked into and off of the deck surface. The bowl itself is set in a column at seat height, finished in bullnosed stone, for comfort. Three contemporary lounge chairs and tables complete a seating area that will hold a number of guests. 

Concrete block walls sit on top of a concrete foundation; the walls were simply finished in acid washed steel. We have one more yew to put back around the foundation and ground level to restore the landscape.  The firebowl is filled with pewter grey fire glass. 

The fire bowl does not obstruct any views of the pool from above.  Its placement puts the pool in better visual range with the upper terrace.  Its round shape echoes the large round divan with integral umbrella that my client fondly refers to as “the contraption”.

The shapes, places and spaces make sense to my eye.  The pool yard is ready for flowers, friends, and fun.  

My client is thinking orange white and lime for her pots this year; I can’t wait.