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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

Pastoral Landscapes

Rob’s shopping trip abroad for Detroit Garden Works is well into its second week.  He has attended some antique faires, as well as visiting dealers specializing in vintage or antique garden ornament.  His route from this country faire to that rural dealer has been dreamy to say the least.  I have gotten scads of pictures.  Many of them have a very painterly quality about them.  Boxwood Hill, with its path to the top looks like a scene from a Tolkien novel-a pastoral landscape fraught with history.  This photograph of surely trimmed boxwood, and a path up to the tree on top set in rough grass is heart stopping-can you imagine seeing this in person?     

These four terra cotta squares, made at the the Liberty Company in London at the turn of the century, look particularly beautiful displayed against the park like landscape.  These rare signed and stamped pots have a quietly classical and architectural presence that suits me just fine.  They have that chunky and solid English aura about them that rings true.  Any genuine expression I admire.      

Where Rob was when he took this photograph, I have no idea.  It looks to me like the junction of the road, and the road not taken- made famous by the poem by Robert Frost.  I will have to ask Rob which road he eventually took, as his camera recorded that moment seconds before he made his decision.  There is not a building nor a sign to be seen-striking, that.  This pair of two-tracks; each one holds promise. 


Like this antique curved iron bench or not, the combination of bench, lawn and light is beautiful.   

This country house is of a grand scale, but the attendant landscape is seems barely touched by human hands.  Field grass like this-full of all sorts of plants and infrequently cut or grazed is completely unlike what I would call lawn.   The grass adjacent to a wild garden I once had was overrun in the spring with every color of violet imagineable.  I don’t think I knew how good it was until it was gone.  A lawn overrun with violets;  what could be better? 

Many of the places that Rob shops have deconstructed landscapes such as this.  The look is lovely, natural and soft. In charming disarray, this landscape has a life of its own, with a minimum of interference from a human hand.  Though some may say this is evidence of neglect or poor housekeeping, I like how this space has been colonized. The natural landscape fringes and grows up onto the benches, gates, chairs, and ironwork-a natural, and beautiful relationship.   


This ancient limestone sculpture in a church yard cemetery is amazing.  The children seem to be praying for the immortal soul of the deceased-already firmly in the hands of an angel.  The expression on the face of the angel-no doubt he takes his job seriously.  Many lichens have grown up and over this old sculpture-not to mention the rough grass.    


A winding and narrow country lane high on a ridge provides Rob a great view of a herd of sheep, placidly grazing. This is a landscape of a time and place unbeknownst to me. There is eveything to be learned from landscapes that have evolved from agricultural, commerce, country, and community. There are no strident notes.  Nothing contrived, or trying too hard. What is hard- the work of a life. What gets done-a sign of a life well lived.     

This container may have had some hens and chicks planted in it a long time ago, but what you see here is a container planting gone wild,  and a moss lawn establishing itself-the handiwork of a hand far greater than mine. I cannot really explain why this photograph appeals so much to me, but I doubt I need to.

Posted on: October 14, 2010 Leave a Comment
Filed Under: The Natural World, Detroit Garden Works, Garden Ornament Tagged With: ,

A Pedestrian Bridge

This was the scene on Pontiac Drive at 7am yesterday. Tractor trailer after tractor trailer-every one filled with dirt.  Down the street from us, a bridge is under construction. The bridge will cross over 6 lanes of Telegraph road.  2 spans, totalling 315 feet.  The Clinton River trail system, built primarily over a section of railroad which was closed in 1998, is a pedestrian path friendly to bike riders, runners and walking folk, stretching from from South Lyon to Rochester.  Current users of the trail have to detour around Telegraph some 5 miles before they are able to hook up to it again on the other side. The bridge will link the Sylvan Lake portion of the trail to the Pontiac portion.  


Building the bridge will cost something over 2 million dollars; quite a project.  We have been privy to the pounding and trucking for weeks now. Needless to say, traffic on this sleepy street has been congested. I was mesmerized by the sight of all of those trucks. There s something about earth work that fascinates me.   

The project is at a stage where they need soil-and lots of it. I had to ask, and was told-each truck hauled in 44 yards of dirt.  By my estimation, close to 900 yards of soil arrived in a two hour period yesterday morning.  You can tell from the photo above the dirt was very sandy. I have no idea how it is being used-the bridge approach is off limits. 

It took about 10 minutes for each trucker to dump one load, detach the trailer, dump the next, and hook the trailer back up.  All the while, another 10 trucks were waiting in line.  One of the drivers told me that once he fires his diesel powered truck up in the morning, it stays running all day.  Apparently it is very hard on the engine to turn them on and off.  

The wheels on this bull dozer are taller than I am. The operator ran loads of dirt from the street down to the Telegraph side of the trail all day long.  When I left work at 6pm, the dozer was still running back and forth.    

I like everything assciated with the landscape, and that includes the trucks that makes the work possible.  They brought my espaliers to me, under refrigeration, from the west coast. They haul soil, plants people and machines for me.  They deliver the many pallets of soil mix that we have formulated for our container plantings.  Every container that comes from Europe is trucked to the shop for unloading.    

Each one of these trucks has 44 tires.  I cannot imagine the maintenance associated with a vehicle of this size.  No doubt this company has a full time mechanic on staff.  I have gardened in places where vehicles were not permitted.  Even the most simple job took a lot of time.  This in no small part accounts for my great admiration for people who do their own landscaping-and their own trucking.   


I have no idea how long it will be before bikers and walkers can take the bridge over Telegraph, but it seems like it will be a while yet.  I doubt I will ever ride a bike over Telegraph, but it has been an interesting experience to observe a bridge being built.

Posted on: October 19, 2010 6 Comments
Filed Under: Landscape Design, The Natural World Tagged With:

In The Pink

 

By late October, many garden plants have that foundering, fish out of water look. You know what I mean. My butterburrs are moments from total collapse.  The hostas have that translucent sickly yellow color which precedes the frost turning them to mush.  But some things look great yet-my Carefree Beauty roses look strikingly fresh. The foliage is lush and healthy.  The pink flowers have an intense cerise pink cast from the cold nights.  Though a hard frost will finish them off, they are beautiful right now.  It is a rare year that we do not have a hard frost before Halloween.  Our coldest night yet has been 40, but I doubt this will hold much longer.  I appreciate so much what the garden has to offer right now; the dormant season is closer than any northern gardener is willing to admit.  

I was fortunate enough to get a tour of Landscape Supply Inc recently from owner Steve Alford. He has made a life’s work of making rare, unusual and specimen plant material available to the trade.   I could not tell that this tree was a Stewartia-the tall thin shape is so unusual for this tree.  But what I admired the most was that pink-orange fall color-sensational.  I understand why many gardeners in my area are so keen for the fall season.  At no other time of year is there so much color in the landscape.  As few trees are purchased in fall color, it’s worthwhile to consider that fall color when choosing or placing a tree. Landscape design requires lots of thought times 4-the four seasons.

Petunias shake off the cold and keep right on blooming.  This plant has been awash in color since the first of June-5 months.  I water much less now, and have really quit looking after them.  You would never know this, to look at them.  It is an entirely different look from the summer, to see them in the foreground of the kousa dogwood in fall color.  If your annuals seem to peter out by labor day, you might want to look into seeing what you could do differently to keep them producing throughout the fall.  

I do love Halloween; Buck and I must have hundreds of kids and families who come by that night.  This variety, curiously named “One Too Many”, I will carve, and set in my pots Halloween night.  The white pumpkins have orange netting that has a decidedly pink cast.  I may set each one up on a circle of all white pumpkins.  Or maybe the traditional orange; making decisions like this is the fun part of gardening.

My Solenia rose begonias are in a very protected spot on my deck-they have been spared with blustery winds and driving rain.  They are an outstanding strain of large flowered begonias.  They have been covered in flowers for months, and only ask that I be careful not to overwater.  They are geniunely in the pink right now.


Limelight hydrangeas put on a spectacular fall display. In varying shades of cream-white, green, pink, and rose pink, they dry readily in this stage.  Kept out of direct light indoors, they keep their color as long as you want to look at them.  One bouquet I particularly fancy I have had almost 4 years now.   


There are lots of plants that endure or thrive in the fall.  The toad lilies are blooming now, as are the anemones and boltonia.  My grasses are beautiful. The boston ivy is beginning to color up.  My Caliente pink geraniums, so highly recommended by Alan Armitage, look as good today as they did every day of the past 5 months.  The trees are turning. The early hours of the day make for skies more likely to be pink than blue.  It is an exciting time of year.

Posted on: October 20, 2010 1 Comment
Filed Under: Garden Design, Good Design Tagged With: , ,