Bernheim Forest

Posted on October 25, 2009 by Steve

(click images to enlarge)

My Mother and I took what is a ritual trip to Bernheim Forest – something we do almost every time I am in Louisville. My father’s ashes were spread here, for one thing, because it was his favorite place in the Universe – or a close second anyway, next to sitting by his wife or one of his kids.

Bernheim Forest in reality is a mixture of cultivated grounds, featuring a natural forest, dense and colorful and a massive park of grand green expanses of luscious Bluegrass mixed in with exotic and extremely colorful plants, famous by their seasons. Spring in the park means the planted Redbuds, Dogwoods, Viburnums, Magnolias and the wild rest of the stuff pop out in a massive display of color and great scent, made even more redolent by the muggy, aroma-filled air of the local climate.

Autumn features all of the wonderful color such a decidedly deciduous forest can give – as the weather turns like now, we see the beginnings of the riotous leaf changes which will dominate when Fall really opens up. Some of that is occurring now –

Maples, Sweet Gums, even some of the Beeches which seem to be featured here are already busting out some hefty Autmun color, as the trip through the forest proper reveals. We take this nice slow-moving lane through the forest to assess just to what extent all this stuff is occurring. It’s pretty rewarding. We begin lower down, where the leaf colors have only just begun changing.

The sheer variety of species is another Kentucky richness not seen many places. Spring and Fall reveal an absurd diversity of color and bloom that truly boggles the mind.

Spotting the higher elevation’s leaf changes soon come to the fore, such as this red-tinged little area:

Soon enough, we get a great glimpse of what, basically, the entire forest will look like in a matter of weeks. The brilliant yellows stand out stunningly amidst all the greenery, offering a prelude to the Fall display:

Then it gets better as a beam of sunlight sifts through the forest canopy and highlights a very yellow tree, all ready to show itself in its Fall finery::

Our escapade then takes us up to the Forest Canopy Walk – an outlook constructed by the Park to provide a look from the virtual top levels of the forest itself.

I love the ironwork and this shot of the autumn color between the rails

Mom takes a big ole gander at the view from high in the canopy.

Another perspective a a great vista:

Back down at the entry, the more groomed parts of the Bernheim Forest grounds are really super stuff. Here are trees planted at the edge of the forest which has sort of crept in behind –

But the sweeping lawn vistas in Bernheim, I really enjoy immensely – such grand swaths of green grass. Some, like this one, leading down to the lake and the extremely=landscaped office and enclosed garden areas.

The beauty of Bernheim takes a lot of dimensions, in short. It just screams “Kentucky!” to me, somehow. 😉

Landscaping – 360 Degrees Of Installation – Safety Only

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Steve

We have been dealing with a sort of primer on Landscaping, especially concentrating on the daily work itself and the atmosphere surrounding this labor-intensive field. I tried to describe the physical properties of an entire landscaping project, from the ravaging of the original cleanup and preparation to the very finishing touches we apply in order to get paid by a satisfied client.

Pretty much every post I enter in this blog deals with finished images of projects. Much of this is because I think people who visit here enjoy the eye candy of the many various plants, boulders and designs which reflect my style. These posts are therefore far more dedicated to what goes on the get us to that level. For me, taking pictures of progress in the field was often overwhelmed by a frank urge to get away from the labors of the day. While there was a time in my past where I worked obscene hours to develop my business and a style, more recent times saw relief at the end of a day – which, by all means – is to be expected. Part of the reward indicated in the earlier post demonstrated how rewarding the constructing process can be. Just the same, work always remained work to me, especially as I matured. That we have any pictures at all of projects during the course of construction is more due to the digital age than anything else.

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While I am reasonably satisfied with what I mentioned in the prior post about the work itself, I feel there are equally-important items to mention which tamp down the excessively optimistic picture I drew for the trade. Especially for those who – like myself – entered the trade with absolutely no experience.

The Inexperienced Landscaper

Arrives on the job usually wearing the wrong shoes, without gloves or rain gear and with a smile. Landscaping does attract a certain personality to begin with even – usually someone who has a modicum of appreciation of the gardening thing. Now gardeners are not exactly notorious extroverts, nor are they somehow well-known egotists. In fact, the general conception of a landscaper is usually a mop-headed, good-natured, average guy who somehow gets pulled into it by the necessity of needing a job. Pretty exotic stuff! Cory here is a perfect example of everything but the “mop head”. 😉

Health – Mostly Muscles and Disks

Huge issue here. The biggest, perhaps. Landscaping has rejected some very capable and willing participants via injuries. Typically every event involving strength and endurance acquires a sliding scale of capability. Some guys are human backhoes – ex-football players, big guys with plain inbuilt strength, even the wiry dudes with nothing but tendons and sweat – people who are exceedingly strong, in other words, these guys (typically) fare far easier with the laborious efforts involved in landscaping. The rest of us – the other 99% – need to work our way into it. Plenty of people don’t understand this and it gets them hurt. I have had every body type in the human dictionary work for me and there are very, very few who are literally incapable of this work. But even the “big guys” can hurt themselves. Safety in landscaping is as vital as that of firefighting. There are the usual “first principles”:

Stretching before working. It doesn’t take long to get in some muscular stretching, getting some oxygen to the muscles and loosening them up. Your muscles are your payday here anyway. The boss can do abundant thinking for a while, until you are underway, at least. This precludes an awful lot of the tendinitis problems which are one of the primary injuries of new employees. Repetition is a killer if there is no warm up and no variation. I include “rest” here, as well. There is nothing wrong with taking a break at an appropriate time. I mention all this because of the homeowners themselves who might consider this work on their own. Work your way into it.

Wheelbarrows

Other issues involve proper shoveling, proper raking, wheelbarrowing, lifting, carrying and bending over. I have seen more back injuries from people reaching across an irrigation trench for some part than I have wheelbarrow accidents – and all while sitting down! Everything mentioned above regarding safety issues involves the back and legs – and sometimes arms. Use the legs to help the back, especially when shoveling. Raking – stand up straight! Wheelbarrowing? Know your weight limit. If in doubt, take less of a load. You can build your way into more efficiency – and make sure you have a solid route to take. Add boards if necessary and never try to rescue a dipping wheelbarrow – ever (see “accidents” below). Another issue is the grip. A first day of wheelbarrowing generally ends with the sorest hands imaginable. The grip will get better, but it takes a while to get there – up to a week. Always remember – a straight back is a healthy back and far, far more powerful. By reaching out and stressing one portion of the back, we lose the wild number of helpful muscles which can be involved in the exercise. And when a back goes bad, it’s over. You only have one.

An Accident

I’ll never forget hearing the whine of an Ambulance siren at a project of mine in Vancouver, getting closer and closer. I was speaking with the project manager at the time for this two block large project with the siren sound as background when one of my guys ran breathlessly up to the shed, his eyes wide, yelling that one of our guys “may have broken his back!” I’ll never forget the raw emotion of that moment as it was one of our younger and newer kids who I favored, partially because of his Dad who I acceded to hiring him. As I approached him, lying on the ground, his wheelbarrow full of 2-4″ river rock on its side and spilled, his body twisted uncomfortably, the ambulance arrived at the same time. I saw his back was twisted but not broken – that one was easy because he was moving sharply as the pain would pierce his consciousness. But he was definitely incapable of standing or doing much of anything. His eyes brimmed with tears from the sheer pain and he looked at me with disappointment. He was unable to talk but I could see he wanted to apologize for the affair. I stayed with him and went to Emergency with him, calling his Pop, reassuring him he was still my guy. I made him laugh before they got him in the bus and then he winced in pain again but the smile was genuine. It took the doctor no time at all to diagnose that he had wrenched it and perhaps even torn a muscle in his lower back. Turns out, he hadn’t even torn the muscle but the pain was so intense he could not rise at the job site, freaking everyone out into making what was really the right call.

He recovered quickly but he didn’t come back with us. I felt real bad about it, myself but what he had done was among the cardinal sins of “totin’ and liftin’ “. It became a truism when I ever dealt with new guys operating wheelbarrows for the first times: “Never try to rescue a falling wheelbarrow!” He had hit a wet spot and the loaded wheelbarrow had tilted to the right. Loaded with rocks like that, it probably weighed 300 lbs. Having spent all that time loading it up (and probably overloading it to impress everyone) he didn’t want the chore of having to reload it again – totally understandable. But the momentum of the tipping wheelbarrow raised the odds – with momentum its weight increased and the torque required to resurrect it was too much for his back. The wheelbarrow won, in other words.

He was fine and ended up back playing hockey like he had before. But I have experienced other people going away owing to injury, usually out of inexperience and trying to do too much. Any trade has its inbuilt little horrors. Landscaping’s Shop of Horrors is physical. The thing is, if someone can get by the initial brutality of the combination of repetition and heavy lifting, they pass a hurdle which probably won’t be seen again. After that, it can be fun.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

What always fascinated me the most was watching the evolution of the labor, intellectually and spiritually. Intellectually, most guys take to the simple tasks with a sense of relief. And it is some simple-minded, mindless stuff on many, many days. Generally, I require a body to perform redundant and repetitive tasks. Those pallets of pavers, for example, in the picture where Cory is using the brick saw – they need to cross that driveway and get put on prepared ground. Just one of those pallets – loaded – weighs exactly 2,200 pounds. For this project – a small one by our criterion – there were 10 pallets. That’s 22,000 lbs, or 11 tons. That’s a lot of carrying.

In the picture above, the run from where the pallets of sod were was a good distance. What the guys here did was move the pallets closer to the laying area with the aid of a machine and its forks. The use of machinery is always an improved method of back-saving exercise. The same applies to that oft-mentioned and diabolical instrument – the wheelbarrow. The fact is, imagine trying to accomplish what it does without it.

But, almost always, it becomes a challenge to do the job better and more efficiently. It is a given that guys will work to make it run smoother. Input from labor is a boss’s best friend. The one reliable aspect of having humans work for you is the interest they put into what they are doing. Almost always, I hear questions or comments regarding the processes we use and I have changed my basic ways of doing things appropriately. This is one of the cool things about the job. Labor such as this is rewarding as hell, in the end. Cooperation might just be the single biggest inadvertent payoff in all the trades.

One of my all time favorite philosophers is a guy named Eric Hoffer. He was President Eisenhower’s favorite author and a stevedore at the docks around San Fransisco who delighted in the challenges of getting things done. That he chose manual labor as his path I believe is reflected in his philosophy. For him, every day was new and fraught with new challenges, just like construction. I believe learning is constant and it is true of any labor we do in landscaping – and probably any labor which ever gets done anywhere. He said this:

“In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.….”

Louisville – Cave Hill Cemetery

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Steve

(left click all pictures to enlarge)

My trips to Louisville have nearly always included a visit to the Cave Hill Cemetery. It’s wide open expanses with those sobering small white soldier’s tombstones dotting the exceptionally green native Bluegrass never failed to evoke the tragedy and sadness which typifies warfare. The irony of Kentucky as a traditional Border State meant that there are sections here for both sides of the Civil War – a large Confederate burial section as well as one for Union soldiers. That’s what we see in the pictures above and below.

But there is far more, especially for a cemetery which did not begin as a “garden cemetery” as was fashionable at the time of its inception: 1846. It did indeed evolve into just that, of course, with gorgeous and stunningly beautiful trees planted in perfect locations – a product of the many landscape architects who threw their hands in at various times. Here is a blurb from their own website:

“When it came time in late 1846 to add the graveyard component to Cave Hill, the mayor and the city council apparently did not consciously set out to make a garden cemetery, which by then was a concept gaining popularity in the major cities of America. But, propitiously, they appointed a committee that selected a civil engineer who had firsthand experience of the emerging cemetery concept. Edmund Francis Lee (1811-1857) convinced the city fathers to utilize the natural features of Cave Hill which previously had been considered quite undesirable for burying purposes. To Lee, the old Cave Hill farm was perfectly suited for cemetery purposes. Its promontories would become the primary bury sites. The roads to these hilltop circles would curve gently following the natural contours. The intervening basins would become ponds or be planted with trees and maintained as reserves. The garden setting would be a natural backdrop for the lots and monuments and the cemetery would receive perpetual attention and could never be violated—stipulations never before provided. Here then was a place not to be shunned, but a park to be sought out for its beauty and the spiritual elevation gained from contemplating the collective accomplishments of its inhabitants.

In the Victorian period, personal wealth increased, as did family aggrandizement. The garden cemetery became the repository of symbols of success in the form of truly monumental art. The landscape gardener embellished the natural setting with exotic trees and shrubs while the marble sculptors and granite fabricators erected elaborate memorials to individuals and families. Cave Hill has been blessed by a succession of competent and innovative landscape gardeners, and Louisville has been a regional center for monument makers. The result is a rural, or garden, cemetery which has always been considered a model to emulate.”

Gorgeous works stud the hillsides for veritable miles. Turn a corner and yet another fascinating blend of quiet and purposeful stonework greets the eye – dedicated to the dead.

In the older works, we see great technique and marvelous forms created from stone. In the newer ones, we see that as well, but we also find bronze and metal sculpture taking place which captures the imagination. Here is a descending eagle alighting atop a headstone in a breathless and voluptuous silence only a cemetery can deal, pregnant with meaning and even history for those for whom it is intended.

Here are some older headstones, reflecting the 19th and earlier 20th Century’s artisan ship of all these stone creations. This one has to be enlarged to fully enjoy. There are Peace, regret, idealism and a very evocative sadness in these absolute works of art.

More modern times are also well-represented. A mix of iron work and stone crafting has yielded remarkable pieces:

Below is the gravestone of Harry Collins, a well-known local magician in Louisville who performed for countless children in town and at conventions and fairs for corporate sponsors. A definite local icon, I just adore this beautiful statue of a beloved local figure.

And of course, there is the grave of Kentucky’s third-most famous man after Abe Lincoln and Muhammed Ali:

Colonel Sanders!

Lush and verdant, Louisville’s Cave Hill Cemetery is a totally involving urban experience, the likes of which I have not encountered elsewhere. Rustic, composed of literally priceless antiques and representative of so many different Eras and Periods Of Time and Fashion, it stands alone as a quiet and powerful representation of the respect and the awe in which we have viewed the beloved of us who have passed on.

But perhaps the most evocative of all the regions, for me, in this glorious piece of land are those simpler graves which still respect and honor those of less means, without the crafty artisan ship. These small but equally-evocative headstones mean the world to me:

Hundreds of years of slightly acidic rainfall is doing its best to render the stones back to their former blank selves, as we lose the lettering of these old stones for people buried in the mid-18th Century and onwards.

But some do stand out, somehow missing the worst effects of modern rainfall.

We spent three hours rummaging around and walking among headstones, my brother Tom and I. I am delighted I could, frankly. It’s something I have always wanted to give a full measure of time to. This is an experience with the permanence of death of course, as are all graveyards, but it also is a journey through fashion, art, landscape technique, urban design and preservation and the stark common sense which also tells us even the stones themselves are less permanent that we might have assumed. The Circle is made even larger than one knew.

What a beautiful place.

The Unusual – “Weepers”

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Steve

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The above is a small cluster of 3 Sequoiadendron giganteum ‘Pendulums’. We call them, more commonly, Weeping Sequoia’s. They are hard by a local bank in Portland, of all things, and I have always appreciated them, hugely. Pruned so that human traffic can go and more freely visit their disastrous bank accounts – with some exceptions – they make an even more unique scene.

I have always been intrigued by plants and their various evolutions. I realize I share this with pretty much the entire breathing world, but their study and the events which have helped all plants to evolve into their current forms are just an amazingly democratic process, with contributions from the widest variety of people imaginable. Naturally, there has always been intent with many of these developments, but there has also been other factors – such as the capitalization on genetic accidents, for example. I was once told that certain variegated plants were remnants of such accidents. Whether this is true or not doesn’t really matter, either, because, in some cases at least this is definitely a viable path which found its way to our gardens. Here’s another look at our Giant Lurking Ghosts:

And another: (from the street)

Weeping varieties of trees are no surprise to anyone. We have all seen weeping cherries, weeping birches and the likes. But my discovery of weeping conifers gave me a perfect opportunity to match permanent color with certain other design characteristics. For example, I almost invariably use a Weeping Atlantic Cedar near all my water features, and in particular around grade changes and falls. I just find the visual aspect of “weeping” well matches the motion and direction of the water and the terrain itself:

Another: (the red nursery tag is now gone from this one, 😉 )

I find the sweeping weeping effects can alter the perception of a plane, visually. Not only does their unusual shape grab attention in the first place, but the perception of motion gets created – or enhanced. The illusion of motion amid the static floral and rockery effects is the single most interesting effect in landscaping, to my way of thinking. Futuristic and sense-evoking, a good-looking weeping tree in the right place deepens and arouses the imagination. Below here is another example, on a smaller level, of a cascading effect with these Vancouver Gold Broom plants cascading at the base of this Japanese Maple, seemingly into the water.

This little Weeping Blue Atlantic Cedar “starter kit” (below) has developed more than nicely as a blue background for these “bubble rocks” on a corner of a patio. In fact it’s another significant element of color-matching, with deep greens and blue colors with water effects together, providing yet more depth and congruence. The motion of the cascading water is that of gravity-driven water, matching with the genetic disposition of a plant whose direction matches the inclination.

Here is something simple, but still effective, in a patio water feature, this one a Weeping Cherry:

All in all, I am obviously a huge admirer of this particular effect in garden and landscape design. I can’t get enough of these gorgeous plants, to be truthful. I’m even planning on a part 2 of “weeping stuff”.

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Monthly Archives: October 2009

Bernheim Forest

Landscaping – 360 Degrees Of Installation – Safety Only

Louisville – Cave Hill Cemetery

The Unusual – “Weepers”