Steve Snedeker’s Landscaping and Gardening Blog

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I can’t help but call him Bobby, since that’s who he was when I met him, way back in high school. The truth is, I met his sister, Regina first, but that’s another story. She was drop dead gorgeous and a real hoot to be with. But so was her brother. Bobby and I had some serious adventures and there never has been a more honestly curious person than this exceedingly honest and modest man. Right now, Bobby’s battling some serious illness – with a hopeful treatment he’s going for in Nashville – so we keep our fingers crossed. I recently spent a couple days and a night with him and we reminisced about old times as well as questioning our place in Life and for the future. I really don’t believe I spent a bad day with this guy – ever.

The log cabin he is posing in front of up there he built himself. It is one of those divine Thoreau-esque sorts of places that fits so well in its environment, it nearly appears to have grown there. What is most remarkable about his spread is that it is built on reclaimed strip mined property. Well, actually “reclaimed” is wrong – because it was abandoned back when strip mines would simply get mined out, than un-reclaimed, leaving humongous trenches behind as if some Mighty God had scratched his fingers in dirt leaving parallel lines of destruction behind. But the forest and Nature herself reclaimed what we see here, and it is actually quite something. Here’s a shot off Bobby’s porch:

Here’s the man himself, tinkering with some gadget while I take bad pictures. But it also gives a glimpse into the interior of this – perhaps the single most livable, most comfortable home I ever walked into:

The wood stove to the right in the above picture is the heating unit for the place. Owing to the thickness of the logs and their tight milling, the insulation properties are off the charts good. He burned one log while I was there – a 24 hour heating job. There is plenty of the “raw” look which authenticates the “do-it-yourself” aspect of the construction but it is decidedly not an amateur job – not by any stretch.

The massive stonework fireplace was a chore and a half, according to Bob, and was done by a friend while Bobby lugged in a few tons worth of rock. This picture is a little dark, but the scale shows here, I think:

Warm and inviting, Bobby crafted himself a pure luxurious and homey hideaway. His nearest neighbor is a mile away or so and he is surrounded by everything a Kentucky forest offers. That means moles, ticks, fleas and a bazillion nuisances, lol. He has some great tales of critters and dealing with their intrusiveness. He is constantly afflicted by stray cats who glom onto his place and create kittens. He has liked some of them immensely but soon realized the local hawk and owl population liked them more. A lot more. Bob has the greatest porch I ever saw:

He landscapes his place marvelously, using tasteful groupings and stressing his lawn which adds so much domestication to this wild joint of his. Like many American men, Bobby is sort of fanatical about his grass. I always get a kick out of that, myself, having installed so dang many of them personally. To me owning a lawn is like acquiring a pet – way too much trouble! But these guys love them and, I admit, I can see why. Besides, it’s Kentucky, not Reno, Nevada and it is the very home of Bluegrass.

Here are some looks from the road that leads to his place, featuring views of these old strip mines whose lakes now contain fish – no matter how difficult it is to actually get to the water from some slope of about 70 impossible-to-climb degrees:

It’s now just a little bit of Paradise for a very deserving person and one whom I plan on seeing a lot more of. I like this great sweatshirt he’s wearing, sporting the cool look of my favorite town:

My personal feeling is that if I deserve a friend like Bobby Miller, I am a very blessed man. A little dumb, come to think of it, but then – that’s not a crime yet. Hell, look at our politicians!

Very, very cool place.

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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 has become what it once could be. I happen to think it came in at least 3 waves of popularity over the past 100 years- and I understand I am discounting the designers of Babylon, Alexandria and also the Medieval Times. As well, I discount the Bourbon Kings and that fabulous flowering of Chinese, Japanese and Islamic Gardening simply because of what I want to more directly address. I do know that fabulous gardens have always been a human achievement from the organization of the first urban collectives. I also suspect the simple cultivated beauty of flowers actually inspired the beginnings of it all and that those may well have been naturally-occurring owing to their secondary agricultural benefits. Bees don’t go for ugly flowers – they like them hot! Marigolds can keep all sorts of slugs and pests away and even Thistles can deter a deer from munching on a garden’s food supply during those times they were not eaten by hungry lions and tigers and stuff. It’s busy out there and even Troglodyte such as myself and friends will use whatever works. I played softball with a few, so I know them. We are practical.

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At the turn of the Twentieth  Century, American cities were experiencing some severe growth issues, calling for increasing amounts of planning. Frederick Olmstead, among others, became much sought-after by far-seeing cities such as Montreal, Baltimore and Louisville. Naturally, Central Park also beckoned from New York City. Urban planning and the hosting of prideful Expositions, Fairs and even World’s Fairs became a currency of not only a city’s proud self-advertisement but also of a method of installing grids and logical street layouts to suit the individual needs of those towns. What came with these plans and people were a further development of a virtual field – urban planning and, by necessity, the study of Parks and Landscaping. There was an explosion of beautification, the installations of fountains and city parks and a sense of community pride vested in a pleasantness which only large scale landscaping and planning could provide. Interesting figures dotted the landscape from Antonio Gaudi in Spain and Europe to the grand figures of Olmstead, Samuel Parsons and others here in the United States. It led to many things but most importantly it led to an overall appreciation of the plants used and the overall concept of landscape design.

The next development for the US was the expansion of the middle class. This occurred after World War 2 when the US became an economic superpower and the economy lifted so many people into the middle class. Suddenly homes were available – self-owned homes,  in increasingly large size and variety. This was the second development in landscaping and the one into which I and my current contemporaries were thrown. This element is what I not only grew up in but where I ran businesses and dealt with design. This would be the era we are currently emerging from, in my little analysis of the “Earth As Steve Thinks It”.

I believe we are in a third phase of maturity of the landscaping game, one more of quality and one more of creativity. The passe’ works of the past – decorating front yards to give a minimum of acceptability and of making back yards either basic or else ignoring them – have changed. I honestly believe “statements” are what are next with front yard landscaping and that “Quality of Life” issues will prevail for our back yards. I have watched as my own Baby Boomer Generation matured, asking for bells and whistles in landscaping out back in a more general sense. Secret water features and wondrous constructions now dot the rear yard landscape in a hidden but incredibly creative manifestation of both the landscaper and the homeowner’s sense of style. Entertaining includes not just others, but oneself. This movement into what was once the preserve of royalty has come nearly full circle in the construction of fabulously inclusive private areas where one’s life is enhanced and made more joyous in conjunction with nature and with an artist’s touch.

The challenge for landscape designers and installers now is to – first – understand this development.

Granted, the economy is not what it was at present and this will curtail some of the more elaborate constructions for many of us. It will also lead some to do what I have often observed to be some of the most breathtakingly beautiful work in all of landscaping – doing their own place, with their own labor. But be this as it may, the development of landscaping as a tool for living a fuller life maintains and will not go away. As an ideal, it has many aspirants – plenty of people wishing for it as a priority. When you consider it generally takes from $14,000 – $18,000 to redo a bathroom, imagine what that amount could do in a landscape. Believe me – a lot!

The tools for all this upgrading have developed according to the demands of a voracious commercial market, lending items once considered very exotic – such as brick pavers, basalt columns, water features, fountains and bubble rocks of an amazing variety, iron works, carpentry and maybe especially lighting – to now be regular yard features. The framing of a “nightscape” can be achieved with uplit trees and walls, providing a virtual outdoor room on those gorgeous Spring and Summer nights when going inside just seems so reductive. The soft splash of water can pacify any rear yard so that one can read a book in solitude or just take a nap with the gurgling or splashing sounds of water accompanying it all.

Fire pits can warm an evening around a gas fed grate, providing another element in another season, making the outdoors still more effective as a place to hang out. Blooms, trees, aromas, color, night lighting – the possibilities are endless. Even food of a delicious home-grown sort can enliven and enrich our lives in the everyday sense. Herb and aroma  gardens which are inexpensive and which smell like Heaven itself can pervade at atmosphere and make one want to stop while passing by – or waft through an open window. The sensuality of landscaping involves every single sense and can be driven to that end by a studious installation. 360 degrees of fun is the result.

Rebellious, awkward, purposefully funny – there are design themes which also raise the awareness of all who observe them. Kitsch themes such as this picture I mined from Phlip’s Garden Blog (click the link to visit) represents the prior sentence as well as does the entire post he delivers on this marvelous and eccentric piece of Los Angeles landscaping. Please treat yourself to my favorite blogger in the world:

The world is opening to an almost introspective style of representation. The limits are our own but I like what I am seeing and I believe it is a challenge to us all. We can create marvelous things in our very own back yards.

I began landscaping by mowing lawns in Vancouver, British Columbia as a Summer job while attending Vancouver City College. I kept with the company as school commenced, then basically had no choice but to continue the work when I got turned down for a student loan for the semester because I applied late. I stayed with that little company for 8 years, it turned out. I fell in love easily with Vancouver. It has to be the single most scenic town in North America and among those anywhere in the world.

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In the 15 years I lived there, not a day went by where I did not appreciate the clean air and the marvelous sense of Nature which surrounds this bustling but beautiful city. But they also had something else to draw my interest – many English people and an overall appreciation of gardens and garden design. This place is a wonder of plenitude and greenery. Things grow at a tremendous rate, taking advantage of the “Pineapple Express”, the warm currents which bring a bit warmer weather to such a Northern clime. And having said that, it’s also what supplies water – in buckets – a near constant rainfall from September until May. It dusts the surrounding mountains with snow, providing an unheard-of ability to be skiing not an hour out of town and totally accessible by public transportation. With the advent of night skiing up on Grouse Mountain, it gives a chance to seem to be teetering over the edge of the world, about to fall down into the big wide open urban landscape below – at day or night. Below is a view from the mountain, where you can eat and watch the sun set, then party.

During the 15 years I worked there, I went from just mowing lawns and drinking beer at night to actually taking it all seriously – and still drinking beer at night.  ;-)  The little company had begun as a maintenance-only business then expanded slowly into landscaping construction – with an eye towards more. When the owner died, the wife of the owner and the Hungarian lead man asked me to help out and to move from lawn mowing/maintenance to landscaping. I was curious about it and made the move. It was the beginning of an interesting process where I actually took what I was doing fairly seriously and began studying it more. Now, in maintenance, I had the good fortune of dealing with all sorts of fabulous places – just marvelously designed and teeming with plants I came to know and to maintain. I learned of acidic levels for Rhododendrons and Azalea’s, the Hydrangea story, details and necessities of all the many annuals and I planted bulbs til the cows came home. I learned about pruning and trimming hedges and shaping plants. I had learned about roses and odd things, like Palm Trees, believe it or not, which could carve out a protected existence up there. But with the landscaping, I entered an entirely new phase.

So I began helping with the bidding and how to acquire work on a commercial level. As we acquired work, I also did it – I mean all of it. My Hungarian friend Alex was a super landscaper and strong as an ox, so it became a labor of love in many ways because I liked him and vice versa. He told me stories of WW2 and being a POW in Russia, then serving in the Hungarian Army later and leaving in 1956 with the Russian Invasion there. Loquacious and quite satisfied with where he had landed in life itself, Alex and the business used me as a front man for projects owing to his broken English. I thus met people. I also recall actually negotiating my first contract for the business. Sitting in front of someone who wanted to cut down the price – in spite of our being low bidder! – I carved out a face-saving bit of the project and made it look as though he had saved his business some money. It was pretty cool and I recall nervously sitting and waiting for his assent. A bolt of sheer electric shock went right up my spine when he said he thought it was a terrific solution.

I got better, too. I toiled with Cotswold Landscaping like this for another 3 years then I got edgy and decided to go out on my own. This is actually the point of the entire thread, by the way  ;-) . With a partner and no money, one Spring I decided to give a try to running our own business. We had his Mom – he was local – cosign for a truck and we went from there. A local dentist was an old client who adored John – my partner – and he gave us a monster hedge to trim. This was a $500 project – enough to buy a weed eater and some more tools. Essentially, everything we owned we bought with money we earned. The business expanded with maintenance contracts and from the usual Spring Rush where we dropped small ads at doorsteps and got enough responses to continue on. By the second year, we began acquiring landscaping projects – which was all my purview.

Eventually – actually that year – we split up and the landscaping business became something entirely new and bigger and John stayed with maintenance. As the years have passed, it became yet other landscaping businesses with varying success, and in different locations. What did occur with me was a meeting of my own ambition with constant challenges to learn more and to not only appear competent but to actually be competent at installing superb landscapes. It also sent me into a designing frenzy which I will deal with in another post.

My point in all this is to illustrate the path. By using myself as an example, this is somewhat typical of how landscape businesses form. Most landscape businesses we see out there began similarly. I know this because I have obviously been close to it all. Other start-ups have included everything from people who knew nothing about the trade but whose families or who themselves were once General Contractors who saw a need and stepped in by hiring appropriate personnel. (In fact, one of the more successful businesses I know of began this way). Other routes I have seen are people with degrees in either horticulture, landscape architecture and similar programs – even AA degrees from Junior Colleges – and who entered the market with a very conscious plan based on marketing and a sensible approach to business per se. These fortunate few gained from programs with the virtue of basic economics courses and which, Lord knows, I wish I had gone for.

The love of the field finishes a poor second to all sorts of concerns when businesses form. But that same love of the trade which generated one;s interest to begin with makes one heck of a marketable person, at the same time. Landscapers all search for good and knowledgeable people. Indeed, these are those business’s primary asset. A good foreman can make good money when he lands in the right place.

People underneath me have also gone on to some success beginning businesses. No one is going to stop ambition. The primary elements to it all often depend on knowledge and a hell of a lot of moxie. But the more primary issue by far is in getting lucky with timing. Recessions peel off landscape businesses like nothing. I have sweated through 3 now and each one of them left either me or hordes of others languishing in search of the big market they once saw laid out like a Golden Road in front of them. If there was ever any advice I would supply an aspirant who wished to begin his own landscaping business, it would be to take full advantage of any marketplace which was responsive and then to solidify all that as soon as possible and as often as possible. It pays to clear debt yearly, if possible. It pays even more to save. Investment is one thing but saving for a rainy day means saving for a bunch of rainy days. When the market fails, it takes years, not weeks for it to rebound.

But this is the case in all businesses as well. I just know landscaping, personally.

A Winter look at a landscape/waterfall in Reno:

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.….”

I was asked recently by a high school kid whose Dad I played softball with how I chose to do landscaping. He is a senior this year and he is facing those major questions regarding his own future. I had him work for me a while back – nearly 3 years ago – and he was a willing and hard worker. There was a lot of banter between some of the older guys and he – the old “age smack” trash talk thing – which was hilarious. He even “won” a few. He was not afraid to speak his mind for which he was highly regarded among much older guys. His Dad was proud when I mentioned he was missed and that my crew asked about him often.

It made me think. I could see that this was a question which wanted as close as I could get to 360 degrees of an answer. It would not do to present half a picture. Truth be told, my route is not necessarily the one I would advocate for anybody – not whatsoever. The fact is, I stumbled upon it. However, one thing I have found is that landscaping does indeed suit a particular personality. This personality would be willing to wake up at 6 AM every morning for an 8 hour day of lifting, raking, carrying, wheelbarrowing and – in the end – of making things. In the end, this is what we do – we make things.

The Reward – Of all the rewards inherent in doing good landscaping – aside, that is, from the daily dose of endorphins and great sensations at the end of a day – the one primary reward can often exist in revisiting the project later and telling the company you are with – “I made that!”. Seeing a tangible result is a reward pretty much only for those who do make things – typically people in construction but also in art, in fabrication and manufacturing, and particularly in such pastimes as knitting, sewing, forming things from something else – and the tangible product tend to be their own rewards.

The Chores – So we wake up early and drive to work. Typically, on my projects, I tried to get the hardest work done in the morning. It is a truism, proven by studies of productivity, that nearly 75% of the day’s accomplishments all happen before lunch. I have found this to be nearly completely true on average. In fact, I planned around it when it was possible. What this means is that one stretches a little bit, early on, then goes for it. The quiet mornings are full of the odd grunt and fewer complaints than those you hear later. In my experience, mornings in landscaping are the fastest moving times ever. Next thing you know, it’s lunch time.

Landscaping consists of some basic tasks, in many cases:

Dirt work. Moving dirt around is the landscaper’s lament. Move this dirt over here. Dig a hole and replace the hole with better dirt and lose that stuff over there. Then rake it out. Rakes and shovels are the trade’s primary tools, along with the ubiquitous wheelbarrow. Learning to load, carry and empty wheelbarrows, believe it or not, are “musts”. In fact, learning to shovel is one as well. There are ways to involve the back somewhat organically, to help with the work by bending knees in coordination, just as there are ways to insure shoveling will be your worst nightmare.

Shaping the terrain is what we do. It is nearly always first, sometimes following what amounts to a clean up of impediments or the trashing of a landscape which we are changing. Bottom line – We move dirt to where it will be a permanent medium for everything else that follows. Everything happens on top of that. Having said all this, we are helped, as often as possible, by the use of machinery. Bobcats, mini excavators, larger stuff all reduces the body impact of doing the work by hand, just as teams of mules and horses once did for those land-shapers in England and all the many spots in the world who landscaped large swaths of land. The varieties of tools and equipment for landscaping goes back 1,000’s of years, actually.

Now, since I have lived in dry climates, irrigation is installed typically at the original dirt-moving time. Trenches are dug, cleaned out, pipes installed, heads inserted and all the rigmarole involving irrigation is dealt with very early on. It won’t do to try and irrigate retroactively, at least not when grass or sod is involved. Drip irrigation is different but even drip needs a supply line established under the ground.

Anyway, so we shape the land to conform to the original design. Next, there are any number of directions to go. The original shaping could have left room for paving materials for patios, walkways or patios. We could have carpentry projects where the carpenters are busy forming up their gazebo, fence, trellises or whatever. Hopefully, they work with us in what almost always tends to be a crowded space. Otherwise, we often resort to beating them up. It’s tough out there, I tell ya.

If indeed we are paving, obviously there is a need for different materials to provide the sub-base materials for compacting. Dirt just won’t do. So guys bring in the base material, rake it out and compact it – either by machine if access is good or else by the handy old method of wheelbarrow. Since a wheelbarrow of base material weighs about 200 pounds, and the site of even the smallest patios or walkways require tons of material, this is a chore not to be sneezed at. It represents lots – and I do mean lots – of trips, back and forth.

We then arrive at the point at which we install those paving items.  This involves and immense amount of carrying. The pavers need to go near the spot they were designed to go and they often require selective delivery, owing to the many different sizes and shapes and patterns they require. The onus is then upon the carrier to get it right. There is always a dude or two on the ground to put them in place and a crew ahead preparing the strata for laying.

Once the patio is near completion, we work on what we call “finishing”. The soil is in place – perhaps needing amendment – and the “hardscape” is complete, so we can consider things like planting and installing grass and maybe edging materials, if required. So we order up our plants and we plant them, usually – in fact always – (except in the case of monster trees which we often dig by excavator) use shovels for this. Planting can be tough, too, depending on the native soils. Often times we need the help of picks and mattocks to get the hole to a decent enough size to handle the plants and trees. After planting, those familiar with drip irrigation know this is the time we run our feed lines to all the plantings. Oftimes, we will cover them up a few inches deep as well, particularly when no mulches are called for.

Having completed the planting, we move to laying the grass. Since each roll weighs about 20-40 pounds, depending on the weather and the amount of clay they were grown in, this is another extremely tedious chore. There is that satisfaction, however, in laying grass, of such an immediate impact, aesthetically. Everyone picks up on it, invariably. There is something extremely satisfying in laying grass. The change is so quick and so total. But it, too, is tiring.

After all this, we move to the “real” finishing which involves laying in mulches where the planting beds are and depositing art works or thrills into the landscape accordingly. Once we clean the place spotlessly, we are basically done. It’s pretty much beer-thirty.

So a review of all this activity reveals a couple of things: One, that the work is hard work. It requires a body that is either strong already or one which can get that way. This is not the toughest thing in the world, by the way. Every year, once Winter ended and the work started really getting underway, it took me a week or two to get into what I call “landscaping shape”.  It is no different for anyone. By the way, I have seen many women coming into the field and it is a good thing for all. While strength is not presumed to be ladylike, the interesting fact is, it is pretty attractive, actually. The female influence on a crew can also be a wonderful addition, the truth is. It tends to keep things decent in terms of language and even in terms of behavior in general. And they seem to enjoy it as well. Here is the one cardinal overlooked fact of a hard day at work:

The endorphin count is out the roof. The satisfaction of a full day’s labor – while hard – can have its biggest reward in how good the body feels at the end of a day. This is not small, either. There is something to be said about getting legitimately “high” at work and this is exactly what happens. The other benefit is in the benefit offered to anyone who works hard – I personally believe you live longer and that those efforts which maintain a pretty awesome physical tone impact a person fantastically well. I used to play ball games after work. I lived for it.

Advancing In The Field - But this should not keep one from advancing further in the field, either. This is the second phase of a trip through any successful landscaper’s journey and one which I will resume next post.

(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 at stone creations. This one has to be enlarged to fully enjoy. There is Peace, regret, idealism and sadness in these absolute works of art.

More modern times are also well-represented. A mix of iron work and stone crafting has yeilded 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.

(click all images to enlarge)

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”.

So – with the creek pretty much 80% done, we begin running the water to check the electrical and pump systems and to finish all the detail work in the crevasses and in hiding the liner.  We also run the water to clear it, of course. The first passes of water collect all the dust and grime from the initial construction phases- all the dust from feet and from spills and from the rocks themselves. Naturally, someone  washes off the rocks as well at the same initial phase of the cleaning. We’ll leave it running for just a bit and then grab the end of the hose we saw inserted inside at the top for providing the initial flow and basically empty out all the water, completely, sending it somewhere that can take it all. We’ll refill it with the automatic fill apparatus we installed and work away elsewhere while it clears itself. We’ll repeat this step more than once, looking for that clear water.

(click on all pictures to enlarge)

Here we can see the water’s still running pretty murky, as we will also see in a lower photo. About this time, generally speaking, we are ready – believe it or not – to start planting the plants and running lighting wire for the outdoor lighting system. You can see our ‘12-2′ low voltage lighting cable (above) which we ran to a light under that small falls there. Some wires were also sent through the creek, between the rocks and over to the other side for uplighting trees with.

We also began adding the decomposed granite which compacts well and which will provide the traffic surfaces for the horseshoe pit, seen below leading off from the upper patio area. As well, we are adding “D.G.” to the pathways on the upper hillside which we carved out. We are pretty much at the compacting stage at this juncture. We will pack them, then get them wet and they tend to crust over nicely. In time, they make a perfect bottom.

Drainage Issue: It is a tedious chore, getting the grade just right, making sure rainwater and irrigation water all are directed away from the house to somewhere relevant that can conduct it then disperse it – in this home’s case – out to the front street, believe it or not. That’s a long way and we made small sorts of rock-filled creek beds to do this with. These end up being an added feature, in the end, adding an aesthetic touch to a very functional consideration and necessity. In the picture below, at the very top, you can make out a small creek bed we installed for this purpose. Basically, half the lawn and lower section goes directly to there.

Time to start planting! Bear in mind, as exciting as this gets for me, I always see the future in what I put in the ground. Frankly, a newly-planted landscape can look pretty doggone barren when just finished, and especially one this large. I posted a picture below all this that shows us a look at this landscaping 3 years later. Suffice to say, you won’t believe the change. Yes, it is the same place.

OK, so on with the planting and the Green part of the gig:

It’s looking a bit more orderly out there now, don’t you think?

Hey!  Here’s the sod! (below) The sod comes on pallets of about 550 square feet each, with about 65 rolls per pallet or so. We lay these suckers one at a time, just like a carpet. While it is an exceedingly reliable “plant”, the grass, since it occupies so much space, is a huge development towards finishing. It makes everyone’s day, honestly. Grass is the one finishing operation that really brings it all together and points the way downhill. There is much to be done yet, but there is something “final” about seeing the green grass outside after staring at dust and mud for a month or so.

Here, we are adding the final pieces, getting ready to trim the edges, roll it all down firmly, then give it its first dose of good watering. We will adjust the sprinklers perfectly at this time and set the clock for a test of it as well. Right now, Hugo is adjusting the radio, a constant need (!) while sodding as everyone must know! We had some good dance music going on for much of this, I remember. Yes, some of it was Mexican on demand, but I got my time in with some good R & B, too. Sam and Dave and James Brown can do a lot for motivation!

Here’s a look from above. What a difference a day makes!

The two colors of the grass were merely different crops, cut at different times. I warned them of this possibility and that it meant zero, in the end. Inasmuch as the grass comes essentially fertilized, it takes about two-three days for the green to really start setting in.

Our remaining work is all “finishing” at this stage. I term applying the irrigation to all the plants as “finishing”, although classically, it’s still construction. But one thing we can get accomplished while setting up the drip irrigation lines and running the appropriately sized pipes and emitters to the trees and plants is that we bury the lines, then rake the dirt - in other words, we finish those areas. This project would not need mulching until some future date, owing to the expense – it was one of the ways we budgeted things – and it turned out delightfully. We were able to use a pre-emergent herbicide for the first two years and weeds just never got any purchase at all. Jeff and Denise were also able to add plants wherever they wanted quite a bit easier than by dealing with a mulch cover.

Here, below, Romero is adding the emitters to the “main line”, a 3/4″ drip line that he sends a bit of smaller pipe off of with an emitter which regulates the amount of water delivered to the plants roots per hour. The coiled pipe seen in the picture above is this 3/4″ pipe. It goes to every single plant on the property, run off a valve in a timed release. Drip irrigation is the single greatest achievement in landscape technology in my recent history. It applies the water exactly where it goes – to the roots – and does not evaporate in the air or cause wasteful watering which is endemic with spray systems. For those who wonder, that’s a Weeping Larch tree beside Romero there, a favorite plant of mine. The Larch is one of only two deciduous conifers in the world. They look amazing in the Spring, when they ‘re-needle’, in a soft green that gets greener. The weeping characteristic I have always found terrific around water features. “Weepers” are a Steve characteristic.

We also did work on the upper paths, naturally, but in every respect relating to finishing, starting with the top - running the irrigation up there and then bringing it around, we were always working our way out.

Here’s the patio area. The grass is greening up as promised and the line is about to be buried.

Time for the all-important Road Testing” of the horseshoe pit. Jeff was not going to be easy to please, and especially with his Father-in-Law as competition. I gave them a break and didn’t compete with them. They got a break without knowing it, lucky stiffs.

He liked it!  Well, we were just about finished. Please note the scrawny and tiny little plants all set there looking so lonely and forlorn. Then please look at the picture at the very bottom, 3 short years later.

Meanwhile, guess where our next project was!

Here you go, three years later! Different?

Here’s another look at the more mature place:

In the end, I stood next to Denise as I collected the final check and we had a moment to assess everything – the relations, the progress, the push and pull sometimes, all in respectful ways – and we shared one of the best moments I ever had as a contractor. We hugged briefly, and she spoke of all the guys she would miss (It’s an excellent, proud, professional and nice crew) and how the action would be so slow now for her hyped-up young red heads and how they’d miss seeing us. (It did take a full month to do.). I looked at her and I quietly asked: “Denise, do you like it?”

Denise started sobbing. “God, Steve, I l-l-l-ove it!” she said, tearfully. I looked at her and was just awed. I was dumbstruck, I swear. She was telling the truth and we had shared the deepst sort of history and warmth together in just that moment. I was embarrassed, because I had put a lot into it, myself, and I began tearing up a little myself. Honestly, who wouldn’t??

It was just the best dang thing I ever heard. I’ll cherish that one moment forever. Love you, Denise!