Steve Snedeker’s Landscaping and Gardening Blog

Separating elements is an integral part of the prettiest landscape designs. Thus edging materials  double as not only aesthetic but also as functional elements. Designs as simple as the laid-in rock edging in the picture below separate the walkway materials – compacted gravel – from the enriched and lush soil of the beds of this fine small herb and flower garden in Portland, Oregon. The thing is they also look good.

Garden Edging

(click images to enlarge)

That one was actually a tough project to make work. The designer asked us to create edges which were nearly perfect – along with the plane of the top edge – which, while not a big deal on the face of it, making it work with the materials at hand required a lot of manual hammer chipping, then fitting – all of this with materials which were all wildly different sizes. Looking at the step stones at the foot of the bench in the picture above is a reasonable gander at the materials we had to work with. The other aspect is how deeply-planted the edgings were. Let’s just say these edges are not going anywhere for a while.

Naturally, lawn edges are what people often refer to when thinking of edging and edging materials. Later, below, I will show the world of “edgings” is far and above merely lawn edging, but a look at lawns is instructive and probably the reason most people would be most interested in the category in general.

Lawn Edging

In order to fully appreciate lawn edging, one is benefitted most by considering the alternative. By not having lawn edging, what we are left with in most laterally-growinggrass lawns are the rhizomes that the develop which  spread routinely. Thus comes the need to consistently address the edges in order to render them under some sort of control. I have dealt, cursing and swearing, with these matters, from a strictly maintenance aspect. The near-weekly need to edge and weed at the same time is a chore that generates a lot of business and focus for such “unedged” lawns. It also  requires an expenditure of labor that – frankly – no one wants, from the homeowner to the personnel who consistently need to get on their knees and pull out the offending rhizomes and spreading grass. Applications of herbicides then becomes an appealing solution – perhaps the least productive answer to anyone’s long term health – of garden and persons.

For example, imagine how much easier to maintain this lawn below, compared to the one following it:

Beautiful as it is, the gardeners spend abundant time here managing the edges of this pretty little lawn:

And even this otherwise gorgeous landscape sees the upper edges in need of work and constant definition:

The price of this extruded cement edging is about $3.00-$3.50 a lineal foot. What we have above is a stretch of about 75 feet. Thus, on a project the owners paid upwards of $25K for, they opted to omit this $225 worth of pricing when including it would have given them something more along these lines and meant countless hours less fuss:

These particular edgings are widely-used out West in the US. They do require some preparation in order to be completely terrific. Indeed, much the same as paving, the better the surface below, the better able it will be to take on the wheels of lawnmowers and weather. These aspects are best laid prior to installation of the grass, in my experience, but it is always possible to retro-fit them to conform to existing areas as well. We always have gone the extra length in order to assure ourselves of a good sub base. To reach a level like the one below, just being sodded for its first time, are some essential steps:

The preparation – well done – deals with each foot of this small cement barrier having been compacted solidly, usually with a mix of sand, soil and even gravel underneath. From that point on, it is possible then to fill in the elements which will surround the barrier.

Nor does this S-shaped concrete edging always give the most ideal edge. Below is what was once the Model Home in a pretty large subdivision. We were asked to install a water feature – not too distracting or noisy – with a small bridgework to be installed spanning its narrows. The owners were insistent on having some lawn there as well and I think we made it work delightfully well. Notice the flat top to this lawn edging, something less apparent, yet still separative and in the same hue as the other concrete around it:

Other Edgings

Otherwise, edging materials supply separation for things such as paving bricks:

They can also be of materials other than concrete, steel, for example:

Slim and sturdy, once established they stay in place for long years, separating elements of this Portland, Oregon lawn and garden in various unobtrusive ways:

Plastic Edgings

Plastic edging is actually a fairly exciting and newer development and is, by far, cheaper than the alternatives listed above. I suppose I should have mentioned these first, but then, had I done that, there would have been much less showing off. I personally consider that a fate worse than death itself.

And here we get into who’s a gardener and who’s not. Edging, in many ways, is best seen and not heard. Separation is the game and plastic’s essential nature allows it to bend and conform easily with the edges we desire. Here, for example, is a project done by a landscape architect friend of mine, Ofer El Hashahar, who I feature in another post just a few ago. His website in in my blogroll, in fact. This is a UK project, full of color and definition and all dependent upon plastic lawn and garden edging.

They work magnificently. If the end goal is a lawn which we can take pride in and which requires less maintenance, then we reach a point where we wonder what we can spend and work from there. Obviously, the wonders of cement edging allow us to tone the color of the edging if we desire, giving us an extremely elegant and even enhancing aesthetic dimension to edgings. Needless to say, the funky sort of natural stone look is as nice in many ways but is severely unable to handle the lawn edge challenge of supporting wheel traffic without the mower bouncing and the stones deforming. Steel, for anyone who has used it, is an enormously tricky material to work with and its cost is surprisngly close to that of extruded cement.

Plastic edging, when installed correctly can be a wonderful product, reasonably easy to install and often making designers out of the most normal of people!

It’s so easy, in fact, even a landscaper can do it!

Of course, he may need just the right equipment for the job. After all, my motto has always been to work smarter, not harder. Oh yes, and “No job too big or too small!:

(this one enlarges real nicely!)

It’s my blog and I’ll do what I want.

A Landscape Architect friend of mine in the UK sells root barriers online among scads of other things.  Ofer reminded me recently of something I had once taken huge care to deal with, back when I was working in the close confines of cities and suburban commercial projects. These projects were all just rife with restricted spaces and gardens over underground parking structures and they all found some relief with this new great product: Root Barriers. I recall using some of the very first large plastic and very strong root barriers in Monterey, California, in a new parking lot hard by the Monterey Aquarium. This was the first of what proved to be numerous applications of this handy and extremely effective material.

Root barriers are used to contain the spread of tree and shrub roots in order to protect other facets of a landscape from heaving and losing integrity. Easily-expandable large sheets of durable plastic now encircle the roots of trees up to 6 feet in depth, forcing the roots ever-downward in their search for water and feeding.

Root Barriers have only been developed formally since 1975. Obviously, efforts to control root growth have always been born closely in mind – all sorts of applications and efforts in the past have included concrete barriers/planters which we poured-in-place as well steel barriers and other efforts, typically always fighting the imperial instincts of expanding nature. It took the wonders of plastic to make this entire new field a more amenable and far easier task for installers and planners.

Yet, finding ways to combat something extraordinarily prevalent took more time than one might think. It has definitely been easy seeing the reasons for them. We all desired a product which could orient roots less invasive to the sides where the more obvious ravages appear and downwards to a “safer” a layer of soil:

We arrived at something like the above as a desired direction of root growth. We have since found that it is entirely possible to get there using the simplest of devices – a plastic panel, attachable to the next or simply rolled out and pre-measured – expandable and wrapped a reasonable distance around the tree or plant. Thus, not only does the barrier reduce the damage from expanding roots, it also has a lot to do with the emerging shape of the young tree above the ground. A result usually results giving a more columnar tree – at least until the tree’s roots expand and find what they need down below the barrier.

Modern structures have demanded even more attention to this detail as we continue to lay on the asphalt to “Paradise”, as Joni Mitchell so eloquently sang it, providing enormous parking facilities to accommodate our love affair with cars. Planting strips abounded in the later part of the 20th Century. In an effort to make these generally-abhorrent facilities more appealing to the eye, landscape designers decided a nice result would be to arrange thin planting beds between aisles. Demarking separate parking areas on the plane of a parking lot led to planting trees in abundance for various reasons – perhaps the most important of which is their thin profile near the parking spaces themselves which can hopefully better avoid bumpers and parking accidents. Shrubbery can fare poorly indeed in these situations. Let’s face it – this parking area is better than the one following:

Not too pretty, is it – the one below, I mean? Well, at least they don’t have to worry about maintenance! The below is what I like to refer to as a gardener-free Zone.

So root barriers allow us to implement a greener environment, sans the continual worries of upsetting the structure itself. Nor is it merely parking lots which are affected. There are abundant situations where reorienting roots to a lower water field are applicable.  Retaining walls come foremost to mind, but any patio or residential or even general pedestrian thru-way applies here as well. Needless to say, roads, curbs and the various long term upsets of planting too closely to buildings and flat structures get some much needed relief, nearly no matter which trees are decided on. I have even seen Sequoia’s in the West treated this way to great effect, negating the inevitability of this, at least for a few years:

History: Once these controlling mechanisms became wider known, suddenly a raft of possible applications presented themselves. Suddenly bamboo could once again be specified for landscapes. Other ‘rhizoming’ plantings which are voracious and famous for it also became possibilities. It honestly did open up some real new and interesting possibilities. It’s truly amazing what a strip of plastic can do.

Plumbing: And not just plumbing, either, but all features of house supply of services, from water and waste to electrical and cable can now be protected by the insertion of such a simple and elegant solution at the face of these mechanisms, or just around the potential invaders. By directing the roots downwards, suddenly the invasions of Birch, Willow and other water-seeking suckers and trees becomes moot.

The benefits of root barriers are a relatively new technology. It’s a technology whose time has definitely come. Once again, my friend Ofer has a bit of information and a few interesting quotes in his website as well as a plethora of good and useful products. He designs and installs gardens and landscapes as well in the UK and is trying to get a bit of income for his growing brood over there in England Land. Here is his site, again, check him out:

Ofer El Hashahar

Just for kicks!

(click images to enlarge)

Sea Biscuit leads the pack at the first turn -

The pace is hot!

Cabbage is up at the head of the bunch

With Bubble Gum, stickin’ to the rail!

It’s a competitive race, ladies and gents!

Banana peels around on the outside!

With Van Gogh charging hard!

And Starburst giving chase!

Cherokee Park even showed up, running hard

With her picnic area tattooed as always

This is a detail horse!

Looking good and stylin’ her Daniel Boone statue!

Royalty was also well-represented as Louisville’s namesake points the way

Although, to be perfectly honest, some horses didn’t much care -

There were some definitely lazy nags at the track that day -

While some were almost too darn excited!

All in all, no one remembered who won. The race was fun all by itself!

Louisville’s “Gallopalooza” is a fund-raising and civic pride phenomenon initiated a few years ago by consigning the best artists in town to do their thing on some gorgeous horses. It’s almost unfair using something as cool and beautiful as a horse to draw and paint on – already beautiful in form, horses are a Louisville love affair. These babies were already placed all over town a few years ago. They are a wonderful institution and uncommonly pretty to look at. They are fun.

Here is some interesting info on the event with many more horses featured in photo’s from Flickr…..here.

I have written about St. James Court and the Belgravia areas of Louisville in the past – here - and here – dealing with the history of the area and its onset as an exceptional Louisville neighborhood. Unbelievably exceptional, in fact. Also, the pictures then were all taken in the Summer when everything was blooming and gorgeous. This is about another season of this enchanting neighborhood and the Autumn here has become equally interesting to me. It’s late Fall now and 70% of the leaves have fallen. It serves as a stark but gorgeous reminder that Winter is on its inexorable way. The thing is, it sets a definite mood, somehow. It is all around, and it’s just encompassing.

There is something about the competing gaiety and the fascinating architectural diversity  in the local architecture – the rather thrilling excitement of a town, bursting at the seams, yet still concerned with beauty at the time of its establishment- admixed with Time, History and humanity itself to give such a mood. Somehow somber, we walked together enjoying the sights and smells in a quieter way than before – in many ways even more able to appreciate the architecture, yet still carrying the scent of things finishing for the year. You know – those days when Winter announces itself in no small way.

(left click images to enlarge, once or even twice)

This picture above is Belgravia, an adjoining pedestrian thruway, attached to St. James Court and every  bit as interesting in every way if not more. Somehow, the rather forlorn appearance really nailed me while walking through. But then, of course, I had seen it at its height of Summer glory, too. I guess that’s it – the Exceptional somehow crashes into the Inevitable, as always, and Winter will soon drop its snow and ice and make what was an absolute riot of color and form into something indistinguishable from any old neighborhood.

Back on St. James Court, it is even more stark

The spiny, empty trees, devoid of their lushness with the passing of their leaves, present such a stark outline. The few remaining ones possessing any leaves at all are the yellow remains of the local Ginkgo Bilbao’s and the reds and greens  a couple of straggling Maples and oaks.

What always salvages any trip through this neighborhood, however, is the unparalleled craftsmanship devoted to the finishes of these gorgeous homes.  I totally misspoke in my despair about Winter coming. This neighborhood will always be unique and inspiring, in spite of nearly any amount of snow.

The gorgeous finishing details of all the Turn-Of-The-Century artisans and craftsmen make this area well worth touring on any day:

Wonderful Iron Work abounds:

The details, the excellent painting choices of the current residents and owners, all lead to a very deep appreciation of the history and promise of the entire area, so well-maintained and so well-loved.

The details are the thing. Even the brick and stonework.

Take a stroll now……….and let’s just browse a bit.

Louisville loves its history and it shows.

Now – if we could just get Santa Cruz weather! 

(click any image to enlarge)

The weather in Louisville is telling me my choice of relocation was superb! Yesterday was the – what? – 14th of November and most of the days I have been here, since September 30, were in the 60’s and 70’s. Hey, I’ll take it! I got a call from my old buddy Paul who mentions it was 43 and 31, with rain, yesterday in Portland, Oregon . Nyahhhhhhh!!

But I know what I signed up for – I am not that naive. The time will come when the oncoming Spring will look like this:

Or at least, that’s what I fear most. Nevertheless, the weather has been remarkably benign and I am utterly grateful for it. It has allowed my Ma and I to get walking locally and for my camera to click away at the abundant Fall color streaking through Louisville like a fairy painter.

The uncommonly red Red’s are mind boggling in their richness and in the Madras-like near-bleeding symphony of colors packed right within one tree itself. Other trees show an equal propensity towards riot – just stunning variations within the same little unit, all displayed like finery at a Fall Cotillion.

My niece, Hannah and her happy man, Jimmy sport gorgeous smiles in front of their new digs with the perfectly-colored tree right in their own front yard!

Another view of this Natural Wonder as The Mumster and I drop in completely uninvited. We are both positive dropping in unannounced is a privilege of age, lol:

The stages have nearly completed themselves and now the leaves are falling. I am readying my Muckloks. Few people understand the depth of my disgust that Winter is even a season. There should really be a law.

But what a sensational set of stages it has been – the Yellows took my breath this year:

These are like a second Sun, nearly blinding on sunny days. Of course, this was a stage leading to a real mess underneath – the bane of homeowners all over but the source of some serious fun for kids, 2 of which I caught doing what we always did as children – making ourselves disappear!

Burying your friend can be hard work. You pretty much have to stay at it because they move around under the leaves and then you can still see parts of them – which defeats the purpose, for Pete Sakes. Let’s move on and get ‘r dun.

Applying yet another layer of leaves brings us closer to our goal. It’s not easy but the one good thing is we have plenty of material. Like everything else, burying your buddy takes a bit of time, but these stages are closing in on completion. Here comes the Coup de Grace!:

Where were we?

Oh……….has anyone seen my horse?

Oh, yeah, there it is:

The City of Louisville celebrates his love affair and their location as the center of Thoroughbred horse racing history by having local artists paint these styling nags all over town. The result is a shockingly beautiful rendition of horse art at the most surprising locations – literally hundreds of these – all different – all over the city.

These were at the entrance to the Papa John’s headquarters  – near where I am living. They also constructed a killer park, sparing no expense in beautifying the local area and pleasing those who walk there:

The very fashionable – these days – Dawn Redwood…. Metasequoia – turns its conifer needles into a deciduous showcase along the walks leading up to my horse and the offices. I must make sure I drop in here this Spring to watch them redevelop. It gives me something to look forward to.

In fact, the Metasequoia has an absolutely fascinating history all of its own. Quite prehistoric, believe it or not it was nearly an unknown species all the way up until 1944! Lordy, I have seen hundreds of them and even planted a few myself. I was shocked to find out these facts. Here is a bit from Wikipedia:

“Metasequoia was first described as a fossil from the Mesozoic Era by Shigeru Miki in 1941, but in 1944 a small stand of an unidentified tree was discovered in China in Modaoxi by Zhan Wang; due to World War II, these were not studied further until 1946 and only finally described as a new living species of Metasequoia in 1948 by Wan Chun Cheng and Hu Hsen Hsu. In 1948 the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University sent an expedition to collect seeds and, soon after, seedling trees were distributed to various universities and arboreta worldwide for growth trials.”

And here is one from a local park, in its currently-all-the-Metasequoia-rage, “Brown Phase”:

But now back to the park at Yum! Foods:

Gorgeous waterfalls abound in the large lake nearby, enjoyed by the entire city as a free range sort of park. As a waterfall-maker myself, I see this and my heart lifts. They have done a masterful job of naturalizing the unnatural – complete with some diesel engine down below pumping what has to be a few thousand gallons per minute over these neat rock formations:

A huge tip of the hat to those responsible for this Falls. This is near-perfection.

I think I’ll close now and continue this. I got steered away – as usual – from the original theme. Hey – there’s just so much exciting stuff out there. Sue me!

(click all images to enlarge)

Back before the settlers moved in and the casinos exploded, Autumn in Reno, Nevada used to be a mix of the yellows of the local Cottonwood/Aspen, maybe the Willow population and a few bushes, generally willows, at that. Always a swampy area, Reno surfaced hard by the Truckee River by virtue of bringing in back fill and raising the town itself to its current level. The presence near the river distanced it from the desert which surrounded it, most particularly to the East. Needless to say, the mountain ranges a very few miles to the West, featuring Lake Tahoe and Donner Pass, determined that particular geography and that the flora there would give a few great-looking splashes of brilliant yellow Aspens in the crevices of the mountains, already mixed with a bazillion Pines. So, Reno has hardly been a deciduous “Autumn Spectacular” historically. It has been “passable” as a feature, said by the finicky landscaper.

Well, now people went and showed up. Now it is becoming something else entirely. On the dozens of projects I worked on in Reno, Fall Color became one of the most-desired elements. I guess what is most ironic about it all has been the discovery of what a lush variety of trees and shrubbery actually thrive there. Maples, Sweet Gums, Ashes – all sorts of bizarre and riotously-colored Fall trees have become popular and are in the process of determining a more than slightly interesting development into an amazing Fall series of breakout color. Needless to say, the incredibly popular Euonymus Elata – “Burning Bush” to the rest of us – also made a showing, among other Autumn glories.

There are always “caveats” to planting anything in Reno. Unremitting sunshine can literally “scald” tree  bark so many wise Reno-ites apply Latex or “Whitewash” to help with the lower barked areas of trees as a sort of “Sunscreen”. Dealing with bugs and fungi are also issues – always occurring for ‘introduced’ species anywhere, but, by and large, Maples, Sweet Gums and the rest are already real close to a natural adaptation. A bit of help with water and looking out for the ravages of Sun and they absolutely thrive.

My sister Diane, who teaches school in Reno and who also loves the photography of her own neighborhood’s small delights, sent me a raft of photos from this Fall’s Autumn display along with some more-than-interesting pictures from another realm of irony – the historical “Sequoia Love Fest” of Reno. She has moved into one of the older areas of Reno – a very-established neighborhood of immensely pleasing walking sights and sounds, peaceful and satisfyingly inhabited. Very treed-up, these are sights available which the newer areas of Ren0 – immense and now-sprawling – do not have. It was in Diane’s current much-enjoyed neighborhood where those real historical experimentation’s took place.

But first, her local Autumn color, beginning with what has to be a Norway Maple – to my mind, a very popular and healthy tree in the Reno climate:

Check out this gorgeous Red Oak, famous for its brilliant Fall color:

I love the deep purple of this Raywood Ash -

Ground covers are another under rated aspect of Fall color and I think she really captures this particular delight in this picture where we see a few remaining green leaves midst the severely altered Fall color:

Experimentation’s with architecture also happened! I love this little white home, shady as it is and so well-placed among the neighbors. Cosy and welcoming, it adds a personal and eccentric touch to the homes surrounding it.

Now to the “hilarity”, with a great “segue home” above.

No doubt while casting about for the right trees and plants to establish in Reno, there was some wild enthusiasm shown to Giant Sequoia’s. This happens to also be one of my very favorite species and they are incredibly handsome to look at as they develop, then tower over just pretty much everything in their march to Lord knows how high. Which is the point. At their height of development, who would not love looking outdoors and seeing this view?

Or this?

There is nothing that is NOT impressive about these gorgeous behemoths. These here are probably 60-80 years old and are already over 100 feet high. Perfectly balanced, unimpeded by competition, they show a breath-taking beauty of form and of power. They shade an entire street, easily and those soft-looking needles make quite a show during windy days. Very much the Gentle Giants, what do they look like down below? Did people literally plant these trees hoping for fast growth and as lawn ornaments? I fear the answer is a qualified “Yes”.

They do get large!

And they are pretty rough on pretty much anything that gets in their way. I suspect these large guys have found a water table in their march upwards- and downwards – and that it is more than a bit satisfying to them. Sequoia’s tend to root laterally in many cases, although they do root deeper than other trees – such as Cedars – which also thrive in creek bottoms and river flood plains. These particular trees have thrived beyond doubt, no doubt to the dismay of those watching their Imperialistic Ways march relentlessly on. They have also been very toughened up by the relentless Reno winds which prevail in Spring like nobody’s business, daily. I think it’s safe to say they are not going anywhere.

Once pampered, now “on their own”, these guys which were once beloved owing to their shape and foliage are now creeping into problematic areas, such as foundations, streets and sidewalks.

This is not uncommon anywhere, don’t think I am picking on some failure of projection for Reno people. All cities deal with specified plants which act other than was initially desired. Any look at power line work, angry cable installers, telephone personnel testifies to this – anywhere. But these are unique to me, in that they are such gorgeous and humongous specimens now. The implications of planting trees which grow far beyond what we planned is on display here – and nothing else. People love what they love and will work around their “mistakes”.

Even gorgeous Blue Spruces can crowd a guy a little bit!

I love the dilemma, don’t get me wrong. It’s always super to see people with love affairs for trees and plants, no matter how much soup they find themselves in.

Just the same, there are some plants who do better than thrive, if that’s possible. Pyracantha, for example, seem to have adopted Reno as the greatest place on Earth.

Cool stuff.

I partnered up with my Israeli friend Annette a few years ago to construct and try to run a gardening and landscaping forum together: http://verdantforums.com/. It was fun, actually but we are now pretty finished with it and are looking to sell it to an interested party.

It actually went great guns for a bit but then it became nearly too much to operate owing to the hard times I was facing in trying to keep my business alive. The time constraints and demands of that time were just not allowing an online life. As in anything, once you lose focus, it tends to lose memberships and momentum. We have kept it around for a while out of sheer sentimentality but even going there any more tends to depress me – who had all that fun with it when it was a going concern. It just wasn’t in the cards, bottom line.

So we’re offering it for sale here:   http://flippa.com/auctions/77955/Gardening-and-Landscaping-Forum

You can make a private bid and no one outside of us will know who made it. For what it’s worth, I would be willing to help with the transition, or even more as time rolled on. It does have my stamp all over it, but everything there becomes the property of the new owners, articles, pictures, the whole deal. It is a vBulletin software, well-known as one of the best forum compilations. It is exceptionally easy to operate.

I’m just tossing it out there for those who might consider a venture like that. I would far prefer it be someone who understands how I love the trade and my fellow dirt people, lol.

You can also email me, privately, at steve.snedeker@gmail.com

Feel free. Thanks.

(click all images to enlarge)

Peaceful, exotic, unusual, Yew Dell gardens is not your everyday visit. While they have the most gorgeous groupings of evergreens in their classic routine – with smaller, lower-growing species below and the taller groupings behind in a wash of evergreen textures, and all developed carefully over time – there is much more here. Even the more deciduous areas were constructed with the longer view, which means depth, color and structural form of an incredibly appealing nature.

First the evergreens:

Then those more deciduous groupings:

This is a garden that would have to have been a nursery-owner’s delight. Experiments galore still stud the grounds in a riot of stable,aged and  standard plantings, mixed with some real bizarre eye candy. Lovingly constructed by the instigator of all this and his loving wife, Theodore and Martha Klein had them some real fun. Here is a short blurb taken from their website ( http://www.yewdellgardens.org/):

“Beginning with 33-acres of Oldham County farmland in 1941, Theodore and Martha Lee Klein spent the next 60-plus years developing an exquisite private estate, a successful commercial nursery and an extensive collection of unusual plants and outstanding gardens. Known locally, nationally and internationally as a first-rate plantsman, Theodore Klein was also a self-taught artisan who personally crafted the buildings and gardens that became known as Yew Dell.

Through the years, Klein collected over one thousand unusual specimen trees and shrubs which were displayed and evaluated in his arboretum. He also worked to develop new plant varieties for the regional landscape, amassing an impressive list of more than 60 unique introductions over his professional career.”

A perfect example of the level of “whimsy” Mr. Klein brought to bear on his property rests here, in the form of his small “Castle”:

Mr. Klein’s love of and appreciation for stone work is redolent throughout the entire place. His walls and even other entire buildings show a severe appreciation for the beauty and form of stone houses, walls and steps into gardens:

I love this wall. It reeks, somehow, of Kentucky, reminding one of the rows and rows of “slave walls” dry set and loose along the roads around horse farms in Central Kentucky:

In the end, however, it remains the plantings which left the largest impression on this visitor. Here is a series of different-colored Xanthosoma – ranging from a lime green, through a cultivar featuring deep purple stems to another entirely purple variety which absolutely stunned me with its deep purple tone and downright uniqueness. (Check out the reverse side of those gorgeous huge leaves and how they become a dustier “negative” of their reverse):

The velvety texture of the darker portion is hard to capture on camera, but it feels just as lush as it looks.

The fact is, the garden’s fascination with “Purpurea’s” of all types does not stop at those uncanny Xanthosomas. Here is a tiny set of purple Shamrocks -

Odder yet – and tons more purple – is this most surprising Mimosa Tree:

The Yew Dell Garden is a true delight. It’s a bit smaller than I had thought it would be but they manage to cram all sorts of fascinating, weird, wild and wonderful stuff into it in a riot of species, colors and form. We caught it at the onset of Autumn, so we missed a lot of some equally-unusual annuals and the perennials which had just pretty much finished doing their thing.

Frances at FaireGarden will appreciate their love of that gorgeous Muhley Grass, however, stuck as it is here at the entrance to the place -

Fearless, experimental and plain fascinating, sculptures are sporadically placed around the Gardens in auspicious spots as well.

I was particularly taken with The Hand – the sculpture which opened up this post at the top. It’s stark posturing in the middle of a wide expanse of grass just speaks volumes to the unique perspective this gorgeous and interesting garden exudes in so many ways:

Here’s a walkway through some pruned Holly Trees, hard by those purple Xanthosomas and another sculpture. Like I said – the interesting stuff just doesn’t quit.

I confess to my own bias – I am also fascinated with purple as a garden color for some strange reason – and maybe that’s it – the strangeness. But Yew Dell certainly has it in abundance, combined with other slices of absolute uniqueness.

Color everywhere – even in Fall – this garden is well worth anyone’s visit. Eccentric gardens are not that unusual in North America. I know a family in British Columbia who once made themselves a small retreat out of Rhododendrons and Azaleas which got bigger than themselves. Some of these places are now parks people gladly pay to visit in season. Yew Dell, motivated by a nurser and handy man with resources has become every bit of that.

Thanks for coming along!

Walls in any landscape can perform more than one single purpose. Sometimes, as in this picture below, they separate elements of a landscape and add a certain orderliness which would not be there without those demarcations. As a predictable and handy side effect, they also are fabulous places to sit when “plagued with” overflow party-goers. These particular blocks and their caps have a rustic look which well-matched the informal ranch-style home of the owners. Their neighbors were fairly distant and the environment was wide open and range-like just outside their fence. Something more formal would look exceptionally out of place.

Note also the business of the lighting which we provided access for by drilling downwards and pulling the necessary wiring from the house. Along with railings, iron work and any number of possible additions, the lighting here adds a value-added and experience-enhancing element. The totally adjustable rate of light made for romantic or well-lit evenings, good for watching stars or for some more focused work.

(click all images to enlarge)

Other purposes for walls – and probably without doubt the most common – deal with terrain and grade changes. Steeply-sloped land causes some problems, not the least of which is the probability of erosion and the subsequent messes after torrential rains. Most of the prefabricated wall systems are designed to withstand the hydrostatic pressure which builds behind the walls when things get wet. A saturated soil still feels the gravitational pull of the water inside the earth and that water still acts like a river – everything wants to run downhill. This implies pressure, simply put. In fact, it implies one heck of a lot of pressure. Nothing, in the end, quite matches the power of water in its urge to break through to release.

We therefore work with this fact in every construction. In the rainy environments I have lived in, such as Portland and Vancouver, BC, the task  in many ways is easier, actually. Unlike Reno, the rain is predictable, even in the amounts – lots! Reno, meanwhile, can wait 7 months between rainfalls. Then you often get snow and rain – in order! All of that badly-needed precipitation is generally packed into about 3-4 months of time – Winter. And even then in strong deliveries. What is first involved, then, in any wall system, is the base.  Secondly, is the drainage. But we start at the bottom. If it is not sturdy and perfect, the entire edifice is not sound. And, yes, they will most certainly collapse.

Here’s typically what we begin with:

The initial excavation includes all the computations we arrived at in the design process. Where the drain pipes go, what to do with the water, how high the wall will be, all that. It’s always something else watching it knit together.

Once the wall is excavated, we bring in base rock, very similar to how we lay pavers. Where the blocks will go will have nearly a foot of base material to provide that sturdy foundation. Actually, we do this on all our wall constructions, no matter the material. Even large rocks, we like putting in a compacted base underneath. We will pound the loose ground under a construction until it is rock hard, then back fill or lay in the material. Even railroad tie retaining walls require the same. This picture is a small part of a quarter mile’s worth of double and triple stacked walls in Vancouver. Under each one of them, we added gravel and compacted it like crazy. Now 23 years from the time it was installed, it has not moved an inch.

The draining of the walls is probably number on on the Importance Index. Even a dry climate gets rain – and sometimes then, they are torrential. It can make life weirder.

Here’s an example of how we drain even small walls which have hills and thus wandering water building pressure behind it:

Here is an example of drainage, right from the first. This will be a walled enclosure to hold a spa/hot tub. It will sit nicely into the hillside, providing privacy and some muted sound. The fabric-covered pipes will tuck in around the base of this wall at an angle that conducts the water away. From the top of the wall, we put a foot-wide gravel-filled trench close to the wall itself. This allows the water to drip down into the pipes and then get carried away. Since we also installed a paver patio on this project, we managed to trench ourselves and guarantee a proper course for the water by putting solid pipe underneath.

In stages:

Here is what it resulted in:

The wide array of rocks, concrete products and wood materials available for wall-making is pretty impressive. In most cases, the materials can be specified to match the desired ambiance of an overall project. From an aesthetic perspective, this is a total plus – I mean  just having that range of possibilities. But from a practical perspective, there are only a few “right” ways to build them.

Prepare the base well. Drain the walls. Take the water away or watch them fall down.

Remember the first picture up there of excavating? Here’s what it looks like almost done:

(pardon the incomplete look, by the way – the tarps, the bags of mortar – I have always had the methodology of completing work and then moving on. It’s only recently that I have considered I might want later looks at completed projects. I thus prove my standing as a contractor, lol. Not only can I be predictably late, I also forget where I’ve been!)    Oh, and here is why this owner wanted that wall with few plants. Below is the view from his patio:

Another angle for this 270 degree vista of Reno and the distant mountains, looking South – he had a rare lot. An average house which he gussied up nicely inside, but one heck of a cool lot:

The neighbor to this project got into the act as well, lengthening the stay and complicating things in the best ways and so we ended up doing them as well. It actually made it easier because the neighbor had a great place to evacuate all the water. But we extended things and made stairs and a sort of a natural  finish by continuing the wall on the inside and outside. The curving wall at the end wraps around the neighbor’s property, complete with his own set of stairs.

In case you wondered about the copper-colored tiles, they were actually water features themselves. Quite attractive and quiet, they supplied the virtual sheet we and the owner were looking for, all controlled from the house. With the lights embedded into the pavers and some nice underwater lights in the reservoirs of the cascades, this made a totally warm and impressive patio, fabulous for parties. Here’s what it looks like when running:

All our walls are way too interesting to do. For some reason, I get a real kick out of wall-building. For example, this becomes the picture following: