Author: andallengarden

A while ago I touched on the notion of self/work/community as a way to look at balance in our lives. A great example of community is the effort RollsRoyceGuy and the lovely Fi put into organizing a trip to the south of England for a friendship group of 14. The tour incorporated interesting visits to Windsor,Hampton Court Palace, Duxford and the Imperial War Museum, Cambridge, Blenheim Palace, Bath and the capital. Great eating experiences from good pub fare to fine dining in Trinity Hall College ( founded 1350) ; local beer and interesting wines; a mountain of history and acres of beautiful scenery.

The complex society the Romans established in Bath 2000 years ago; the founding of Cambridge university in 1209 and development of 31 Colleges, Nobel prizes a plenty ; walking the same cobblestones as Henry VIII; promenading with the Georgians; hanging out in the same bar as heroic men and women who fought the Battle of Britain; visiting the floral tributes in Green Park to HM Queen Elizabeth. So much time travel in the space of 400 miles.

Great architecture, centuries in the building.

A pit stop in Saffron Walden provided a counter balance to the splendor of colleges, abbeys and palaces.By chance, the coach dropped us off outside the Quaker Meeting House, CP and myself walked around the back and found the Peace garden.

A former burial ground,non descript garden, but a provocative thought. Gardens bring so much opportunity to us – we just have to see the potential.

Our 2000 year trip touched on the invaders and warmongers, the feudal, the impoverished , the sick, the brave and the innovators – much like the world today! If the current leaders heeded this advice and spent a bit more time contemplating and reflecting, then perhaps , our world may be a tad better.

All this wonderful stuff with a big dollop of friendship, fun and revelry- all made possible by hours of research and planning by Fi and RRG. The reward? So many memories and 14 very happy time travelers.

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One of CP’s most enduring characteristics is her modesty.In the 40+ years of marriage, not once have I heard her mention that as a schoolgirl field hockey player, she was an international trialist. As a mother and senior player she represented the county. Mads followed in her mothers footsteps and played county hockey as well as being a 2 time state champion.

You watch field hockey now and it is played on artificial turf – back in the day it was on grass. Muddy grass, rock hard bare “grass” more resembling concrete, green grass,brown grass, frosted grass. Grass – one of the most taken for granted plants, one of the toughest plants, one of the most diverse plant types – plays a large but under-appreciated part in all our lives.

The house came landscaped with grass – not much else – but plenty of it. In 40 plus years of gardening this was the first experience of having warm season grass for a lawn. Ours is Bermuda grass but it could easily have been zoysia or another couple of varieties. The basic characteristic is that the grass tolerates summer heat very well but goes dormant – a nice tan color – in the winter. In the first week of October, as the leaves are falling, the first sign of the dormancy process is apparent.

Bermuda grass has two characteristics relating to maintenance. It is partial to high potassium fertilizer which helps it develop heat stress resilience. Secondly, it spreads by both above and below ground runners hence clumps of it can be found some distance from the main body of grass. Lawn edging is a critical process in keeping the lawn and adjacent beds clean looking – small but frequent doses of bed cleaning is also essential.

Despite the work involved, the lawn looks good in summer and is even quite attractive in its winter dormant state.

Now, as proud as I am about our “southern lawn”, my attention to detail is nothing compared to that of Allen – who put as much work into his lawn as he did to his roses. No weeds, perfect edging, cut twice a week,as green as green could be. Allen could easily have been a grassman at Wembley stadium, the Oval or Wimbledon. In the hottest and driest of summers,with hosepipe bans in force, his was the only green lawn in the village. Rumour has it that a shadowy figure could be seen walking across his garden at 2am, accompanied by the faint sound of sprinkling water?

The great thing about grass is it’s diversity – lawn grass, specimen grass and native grass – all different and each variety adding huge interest. There is much more potential to use grasses at AndAllen – a planning project for cold winter nights?

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As I approached the end of my professional career I worked with Julian, a human development coach on a once in a lifetime project (for me). 2 objectives – 1) what needs to be done to leave my responsibilities in the best possible shape – 2) get myself ready for retirement. During the course of these discussions I was introduced to the work of the poet David Whyte – specifically “The 3 Marriages”. In truth I cannot remember the detail but the broad notion has stayed with me from day one.

If you can balance the 3 major constituencies in your life – self, work and family/friends/community – giving each high quality attention, then there is a good chance that you can live a fulfilled life. Concentrating on one element for short periods of time is ok in exceptional circumstances – but life’s richness comes from a broad range of stimuli and experiences.

Now when you retire, these 3 constituencies get somewhat skewed, with one,work, being drastically diminished. In my deliberations, I realised that gardening could partially fill the void by increasing activities and moving them from the “self” to “work” segments. My professional life required discipline, provided structure and a high level of satisfaction. The design work undertaken,the projects completed, expanding the garden focus with crevices and woodland plantings and the benefit of additional physical effort have allowed my personal “3 marriages” to be rebalanced.

One of the pleasant surprises of the additional gardening focus has been the enrichment in the family/friends/community segment. Garden clubs,visits,casual chit chats, blogging – all enriching. The icing on the cake? Last week’s visit by the 3 rascals Cob,AL,and Rosy.

Given free reign they did what children do – explore! The early focus was on the birds especially the hummers and Cob’s favorite -American goldfinches – regular visitors to the feeders. Then lizards – the 2 girls fascinated by Cobs ability to catch,handle gently and then release – green,brown, grey, silver, small to not too small!

Insects,caterpillars,butterflies,shed snake skin, collecting pine cones in their wheelbarrow, all on the agenda. Climbing over the crevice garden – why? – because it is there! Picking tomatoes in the herb garden (but no chance of eating them!). And just running everywhere – through the water sprinkler,from one end of the lawn to the other. When it all got a little too much – snacks and drinks under the patio shade.

The greatest excitement was the discovery of a couple of humming bird hawk moths which Cob captured with his mothers phone.

Once the wildlife had been fully explored it was time to start the project – the first new sculpture in the garden. A pile of quartz had been collected – I laid out the backbone of half a dozen of the bigger rocks and then the kiddies filled the gaps.

Cob came up with the idea to adorn the quartz with pine cones – eagerly supported by AL and Rosy.

It took about an hour and a half to finish it off – no standing back and admiring the finished sculpture…….

……… can we go in and watch some TV and popcorn almost in unison!

AndAllen has been a year in the making – by no means finished – but the pleasure in its making was far exceeded by this one day. CP, the Girl on the Hudson,Mads and me just watching and enjoying the simple fun of three having a wonderful time.

Stamp collecting is a multifaceted pastime. In addition to organizing these little works of art, there is much to be enjoyed from the historical and geographical study of the countries that you collect. The sequence of name changes of a country is easy to follow through postage stamps. Zambia,Zimbabwe and Malawi used to be administered by the British through the federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Perhaps my favorite country name is Van Diemens Land – a stamp collectors dream. Stamps were only issued from 1853 to 1858 when the country reverted to Tasmania. Thus it is possible, with a little patience, to collect every stamp issued.

I have spent the last 2 weeks visiting “Youngpersons Land” – in northern NJ. A fun place – lots of buzz,nice restaurants but best of all the chance for nice walks along the Hudson River. The demographic trend is towards youth, as evidenced by the number of people with white ear growths, walking around talking to themselves, oblivious to the likes of me listening in. Whilst the “ crinklies” walk like crazy to stave off old age, the young cool dudes ride down the footpath on their electric scooters trying to avoid mothers pushing prams and “crinklies” ( who are smug in the knowledge that in 40 years time the cool dudes will be walking like crazy too!).

Now the nice little walks undertaken along the river have confirmed one thing – my thinking about the AndAllenGarden patio was spot on.One thing I do not miss about the RidgeGarden was the block driveway leading upto the house. Continual weeding and removal of moss, between the joints, twice a year.I had discounted this – very modern and on trend – option, focussing on either decking or full size stone pavers.

In one of my student summer jobs,as laborer to John the master paver, I learned that patios are 80% preparation and 20% laying the stone. If the preparation is not right then the patio will not look good for very long. To prove John’s point?

So at AndAllen the decking option was explored – we had a wooden Ipo deck at the Ridge, looked fabulous but to install it where there was no basement overhang would require a metal subframe.The problem was 2 fold – it doubled the cost and we didn’t fancy a metal frame running the length of the house when we can get 2-3 thunderstorms per week in the summer. In the end we decided on a bluestone patio with variable slab size, to provide some interest.

The other nice thing about walking in “Youngpersons Land” is that the #1 accessory for the locals is a dog – mind you, they are responsible dog owners who “scoop the poop” – so there are always interesting breeds to be seen. Nice to see that the most popular dog is a mongrel – a doodle! There are golden doodles, labra doodles, cocka doodles (do) – apparently the choice is unlimited – there may even be some doodle doodles ( according to Mendel, a 25% chance if you cross 2 doodles). A walk is made all that more interesting by the doggies ( and the pavers!).

Puebla,Mexico was the scene of one of the most interesting projects I was involved with. Richard (not his real name) and myself had been sent to appraise a factory – a potential purchase to facilitate the launch of our best selling product.Dick was the engineer, I was the business lead – 8 days to come up with a feasibility assessment, outline design and cost. Dick had some interesting personal characteristics – believed the world centered around engineers , quite an ego, very status conscious and didn’t take advice readily. Day 1, not a seasoned business traveller,Dick insisted on having his normal breakfast – cornflakes. Strongly counselled not to do this – raw milk likely to be problematic ( the rules of CB, my mentor being – no ice; bottled water only; nothing cold, no salads or cold cuts; eat hot local food;drink beer – all lost on Dick) – Dick went ahead. 6 miserable days spent with food poisoning in a hotel room meant I had to be both engineer ( with the help of a local contractor) and business lead. A pleasing result for me, the factory was bought, the manufacturing facilities installed as designed and the execution cost within 30% of estimate. For Dick – cornflakes!

Thus doing a garden project especially with plenty of planning time did not seem to be too big a risk – but this project would be very personal. With summer upon us and very much in maintenance mode now is a good time to review how it all went.

Big picture summary – a success. On budget with scope delivered – hitting all the elements we wanted. The time taken in selecting the design and installation partners – well spent. So what were the key points to note.

The big money was in the hardscaping, fencing and mature trees. The quality of the trees was impressive and the care taken in planting has contributed to them thriving – early days but no signs of stress. The fencing was simple – the design type was controlled by the HOA – all vendors offered similar materials so it was simply choosing a vendor you can work with and then negotiating hard. The choice of patio was frustrating – Covid supply chain issues limiting choice with our preferred being unavailable. In the end CP chose the shade and we went with the only product that was available – a blessing in disguise as there was much less angst and we are happy with the outcome.

Plant selection took up a lot of time – much of it wasted as many selections were not available. I came to realize that there is a difference between a landscape architecture company and a garden design company. Scale is one difference but also planting philosophy is another. LA’s tend to focus on multiple plantings of few species with green being the common color and height and texture the differentiators. Color is more of a challenge and I was surprised at the narrow focus of recommendations and limited choice in the supply base. Once the perennial beds had been planted I managed to find a greater range of plants myself to fill in the gaps – a process that will continue. To date, the only perennial that has under performed is Stokes aster – a dozen were planted and are likely candidates for replacement next spring.

The crevice garden installation and design turned out 100% as anticipated and has surpassed all expectations. The weeks that CP and Mads spent with me defining the exact positioning of the installation was perhaps the most important aspect of the design.With no help from the topography we think its position is the perfect balance as both a focal point in its own right and a punctuation mark between the herbaceous beds and the Japanese garden. Stone selection was brilliant and Jeremy and Megan excelled. A surprise in the crevice garden has been the lack of resilience with the planting. I chose the plants that performed best in the Ridge crevice gardens and replicated them at AndAllen – a bit further south, a bit hotter and more humid.At time of writing it looks as if about a dozen have bitten the dust – will get a better estimate next Spring but it looks like the bedrock planting will evolve to sedum and delosperma – both doing well.

The woodland walk is definitely work in progress but there is no doubt that a good framework has been established. The preparation of clearing out trash trees and scrub paid dividends as the path installation and shrub backbone looks promising. The plan was to blend the natural with the cultivated – the surprise has been how little natural has surfaced in this growing season. Mayapple were impressive and ferns whist sparse will do well and I can safely install more natural varieties. The challenge for the fall is to continue to fill out the understory layer with natural drought resilient shrubs.

The Japanese garden is looking good – a great selection of dwarf acers planted and so far they look to be surviving the heat.All have put on a few inches of growth and there individual profiles are looking very interesting.

The raised bed herb garden has had no planting strategy – herbs just thrown in here and then. Tomatoes and peppers have been productive and there has been a continuous supply of lettuce. Most of the herbs have done well – need to plant more parsley and cilantro from seed – basil has done well from both seed and potted plants. Radishes have not performed at all. It has been good fun.

Due to the timing of the garden’s development there is one significant element that has yet to be installed. Autumn planting of bulbs is planned for the front ”yellow bed” , herbaceous beds, crevice garden and woodland walk. Camassia, allium ,narcissi, anenome are amongst those that have proven themselves in southern climes.

Reviewing important and interesting things in your life is a worthwhile exercise. On one point it enlightens you to both achievements and lost opportunities as well as providing a realistic baseline for future plans. We are both amazed at how much we have achieved in a few months and are looking forward to the return of the cooler weather to get cracking again.

A walk through any garden center quickly leads to the conclusion that gardening is not a cheap pastime. A few ooh’s and aah’s as you put attractive plants into your trolley soon adds up to 100 – £,€,$. In Maslows hierarchy of needs, gardening is not an essential, but as any estate agent will tell you, it can be an investment.The value proposition of AndAllen is to create an outdoor space that is in harmony with the house and enhances the pleasure in our daily lives. There was a budget of course, based on the established rule of thumb that the garden spend should be within 5-15% of the total build cost.

The major difference in gardening between the UK and southern US with respect to maintenance is the absolute need for irrigation – so cost of water has to be factored in to the equation.Having run the system at the recommended rate to get the new plantings established it is time to start the optimization process. From August (the hottest month) irrigation will be pegged back 30% and plant health monitored. The aim is to try and get below 50% of the start up conditions. Additionally, research has already started to see what a xeric planting may look like.

A couple of weeks ago , Mase – someone very special to CP and myself, hit a major life milestone – with the aid of his dad, he opened his first bank account! He had saved birthday and Christmas money and was ready to begin the topsy turvy relationship with the professionals, who will be your best friends until you cannot pay a bill! To bolster his bank account, I offered him 4 hours of hand weeding in the woodland garden, just working along side me, doing what I was doing. The hourly rate was negotiated – he started off at $300 an hour – even CP gulped at that! We ended up at the going rate for landscape labour (plus a small family premium).

In view of his outrageous remuneration demands and the fact that he would soon be thinking about his career path – I thought it was time he had the DP chat about money. It would also take his mind off the mounting heat and continual back bending. We very quickly got to the understanding that money was the foundation of trade – he was essentially trading his time and skills for money.The natural evolution of this was that the more in demand and rare your skills were, the more you could charge for them – hence the need for careful thought about education, job experience and career path.

The next subject was a bit more problematical to grasp – not surprising really as it took me til I was about 30 to get it – stimulated by a chance discussion with someone who had been around the block a few more times than me. THE VALUE OF MONEY ? Mase clearly understood that money allows you to buy things ( and he had a list of stuff he wanted to buy!) but when asked once you have bought what you need, what then is the value of money? Head scratching – back to pulling weeds Mase! The way it was explained to me was the value of money was to give you CHOICE – a greater element of personal freedom. Prioritize necessities if needs be ; invest for you and your families future; pursue a hobby; create time ( the only commodity that is irreversible) for yourself by contracting out jobs you hate ( in my case cutting the lawn); gain satisfaction by supporting good causes; travel; treat yourself to life’s little luxuries and so forth. Back to Maslow!

At about 11-15 Mase commented that it was getting very hot – I countered with Gatorade and a reminder that finish time was 12-30. This brought us onto the last subject of the day – attitude ( work ethic in NE parlance). I pointed out that we could easily call it a day as we were just doing a bit of weeding but we had made a commitment – to CP ( who was preparing lunch) and to ourselves. If we checked out early, his wages would be down 25% and in the real world that would have consequences. We concluded that little cameo discussion with the magic formula for career success – skill plus attitude (with a little bit of personality thrown in!).

In the end we did 4 hours of productive work – Mase stuck at it and pulled his weight. We had a light hearted discussion with a little bit of edge – will any of it stick with him? Who knows – but I think some will. As a boy, Andy shared his philosophy with me – simply if you want to buy something and you don’t have the money in your pocket – then don’t bother. He was right about that – debt kills choice. Allen was the master of finding innovative ways to save. Both these philosophies have stayed with me and I suspect some of our chat will have stuck with Mase. When asked whether he wanted his wages as cash or a bank transfer? Cash – he had worked that one out!

The English language is full of wonderful sayings – many associated with our favorite topic of conversation – the weather!

It’s raining stair rods! It is cold enough to make a monkey bite its young! It never rains but it pours! It’s hot enough to fry an egg! Dreak! It is raining cats and dogs!

Apparently, according to the patron saint of trivia – the cats and dogs image originated in the mid 1700’s when heavy rain washed dead animals down the street! Lovely!

The weather pattern in GA in the summer seems to be blistering hot for a couple of days followed by thunderstorms and copious amounts of precipitation. Thunderstorms tend to start around 6-30 pm just as CP and myself are sitting down to watch ’Escape to the Country” – a lovely program that helps people relocate – except the relocators never seem to know what they are looking for! Champagne aspirations on a brown ale budget! The most common complaint being ”the kitchen is too small” – well kitchens tended to be smaller in Victorian Britain!

Anyway, I digress. Last Thursday we had the wall of water storm – so named because you couldn’t see any cats or dogs,no stair rods, not even the road at the bottom of our drive – just a wall of water. Escape to the Country escaped for a couple of hours as the tv went into “ the reboot/we have a problem” cycle. I was in my office watching water overflow the gutters – like being at High Force! Anyway storms come and go – so did this one!

The first two hours of the next day were spent removing debris from the lawn and perennial beds then an inspection of the woodland walk suggested that about 12’ of the walks path was missing – AWOL- a horrible gravel garden had been created,by mother nature, downstream of the path. Now in the design of the garden a lot of consideration was taken in respect to drainage. The installation foreman and landscape architect consulted a couple of times and reached consensus – sadly about 15’ away from the true low point!

Through a combination of physical chemistry, biology and geography lessons and bad experiences of amateur plumbing I learned that water will follow the easiest route. Hence, the missing path was the problem but also the solution! By digging out the missing path, adding course stone for drainage, I could then rebuild the path in the knowledge that this underpath stream would protect the path from further damage. Genius!

The remediation efforts were interrupted by rain – more like the cats and dogs variety – just the tarting up to finish and then we will be ready – for the next wall of water storm and the test of the remediation logic. This tale just proves the point – you are never finished in the garden! Great fun!!

One of the motivations that both Andy and Allen had with their gardening was to supplement the family budget by growing fresh vegetables. Andy did this at a reasonable scale at his allotment which also accommodated chickens for eggs (and the occasional Sunday dinner) and his racing pigeons. Allen did the same on a smaller plot next to the house, but with greater intensity and with the benefit of a greenhouse was just as productive. Both men knew the economics of home growing and most of the vegetables were started from seed.

The value proposition at AndAllen is to create an outdoor space that is in harmony with the house that enhances our daily lives and offers outside entertaining opportunities. Part of the quality of life equation. A herb garden was deemed a fun thing to have and although the economic imperative was not great, the experiment is proving valuable. Without any planning at all, this haphazard planting is estimated to save us about $60 this year. By far the biggest contributor to this is the sequential planting of lettuce. Sorrel,mint,sage,oregano,cilantro, parsley, tomatoes, radishes, basil and spinach have been minor contributors.

The satisfaction of growing stuff to eat is not only measured monetarily – the immense pleasure of tasting (absolutely the best) your freshly picked produce is justification enough for the effort. The educational benefit for the grandchildren is an added bonus – to understand where food comes from – invaluable. The Girl on the Hudson has done a great job in creating a productive little vegetable garden for Cob and AL to enjoy.

The focus to date has been getting the garden designed, hardscaped and planted. The level of satisfaction that CP and myself are getting from just ”hanging out” has exceeded our hopes. A bit more fun, and value, can be had from putting some thought into the herb garden – both in what we want to eat from it but also from experimentation with a few things we have never grown before.

In the middle of June we hit the 95 degree mark – with the odd flirtation with a century. Some days there was little air movement and it just felt even hotter. It was simply not possible to approach gardening in my normal way. Getting up,showering, breakfast, pottering about, and then hitting the garden for 3-6 hours before showering again and unwinding. In the South , the productive time in the summer is up until noon, with some work process modifications .You could struggle to 2 pm but anything thereafter is plain foolishness.

As a senior, even a pretty fit one, the duration of productive work is a simple function of how physically hard that work is. Edging the lawn last week it was only possible to do ninety minutes, after which it was heaving chest, aching muscles and no fun. This lead me quickly to consider the best way to garden in this heat.

The self guidelines I have come up with are as follows

• start as soon as possible and finish before 12-30pm
• mix up strenuous tasks with easy tasks in a work session rather than start a task and see it through to completion
• drink a bottle of salts replacement every hour
• stop for a coffee break in the shade – cool down with a fan
• wear a hat,sunscreen, sunglasses, and long sleeve tops (preferably with some spf protection). The hat has a broad brim – as my dermatologist said to me “baseball caps lead to bits of ears being separated from their owners“.
• listen to your body, it is a better manager than a clock and task sheet.
• wash/shower as soon as possible when finished

As well as managing yourself in the heat, as you go about look at the plants – water is their friend. If they look stressed then water them, modify the irrigation – pots need daily attention.Don’t forget the birds – keep the birdbath cleaned and topped up.

Of course some jobs can be a little easier in the heat. Weeding using a dutch hoe is effective – cut through the roots and let the sun do the rest. Thinking about extending the flowering season by regular deadheading – an easy task – is something that can be done in the heat – 30 minutes ,not expending a lot of energy, gives a lot of benefit down the road.

The big downside to heat and humidity? Insects – flying insects – flying insects that bite. To date my preventative actions have not been totally successful. Work in progress!

It is only June – the 2 hottest months are ahead of us. I hope the plan allows the fun of gardening to be maintained – along with the garden.

In our professional lives inspiration is fundamental to our well being. Getting the sense that our life’s work is important keeps us going.Being inspired by leaders, visionaries through the images they paint with their words and ideas reenergizes us. The inspiration through the actions of role models helps us to become better. In turn it is upto us to inspire those who we can influence – work colleagues, members of our community, friends, children and family.

Recently we had the opportunity to visit and appreciate the renown gardens at Gravetye Manor in Sussex,UK. These gardens have been on our bucket list for quite a while because the manor was owned by William Robinson, the Irish garden designer who helped move garden design away from the formal to the more natural style. In doing so the predominant green was supplemented with many other colors. In 1885 Robinson started to develop the gardens a process that continued until has passing in 1935. The current owners have restored the gardens in the ”Robinson style” building upon the structure of the many trees and shrubs that Robinson planted himself.

One of Robinsons best known books is entitled the Wild Garden – something the head gardener Tom Coward covered in his tour of the garden.The formal beds at Gravetye blend into the more natural areas seamlessly – he said creating a wild look requires a lot of hard work to make it appear as if ”nothing has been done”. It was refreshing to hear his views about living with weeds and knowing when to tackle them and when to leave things be.Weeds are a natural phenomenon and the purpose was not to strive for perfection.

Visiting in May gave us a snap shot – the herbaceous beds, complemented by flowering azaleas in the background, being the star attraction. In early spring the large meadow that flows down to lake at the side of the manor house embraces the wild theme. Thousands of wild flowers supplemented with spring bulbs feature – the last showing of Camassia leichtlinii apparent at the time of our trip.And of course the autumn color should be spectacular with so much deciduous growth apparent.

So how will AndAllen benefit from this visit? Well, new ideas for filling out the herbaceous borders are abundant – trying some different textures; playing around with various degrees of concentration; promoting self seeding will make next spring a bit more exciting.The theme of the wild garden, not seeking perfection and balancing plantings with nature will all help in the evolution of the woodland walk. Lots to think about!