This past weelend, I had a very special chance to help a
good new friend, Janey, to spruce up an outdoor space behind her apartment in
Boston, MA.
My brother-in-law Ruben and my sister Rachel (who had served
in an Americorps Public Allies program with Janey) and I were visiting with
NC-born and raised Janey in Boston, when she mentioned her garden space behind
her new apartment home, and her wish to make it more usable/enjoyable. She
added that her landlord (whose evidently classical eye for interior design had
already greatly impressed me) had graciously offered to deduct any landscaping
expenses from her rent. My ears perked up, and my sister and I looked at each
other. Rachel mentioned that I happened to be a ‘professional landscaper’; Janey
shrieked, and it was on!
THE SPACE
This was my first chance (in a while at least) to work with
the small urban spaces. I found once agiain, as I have in the past, and I think
many others have also, that this limit of space that cities demand, and the challenge
that comes with it, can actually be quite a catalyst for creativity.
In any case, Janey’s spaces was of a size that seemed
approachable within the time frame that we had of a Saturday to think about it,
and half a day on Sunday to work on it.
Janey’s space was shaped like an L, with a narrow alley way
starting at the street/sidewalk, running along the edge of her 100 year old
apartment building, opening into a very small ‘courtyard’ type of space, and
then hooking around the back of the building to the left.
FEATURES
The space that I encountered there already had quite a lot
going for it, some of which had already been drawn from the space, as well as a
little bit of untapped potential.
ON THE TAPPED SIDE
One of the more striking features of the space was a 6 foot
tall ‘foundation’ of mouldering deep reddish orange brick running along bottom
6 feet of building. This added a warm and vibrant intensity to the cool and
shady space that really kind of electrified it.
Building on this color, the landlord (to whom I have to tip
my hat once more), had added some curving beds at the edges of this, using
spare bricks as edging, and filling the beds with died red mulch.
A quick word about this red mulch… It is the bane of of many
a landscaper, including my boss Janice, as it looks pretty unnatural, in many
ways tacky. Janey was not crazy about it either. Initially we decided to do
away with it, although in the end it had its own shot at redemption, as ye
shall see….
Color matters aside, altogether, the beds in themselves were
very successful in giving some hidden grace and order to the space (I say
hidden because their finer points were obscured by a thin blanket of weeds,
most notably an infantry of poison ivy… although also a lot of more ‘friendly’
mugwort.
There were also some weedy trees leaning over and around
behind the building, against the back wooden fence. These had been somewhat
carved into somewhat of a tunnel, which added great effect, under which Janey
had placed a few chairs and a table, and a Bar-B-Q, even making herself an
inventive table out of and old trash can, a large tile and some bricks.The
shaggy canopies of these few trees really helped to define the space as a
‘room’, or the beginnings of one.
ELEMENTS
Into this environment were placed a few varied points of
interest, which began to suggest a few directions for the garden to take..
One of the arching trees which helped form the tunnel was a
prolific hibiscus tree, whose pink blossoms instantly added a distinctively
tropical air to the space.
Also, a banana plant that was floating in a ‘bowl’ of fetid
water (and doing remarkably well with it). This bowl was in fact a very elegent
classical style planter, whose single small drainage hole had been clogged up.
In the back corner, Janey had assembled some odd pots around
an elegent, if enigmatically wavering roman pillar, which had been supplied by
the landlord.
Some of these pots, also supplied by the landlord it seemed,
had classical grape vine motifs, which neciely echoed both the classical motifs inside, and the grapevine
that was stretching up the adjacent apartments wall. The grape vine motif we later appropriated to hold
some cherry tomato plants for Janey’s enjoyment.
In a neighboring corner, we tucked a quaint pair of hostas,
protected ironically in this densly urban environmet from the deer who would
have gobbled them up in most of more suburban spreads I work on in NC.
The space also hosted an alpine evergreen tree, though I am
ashamed that I haven’t yet identified it.
UNTAPPED POTENTIAL.
Some chunks of concrete mixed with rubble.
A large chunk of granite.
Shade
Not good for the vegetal garden of Janey’s dreams.
Decided to work with color instead.
A spiral stair case leading up to a very small porch/landing
connected to a derelict back door which had become unused.
This unused means of egress I immediately recongnized as a
key to Janey getting more use and enjoyment out of her garden….
So, though I hadn’t yet fully articulated it, I guess that I
did hear the vague murmers of some themes emerging.
There was definitely a very palpable classical touch to the
place, which had been graciously supplied by the owner of the buildings, who no
doubt clearly posses a superb appreciation of antiquity…
But betwixt these pillars was awafting a billowing breeze, a
certain ambrosia, up from the tropics. Were we smelling on the shores, the
incense burning, alight on the very same winds that were plumping the sails of
Cleopatra’s fleet of trading vessels, laden with silks back from the orient,
what what? I say?....
With this vague notion, and a sketch scribbled on the back
of something, we headed off to gather supplies.
PICKING UP SUPPLIES
We would up embarking to the nearest such provision company-
Home Depot. Yes, I know, not my first choice either, but a quick and easy way
for Janey to get more supplies; important as part of the goal was to help her get into a dance with her space.
There we picked up 20 - 25 bags of mulch- cedar for the
paths, and hemlock for the beds.
The idea was to replace the dyed red wood chips in the beds
with the hemlock.
We also found a lot of shade loving plants, many of which
were on sale ½ off, due to being towards the end of the season. These included:
- Several hydrangeas, including one tall, tree-like specimin that I had not seen..
- Petunias
- Tomatos for a sunny corner
- A beautiful collia
- We also got a Janey a few choice tools-
- a set of loppers,
- a new garden rake,
- and some poison ivy gloves.
GETTTING DOWN TO WORK
It took two trips to get all of our supplies and the 3 of us
back to her apartment, so when we did, we got straight to work.
Our first step was weeding the burgeoning population of ivy
that was sprouting up out of every nook and cranny. Remarkably, even poison ivy
looks cute as a baby…
I did leave a few selective patches of mugwort, as it has
such a gentle softness, that it can lend to such a hard place as a stair
landing.
Meanwhile, my sister, Rachel, went to work sweeping the
sidewalk. This really made a huge difference in elevating and clearly viewing
the space, the first in a series of such steps in watching the space take shape
and come together…
While Janey and Rachel finished off the weeding work, I took
some time to do some selective pruning.
I trimmed and shaped up the small ‘teenaged’ evergreen (with
his creaky voice) a little, removing just a few more branches from its base.
Over the course of the next 5 – 10 years, this tree should shape up to
help create a very nice canopy
over the space.
But in the meantime, I worked at sculpting the overhanding
trees into a larger/ higher cielinged room/space. This really opened it up into
a nice, spacious chamber in which to enjoy hosting some parites.
I also fixed up banana plant in the classical planter with
Janey’s help, draing the stagnant water, clearing its drainage channel, and
filling it with a mixture of sand and potting soil. Once we had tucked the
banana plant in to this cozy new home, we capped it all off with a sharp jacket
of hemlock mulch, whose reddish brown tones resonated richly with the varied
hues of the patinaed planter. That was one tight looking mug of a banana plant
when we were through with him….he needed a place of honor.
MULCH MAGIC
As I spaced out/ layed down the many bags of mulch,
something occurred to me.
And that was that the dyed red mulch that was already in
place, while kinda tacky indeed, was in fact working a certain kind of visual
magic with the warm reddish orange brick tones above and behind it, in the
wall. In the cool shade of this canyon like space, the warm tones really kind
of glowed like gentle embers in a night’s camp fire!
And so we explored our options.
- Keep the red mulch, and exchange the hemlock for more more red mulch.
- Totally do away with the red mulch, replacing it with the brown hemlock mulch
This presented a little bit of a conflict, as Janey was
ready to see the red gone, and daylight was quickly draining away….
But, thinking on our toes, we sought out, and found, a 3rd
path….
- Pull back the red mulch, which was too chunky and thin to do much functional good as mulch, slip the hemlock beneath it, and replace the red on top…
Though this might have seemed like a bit of a stretch at
this progressed point in the day, we decided to try a test spot…
……and the results were… spectacular!
The hemlock, it turned out, had its own sort of warm earthy
tone to it. Not the gaudy red of the dyed mulch, but a rich, earthy, hummusy,
subtly tangy and warm orangy brown glow.
On top of this, we sprinkled a light dashing of the
decomposing reddish orange mulch dust, peppered with glossy little black chunks
of burnt building, and the result was Mulch Magic!
Now, all of a sudden, we were in the Realm Of Spice. Of
tandoori chicken, or a Jamaican jerk chicken rub.
We had brought that tacky mulch out Ronald McDonald’s inane
industrial kitchen, into that of
Wolfgang Puck! Of Molly Katzen!
This, I though with swelling pride, is the stuff of alchemy,
transformating a lowly dispised mulch into what but a shishi designer mulch…
Echoing the name of a local fusion resteruant that I knew
Janey would recognice from her UNC Chapel Hill days, I named it…. ”Spice
Street”.
Now, with these warm earthy fires glowing at Janey’s
garden’s edges, we, and Janey’s bergeoning garden, were really cracklin.
As the last of blueing daylight drained down the Charles
river, we found our selves in a space transformed.
The tall hydrangea went against the spiral staircase.
A bright pink petunia we hung from the small porch, where it
glowered and dangled marvelously, waiting to greet the ‘descendant’.
Below and beyond this, we posted the newly renovated banana
plant, on a slate of marble, acting as a sort of a sentry. My reccomendation
was that Janey plant a hydrangea behind it, against the brick wall, treating
the soil with some Holly Tone, to get some nice purpley blue blossoms which
should play wickedly and rapturously against the red brick tones. With the
tropical petunia we placed at its base, and some a robust collection of other
plants surrounding it, this corner should act as a timpani’s thundering
crescendo, transitioning into the vaulted space beyond it, where one can find
such quite pleasures, as a tomato grotto, and a cool relaxing chair in the
hallowed shelter of a tree.
CONCLUSION
This project was a proud moment for me.
It is so nice to have found a skill, a place of resource,
from which I am able give.
And I am grateful to all who helped me to get to this
point....for these skills and knowledge, which I am able to pass on, and share, in turn.
It reminded me of a similar project at a very early in my
career, where, as a house guest visiting a friend in Austin, I was able to
repair and leave a back porch in a state of heightened function. While I didn’t
know as much back then, I had enough of an eye and a back to contribute something
that those gals didn’t even know they needed, but were delighted none the less
to have once they had it.
I suppose there are many ways to thank a friend for hosting
a visitor from a distant land.
But I doubt that there are many more gratifying than to
leave their living space in a heightened state of beauty and function. To add a
little more flow and relaxation into their inevitably sometimes hectic lives.
It is a wonderful gift to be able to give.
I know that my trip up north certainly was greatly enhanced
by our visit with Janey in Boston, and I hope that our gift to her will be
multiple, relaxing and long lasting.
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