Tis the season to think about what to do in the fall as a gardener! As I mentioned over the last couple of days, you should definitely be thinking about cool weather veggies to plant.  Another consideration you should start kicking around is if you want incredible flowers blooming at the first signs of spring.  If you do, you need to plan ahead to get them.  Most of the most gorgeous early bloomers such as tulips, daffodil, crocus and hyacinth need to be planted in the fall when the air and soil are cold.  There’s a bit of a science/art to the whole bulb planting process too, so planting the bulbs should be done with care, but I can get into all the how-to ways of planting bulbs in a later post.  Today, I want to introduce you to some less known bulbs that can take your gardening to the next level. 

That Special Feeling
Everyone has seen yellow daffodil popping up everywhere just as the days get a little warmer.  We all know that spring is upon us when we see red and white tulips.  But color is only stretching the surface of the amazing wild world of bulb plants.  There’re different reds, yellows and whites to choose as well as textures, heights and pellet structure. Here are some of my favorite bulb plants that can take your flowerbeds from pedestrian to stopping people in their tracks. 

A certain satisfaction comes from seeing the labors of autumn digging in cold ground turn into vivid flowers by May.  Let’s make that work count this year by not limiting our choices to tulips and daffodils. They are only two of a much bigger group of bulbs.  You can pick from irises, fritiliaria and crocus too. Here’s my picks:

My Short List
Summer Drummer Allium: This is the tallest ornamental allium that can reach as high as 5ft.  It is a perennial and loves lots of sun.  The round head and the purple color can make for a great bed or border, and it can withstand the harsh winters of the northeast. 

If you are going to go the daffodil route, try Felindre or Orangery Daffodils.  The Felindre has an incredible white flower with a orange and yellow eye.  It is a perennial heirloom variety from Wales.  It likes full sun and grows about foot and half tall.  The Orangery daffodil is a yellow and white flower.  The pellets are white and the eye is a big, fat yellow dot.  It looks like a muffin or cake!  Also a perennial and loves sun, this daffodil is deer resistant and is great for cutting.  

Maybe my favorite bulb family are the tulips. They seem to have the widest selection. A few that I think can add complexity to your beds are Queen of the Night, Dream Touch and Continental.  These are all rich in color and are perennials.  The Queen of the Night and the Continental love sun but can take some shade.  Dream Touch is a full sun kinda flower.   The dark, rich hue of the Queen of Night brings an exotic look to your beds and can be paired with the more traditional white and yellow spring bulbs to spice up your yard.  

On the sweeter side of the tulip family is the Bakeri Lilac Wonder, a lavender purple tinted tulip.  It only grows about 8 inches high so it’s perfect to splash across a border or edge of a bed.  

If you like crocus, give the Grand Maitre Crocus vernus and Tricolor Crocus sieberi a try this year.  Both like full and part sun and both top out at 6 inches high…AND both are perennials.  The Tricolor is purple, orange and yellow while the Grand Maitre looks like a goblet made of evening sky.     

Could Talk Bulbs All Day
This is just my short list of great bulbs to consider this autumn.  Variegata, Batik and Black Gamecock irises are all awesome choices too!  There’s such an incredible world of bulbs to pick that you should never feel limited. 

Last year, I designed and built a rain garden for Jed Goldstein, a neighbor and friend of mine.  He was having serious water problems in his backyard.  Before he contacted me about the issues, he had talked with a couple of landscapers that suggested installing a French drain and drywell into the yard.  The idea was to collect the rainwater from the backyard and drop it into the driveway.

When he asked me about the solution others had suggested, I explained that that type of approach doesn’t give you any added value to your yard or home.  And, overtime most underground drains will get clogged with sediment and stop working as they should.  He asked me what would I do instead, and I started talking to him about rain gardens.  Long story short, he liked the idea and we put the rain gardens into action last year.

Then and Now
We installed the rain garden last year around June (that’s June 2014), and now we have a full year to evaluate it.  I personally think that the rain garden looked great from the moment we installed it.  This year, it looks better than I could have imagined.  The flowers have grown tall and strong.  The soil is healthy and rich. Below is a graphic showing a picture from before we did anything in 2014 (on the left) beside an image from this year (July 2015) with the plants really growing and maturing (on the right).

The images below show a part of the yard that was also redone last year.  You can see just how much the space has changed from year to year as well as from June to July.  We were able to take a part of the yard that had no flowers or texture and transform it into a beautiful and alive patch of color and fun!

Jed has really taken the sustainable approach to heart.  At the end of the season last year we mulched the entire garden with an organic, composted mulch to add nutrients to the soil.  Then, at the beginning of this season, we added a nice layer of mushroom compost to the rain garden to give all the plants a boost for the spring and summer.  

Other Sustainable Stuff
We’ve also started detoxing Jed’s yard after years of standard landscape maintenance.  Standard maintenance includes using chemicals to fertilize the grass along with pesticides and herbicides to help the lawn stay green.  We’ve switched all of that up.  We’ve stopped all synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.  No toxic stuff is put on the lawn at anytime during the year.  For a farm to be considered “organic”, it has to refrain from chemicals for, at least, three years. Jed is now about half way there.  Non-toxic lawns are safer for kids and pets as well as adults and the greater natural environment.  

Other thing we’ve started doing is cutting the grass 1 every two weeks instead of once a week.  This approach allows for white clover to come up that benefits pollinators from miles around.  It allows the roots to develop too.  Read my blog from early this week to get all the details about caring for your grass sustainably.  

Added Value
One thing I hear all the time from homeowners is that landscape design doesn’t add value to their property.  According to a 2007 survey of 2,000 brokers conducted by HomeGain, an online real estate marketing site, an investment into landscape design can bring a return of as much as four times of the investment.  When your gardening investment also solves problems like flooding issues, the return can even be bigger.  

Perhaps not as sexy as 50 Shades of Grey, but definitely much better for you is kale.  Once merely a garnish left on your plate without as much as an attempt to eat, kale has become as close to a main course as a leafy green can.  It has also entered into the same realm as potatoes and corn with the advent of kale chips, kale French fries and kale flour.  If kale were a super hero, it would be addressed as Super Kale or the Incredible Kale.  Though not a super hero, it is a super food.  It packs a mighty punch for health from skin care to fighting cancer.  And…AND!  Kale is a cool weather crop, so you can grow it in your yard through September to mid-November.  Plus, you have like 100,000 varieties to choice from (ok, not really a 100,000, but there’s 10 awesome options readily available for you to plant). 

Kale likes its roots cool, so summer plantings must take care in keeping them under mulch (an inch thick at least…2 or 3 inches is better).  But in the cooler weather, roots perform without stress so it grows more happily.  In fact, kale tastes better grown in the cool air of autumn…due to the relaxation of less heat and typically easier access to water.  Ten varieties are easily found in most gardening stores or online.  If you can’t find them, I can get them sent to you.  They are Storm, Scarlet, Black Magic, Ursa, Red Winter, Red Russian, Lacinato, Curled, Tronchuda and Premier.  It kinda sounds like the characters from a new Marvel movie. 

How to Plant
Some kales can tolerate shade while others can not.  Make sure you know which kind you have when you are planting them.  In general, kale grows stockier and faster in full sun (full sun = 6hrs or more of direct sun).  Space the seeds (or small plants) about 12 inches apart for varieties such as Red Russian or Curled and 24 inches apart for varieties like Lacinato, Ursa or Scarlet.  You’ll want make sure the plants receive 1 to 1 ½ inches of water a week.  

Harvesting Kale
Kale is sweet and bitter (kinda like parenthood :).  Small, tender leaves are sweeter than the larger, more mature leaves.  I personally think we should all be getting our bitter on.  I remember bitter foods always being a part of meals when I was growing up.  Nowadays, it seems like everything is sweet.  Many people chase the sweeter side of kale too, but you shouldn’t.  Bitter foods have health benefits like helping you absorb nutrients, cleanse your body and stimulates metabolism among other things.  So embrace those bigger, bitter-er leaves and live a little more healthy doing it.  

Cooking Kale
First, you can also pickle the leaves and stems for later in the fall and winter.  I love pickling okra, green beans and other garden delights, so kale is no exception.  You can make a mean kimchi with it too (see image below).  For more instant gratification, kale can be eaten raw as a salad.  I toss it with parmigiano-reggiano cheese, olive oil and balsamic vingar for lunch, or as a side for a fast, tasty dinner at home all the time.  Steam it with a little salt and rice vinegar, saute it with a little oil, blanch it, or roast it with fresh herbs and oil.  You can even make a kale pesto with it.  The sky and your kitchen ambition is the only limits.  

Health Benefits
Kale, as I mentioned, is a super food.  For a full rundown of all the benefits, this article is a great place to start.  To paraphrase: kale has Vitamin A, K, C, B6, B1, B2 and B3 plus calcium, manganese, potassium, magnesium, omega-3 while having very little fat.  It’s packed with antioxidants, can help lower cholesterol, fight cancer, provides beta-carotene, can protect your eyes, can help you lose weight and is a good source of minerals.  All of that healthy stuff, plus you can grow it into the winter.  What’s not to love?  

Now is the time to start planning your cool season garden.  Make sure kale plays a big role in it. If you want help setting up your garden, I can get you going.

It’s hot here in North Jersey, and really, really dry. With no real forecast for rain on the way, it’s gonna get drier in the next few weeks.  For all you lawn-centric homeowners out there, how’s your grass doing?  Did you take the yard detox challenge and cut ties with unsustainable practices?  Or did you keep on the same path?

The weather we are having is the type of conditions that will show you just how awesome a sustainable lawn can be.  If you have allowed the grass to grow a little taller than usual, composted and not used chemicals on it, you should be experiencing the amazing care-free world of green grass at no cost.  You can go as far as not needing to water your grass during these trying times for yards everywhere. 

Inversely, If you have been cutting your grass too much and too short throughout the summer, you don’t have many choices at this point.  You have to water it…a lot. Pesticides and fertilizers are the only way to keep your grass green.  But if you are using chemicals to maintain your grass, don’t let your family or pets on it. 

Two things really govern how well your lawn manages the hottest days of August.  First, healthy grass starts with healthy roots.  The roots need to be deep and strong at this point.  The use of compost and not watering it has induced the roots to grow deeper and deeper into the soil looking for moisture.  The spread of the roots make each blade of grass more likely to discover reserves of wetness underground, so it can drink all it wants as it tans in the afternoon sun.  When you water your grass, you train the grass to look for easy moisture at the surface.  The roots have not grown deeper.  Instead, they have all stayed just below the dirt to lap up all the water it wants from your irrigation system.  Now, the roots are now ill-protected and ill-developed to withstand even a day or so without your sprinklers.  The heat of the day would roast them like hamburgers on the grill. 

The second thing is your soil.  Do you have healthy dirt?  Healthy soil equals healthy grass.  Root develop definitely helps your soil’s health.  Deeper roots aerate the ground allowing a more diverse biology and air transfer.  Your soil needs that air transfer and biodiversity to naturally keep the dirt full of the right elements.  For example, your soil needs plenty of phosphorus and potassium.  Phosphorus supports healthy roots and encourages growth.  Potassium facilitates photosynthesis, respiration, water absorption and protein production in your grass.  Potassium actually thickens the cellular walls within your grass armoring it against external stresses. Armor from external forces is absolutely necessary to standup the weather we are having right now. 

The unsustainable approach to lawn care doesn’t balance the conditions of the soil, but makes it a hot mess.  Typically, landscapers use too much fertilizer and phosphorus on your lawn.  The excess damages your grass, making it more likely to die during stressful periods of drought and heat. Too much phosphorus can induce weed development as well.  And if you don’t like weeds, you’ll splash your lawn with some other chemical to get rid of them only to farther off-balance the soil conditions. 

Every Lawn is a Snowflake
Every lawn is different.  The micro-habitat and micro-climate created by geography, shade, surrounding plant life, proximity to water and/or roads all play into how different each is.  If you have started a new lawn from seed late in the season, you will need to water your grass this year.  But for the yards that want to have a kid and pet friendly yard, the time to think about revamping your approach to your yard is now.  Though I would not recommend going cold turkey in August, there are a few things you can do to prep for later this year and next year.  One thing you can do is let your grass start growing a little taller.  Keep it, at least, 2 ½ to 3 inches tall.  If you really want to go all out, let it grow 4 inches tall a couple of times in August.  You can also get a soil test to find out what’s the balance of potassium and phosphorus in your soil.  Third, modulate the amount of water you are using on your grass.  If you are watering it everyday, try every other day.  If you are already watering every other day, try every three days.  

Come September, when the days get a little cooler and the external stresses dissipate, you can do more to help your grass.  Feed your lawn an organic fertilizer or rich compost (like mushroom compost).  No synthetic chemicals and say no to pesticides too.  Get your lawn aerated, and add new grass seed to problem spots.   Also, try not to water your lawn anymore than 1 inch throughout Sept to the very end of the season.  These and a few other actions will detox your yard making it healthier and safer for everyone.

The days of August are nearly upon us.  Though this summer has been hot and dry, cooler days are right around the corner.  Before you know it, we’ll be shoveling snow from our driveways and wishing for a Caribbean vacation. But before those freezing days are here, you still have a chance to harvest some really tasty veggies from a cool weather garden. 

What is a cool weather garden you ask?  It’s a garden packed with hardy and semi-hardy vegetables that you can grow up to the first frost of autumn.  In some cases, you can even grow pass the first frost.  Semi-hardy veggies are plants that can tolerate temps between 29 and 32 degrees.  These are things like beets, carrots, cauliflowers, Irish potatoes and Swiss chard. I have a longer list at the bottom of this blog.  Though you can grow these in the summer, some of them (like Swiss chard) actually taste better grown in cooler weather. 

Hardy veggies are vegetables that can grow and survive in even colder temps of 25 and 28degrees. Broccoli, cabbage, English peas, leeks, Brussels sprouts and turnips are just a few that fall into this category.  Then there are the super hardy veggies like kale, spinach and collards that can withstand temperatures in the low 20 and high teens.  All of these plants taste best when grown in cold weather. 

Timing Your Cool Weather Garden is Key
If you were too busy to start that spring/summer garden this year, or want to experience incredible, homegrown cool weather veggies, the cool weather garden is for you.  The factors that are most important are picking the right plants to grow and determining what’s the absolute cutoff date to plant them outdoors.  Every crop has a varying amount of time from sowing the seeds until harvest.  So you have to time the duration from sow to harvest with the average date of the first frost for your region.  Here in North Jersey, the average first frost falls between Oct 30 and Nov 15.  According to the Nation Climatic Data Center, Essex County, New Jersey is almost guaranteed to have frost by November 1…but I think Nov 7 is a safe date to plan your cool weather garden. 

If we pick Nov 7 as the very, very last day for harvesting the cool weather veggies, you have to count backward from that date to find what’s the date you have to have seeds in the ground to harvest before the frost.  I’ve made a short list of both semi- and hardy crops with the number of days or weeks they should be planted before the deadline (with corresponding date to plant by):
Arugula: 30 days before 1st frost (Oct 7)
Beets: 10 weeks before 1st frost (Aug 29)
Broccoli: 10 weeks before 1st frost (Aug 29)
Carrots: 10 weeks before 1st frost (Aug 29)
Cauliflower: 8 weeks before 1st frost (Sept 12)
Collards: 6weeks before 1st frost (Sept 26)
Radishes: 30 days before 1st frost (Oct 7)
Spinach: 5 weeks before 1st frost (Oct 3)
Swiss Chard: 6 weeks before 1st frost (Sept 26)
Turnips: 8 weeks before 1st frost (Sept 12)
These are just a few examples.  At the bottom of this blog, I have a longer list of semi and hardy veggies you can plant this year.

There are a few other things you can do to help your crops in the cooler months of the year.  First, you can use raised beds.  Raised beds help to keep the soil warmer than in surrounding earth.  They also help with weeds and reducing the amount of bending you have to do.  Second, you can extend the growing by draping your garden with fabric or using a cold frame.  A cold frame is basically a mini-greenhouse about the size of a large breadbox.  It lets light in, but keeps frost out.  Translucent fabric can do the same thing for larger rows of plants at a smaller cost. 

All the other standard conditions for growing plants stand.  You have to make sure you place the crops in the right amount of sunlight and water them as much as they need.  Beyond that, you can have garden fresh veggies until November.  You can also pickle some of your bounty as an excellent addition to holiday season meals.

Semi-hardy Vegetables
Beets, Carrot, Cauliflower, Celery, Chinese cabbage, Endive, Irish potatoes, Lettuce, Radicchio, Rutabaga, Salsify and Swiss chard

Hardy Vegetables
Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, Collards, English peas, Kale, Kohlrabi, Leeks, Mustard greens, Parsley, Radish, Spinach and Turnip

The lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium 'Chippewa'), also called the half-high blueberry is an excellent edible you can grow in your yard.  A fully mature bush can get as big as 3 to 4 ft, and used as a hedge.  A very nice aspect of the V. ‘Chippewa’ is it grows in sun and in part shade which makes it more versatile for front and backyards.  However, it doesn't do very well in lots of shade. 
The bush usually takes a couple of years to really start producing fruit.  A good eye for pruning will speed the sweet blueberries to appear while encouraging the plant to fill out full and strong.  best time of the year to trim it is in late winter, but wait to do any significant cutting until the third year after planting it in your yard. 

The lowbush will attract butterflies and birds as well as deer, so you have to keep them safe.  For deer, you'll need some kind of fencing.  Birds can pick a bush clean as well.  If the goal of having low bush in your yard is to eat the blueberries, you'll have to protect it from birds too.  Some people have had lots of success with owl and cat statues near the bushes.  I'd avoid netting to keep birds away. They may get tangled up and injured in it. 
Go big with lowbush blueberries.  Plant, at least, 6 to 10 in an area.  Aim to make a statement with them.  Add some large rocks between the bushes for a dramatic contrast.  You'll be happy you did, because the foliage is vibrant with color in autumn.  The bigger the patch, the more stunning your your yard will be as fall creeps in.  
I like to use lowbush blueberries as an accent plant to create a backdrop for other more flowing plants like grass and flowers.  They also couple will near spicebushes. They can manage wet soil, so I use them in rain gardens as much as possible.  If you don't have the space in your yard or you don't have a fence to protect them, you can also plant them in containers for your patio, deck or front stoop.   Sometimes when the bush is close to a door, it deters wildlife from munching on them (but that's not a given, just sometimes).  The goal for any edible backyard is to couple traditional vegetables like tomatoes, beets and green beans with more native, wild edibles.  The result will always be more interesting and more educational, plus sustainable.  

The Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) is an under-the-radar edible plant that can give you great food and incredible flowers.  I was first introduced to the J. Artichoke when I shopped at the farmers market at Union Square (NYC) on Saturday mornings.  Don’t let the name foul you.  It neither has anything to do with the Holy Land nor is it actually a type of artichoke. It, like the tomato and potato, originates from the New World not Europe, but has become a cornerstone in countries like France, Italy and Russia.  The Jerusalem artichoke is a North American original that was cultivated by Native Americans in the Great Plains and, then moved eastward.  Stories persist of Lewis and Clark eating them for meals prepared by native women in North Dakota.  If you really want to know the etymology of the plant's name (Jerusalem Artichoke), you have to learn a little Italian.

Besides the interesting and strange path of the vegetable’s name and origin, it is the distant cousin of the daisy.  A patch of H. tubersus will add color to any yard.  It has flowers that can grow as tall as 9 to 10 ft and can be as dense as a field of sunflowers.  The flowers are big and yellow with the leaves large and green. They can form dense areas of flowers with the prise of tasty roots just underground. But, the Jerusalem artichoke is not maintenance-free.  Be forewarned, you will have to keep them tamed. They are quite aggressive, and considered a weed by some.
If you want to eat them for years to come, you need to replenish the soil annually, or dig them up and move them to new soil. If you leave any of the tubers are left, they can overtake big parts of your garden or beds.  It's not easy to remove all of the roots, so prepare the area(s) you plan to use for them.  They are not shade tolerate, so full sun is required.   

What to Eat
Though they can be a bit of a pain to control, the plant offers a tasty bounty.  You can dig them up and eat the root raw.  You can cook them too.  A little salt is all it really needs. They have a nutty taste.   They are great for stews, a garish or as a side for a meal.  The last thing I should mention is that if you fest on them, you might have a bit of wind afterwards, so just FYI. This can come in handle if you want to have a laugh post-dinner.  

Today, I'm delivering two custom planters I built for a client. I prefer to call them "Mobile Mini-Farms" because these aren't your standard planters, and because you can get a ton of vegetables to grow in a small space.  They are mobile because of the wheels I installed on the bottom.  Hasn't every gardener at some point wished their vegetable boxes were just a bit more to the left of right?  With these, moving them is easy peasy.  

I had to pack a few bags of soil for the mini-farms too.  I also had a rain barrel to deliver and install today.  The rain barrel is in the cardboard box.  

Mobile Mini-Farms
The Mobile Mini-Farm is the evolution of gardenistas throughout the suburban (and urban) landscape.  People tend to have small yards and are very business.  They typically love to get outdoors and get their hands dirty, but like low-maintenance gardens.  Part of the planters job is to reduce weeds, which lowers the maintenance you need to perform on your yard. These planters I'm installing today are equipped with self-watering systems, also known as SIPs.  The irrigation system is below the dirt, and can easily be filled with a normal yard hose.  The underground system puts the water right where the roots want it most.  This simple adaptation reduces the need to water your plants by a factor of 90℅.  In some case, people don't water their mini-farms for 2 weeks in the hottest time of the summer, and still get lush, happy plants.  

The self-water system is made of pipes that I've drilled holes. In the picture above, you can see a longer pipe sticking up.  That pipe is used to put the hose into the system to fill it up.  

You can see the wheels on the mini-farms.  Two of the wheels have locks and the other two do not.  Also, two of the wheels swivel and the other two are fixed.  You can configure them differently if you want.  It's really up to you. 

The client wanted a rustic, reclaimed look.  I used lumber I had salvaged from a bathroom renovation I did.  I added some paint and smaller pieces of wood to add a little texture and keep the style we were going for.  They are also sealed and stained.  I thought they came out really nice.  

So that's what's in my truck today....or at least, this morning.  The day is still young.  

I remember growing up and eating wild blackberries right off the bush every summer.  They grew like rain popping up around every corner and nook.  With no real effort, my brother and I learn how to pick the sweetest, ripest ones without fail.  Sometimes my grandma would bake pies and cobblers with wild blackberries.  They were good!
Not everyone loves blackberries.  The fruit can be sour and gritty sometimes, but I think the flavor and texture is really great.  There are more than 200 species of blackberries in the US. Some species are native to New Jersey while others are not.  Some native species in the east are actually considered invasive to states in the west. 
If you want to grow edible plants in your backyard that are low maintenance, need no watering and can tolerate partial shade to full sun, blackberries are a great choice.  There’s, at least, 15 native species to New Jersey…and even more within the NYC Metro area (if you include Long Island, Westchester, Buck County and Connecticut).  But of all the native options, the most popular is Rubus Canadensis.  Its common name is smooth blackberry.  Why you may ask?  It is practically free of prickles, spines and thorns..hence having "smooth" branches and leaves.  This is a good thing when it comes time to pick the beautifully blackened fruit in the warmer months of the year.  The thornless branches also make it super friendly to kid’s little fingers. 
The smooth blackberry does best in sun and moist soil, but will thrive in shadier spots.  It just might take it a couple of years to begin to bare fruit.  Other things to know about smooth blackberries; they don’t climb, so adding them to trellises or fences isn’t very useful.  The fruit is nice and sweet.  You can use it to make jams and pies.  

If you want to be adventurous, you should add them to the recipe for a three milk cake.  
Of course, the Rubus Canadensis is but one native option.  Rubus allegheniensis is a very common species for the east coast of the US.  So common in fact, it is known as the “common blackberry”.  It’s also goes by the name of Allegheny blackberry. It, unlike its Canadian cousin, has thorns and is mostly shade intolerant.  It will thrive in sunny parts of your yard.  If you want to find out about all the other natives, you can check out the USDA webpage about blackberries.  There’s a map for every blackberry in the US and shows which geographical areas each is native.  

Best Time to Plant
Depending on whom you ask, blackberries have an array of optimum times for planting.  Some suggest to plant blackberries 30 to 45 days before the last front of winter.  For North Jersey, a month before the last frost is early March…late February.  I’ve planted blackberry bushes in client's yards throughout the spring and summer months with success.  Just remember to keep them away from heavy deer areas. A fenced backyard is best, or you can add some protection for them with netting or some type of enclosure if you don't have a fence.  With a little love and some patience, you'll be baking your garden-grown-blackberry-pie in no time!

I thought I'd start posting images of stuff in my truck.  I'm always carrying stuff in it.  in fact, I have a whole world of different stuff I carry.  it's the nature of having a design/build company.  I design and build interiors as well as exteriors.  so one day, I may be hauling a sink for a bathroom and the next I'm carrying brick for a patio.  This first image is of four boxwoods.  They all weight about 80lbs each, and will have a new home soon.
They are for a colonial house in South Orange, NJ.  They are capping off two new planted beds I installed about a month ago. 
Plus, I just love my truck.  It's a Chevy Silverado 1500 LT with a V8.  Love driving it around to all my jobs...and love listening to Pandora with Bluetooth in between.  So, this new series gives me a chance to show it off a little too :)

In a recent post, I wrote about the walls of Bermuda and how they were made of quarried coral.  Another beautiful design element I saw during my trip was how Bermudian use concrete for things like pavers and stairs. 

Though overlooked (literally and metaphorically) all the time, pavers are a big part of landscape design.  I am always working with clients trying to get the perfect mix of durability, style and sustainability with pavers for a project. In Bermuda, pavers used with a complete abandon to apparent aesthetic and yet work to bring entire landscaped areas together.

The Bermudians seem to love using concrete for pavers.  The interesting aspect of the concrete pavers was they weren’t trying to be perfectly square and pristine.  Instead, they are allowed to be pastoral and uneven (just the way concrete likes it).  Some pavers are all sized the same and placed in neat, organized rows.   

Others are randomly placed with no organization sense at all.  

These two completely different methods were often located side by side.  Because they are made of the same material and treated with a similar sensibility, they don’t distract from each other.  Grass grows around all of them forming another design element to pulls the pavers into one voice.

In other locations, I found concrete pavers used to make quasi-nautical alphabet.  The nautical script is understated, so at first I thought the squares and triangles were randomly placed.  The concrete allows the pattern to surprise you. Whoever decided to use the pavers like this could have painted the concrete different colors or had painstaking made actual nautical alphabet, but instead they let the pavers hint toward the maritime reference.  This makes it much more impactful, in my opinion.  

Brick is also used in some places as a border or for stair tread.  I’m assuming this is a tip of the hat to the British founders of the country, because I didn’t see clay used in many other ways.     

I’m not a stranger to island construction.  I was tried to develop an eco-resort in the Caribbean back in 2008.  From this experience, I know that construction materials can be very expensive because just about everything has to be imported.  That’s one reason most many buildings on isolated islands are typically void of ornate detail.  Another reason is the salty and humidity conditions of the air.  Sometimes, local labor doesn’t have the same sophistication as other parts of the world. Add a propensity for hurricanes and other severe storms, and you have a recipe to keep the exterior of your building as minimal as possible. 

All of these factors are present in Bermuda.  Simple materials like concrete for elements on pavers can bring together at places to create amazing space even when limits exist.  

The images below of pavers with coral block walls, grass, plants and buildings are a few other examples.

The imperfection of everything makes everything seem, well, perfect.  

I went to Bermuda for the first time this year, and was amazed and fascinated by the nature, architecture and beauty. The native landscape of trees and coral fall away to flowers topography while the building materials used to construct walls, buildings and pathways add a layer of complexity that tie everything together.

The walls of Bermuda were the first things I noticed.  When I asked what they were made of, all the locals told me “limestone”.  I wasn’t satisfied with that answer.  I had my own hunch there was more to the story. With a little research, I found my hunch was correct.  What they all call limestone is actually quarried coral cut into different sizes to build retaining walls, houses and just about everything else in Bermuda.

The texture of the walls brings an architecture-scape to Bermuda that echoes the natural landscape of coral reefs that completely surround the country.  These coral building blocks look more like they have simply formed by nature to make walls wherever they are needed instead of being engineered by human hands.  The construction of some walls actually abut natural coral reef only extending the sense of nature meeting humanity.  This juxtaposition makes for a super fantastic relief of nature to built environment creating a sense of place that isn’t available to other locales. 

The coral is omnipresent on Bermuda.  Ancient reefs stand like cliffs 20 to 30 feet high at the edge of any beach.  The ocean is dotted with islets of coral.  Because the water is crystal clear, you can see the reefs continuing to the horizon.  Atop the cliffs are hotels and resorts such as the place we stayed, the Coral Beach Club in Paget Parish. At the Coral Beach Club, huge coral block wall supports a bluff.  It is inserted into the natural reef giving the hotel a castle-like look.  It makes you wonder if the hotel has been there since the beginning of Bermuda circa 1609.  

Atop the stately fortification is the Longtail Terrace.  If ever in Bermuda, take a trip to the terrace.  There, you can get both an incredible view on the reefs submerged in the aqua-blue waters of Bermuda as well as a very, very tasty dinner. It’s a little pricey, but worth every penny.  

It’s also a wonderful place to get married (which was the reason we went to Bermuda in the first place) if you are looking for a destination wedding.

Though the beaches are unbelievable, you have to tear yourself away for a bit of sightseeing.  If you do explore the archipelago, you will see the coral walls everywhere.  In King’s Wharf where the first settlers established civilization, the old fort is built entirely coral block in an old Europe/English style.  It’s a most see.  Stop by the Frog & Onion Pub for a Yorkshire pudding or Fish & Chips.  You’ll be happy you did.  The inside of the pub is just as awesome as the food. 

Exploration doesn’t have to be totally touristy.  There are other more intimate places where nature and architecture come together.  Thunder, my 4 year old son, and I discovered a secret stairwell down to Elbow Beach. I felt this narrow staircase could be transported to a garden or backyard on the mainland.  The quarried limestone is superseded by concrete in places to form steps.  With the topography of North Jersey, I could see these making special entries for a residential garden.  The coral building block could be used for a retaining wall along a driveway or against a new patio. 

I found a rustic colonial gate in King’s Wharf that could easily be relocated to a colonial house in South Orange or Maplewood. 

With the crazily cold winters of the northeast, many of these elements could help remind you that warmer places (and warmer days) are out there.  Who wouldn’t like that during the coldest months of the year?

Bermuda has canyons crafted by tides and built by marine life and time.  Though the islands of Bermuda were first made by volcanic activity, it is the coral reefs that make it unique.  The palette of all the islands a full spectrum of pink sands, aqua waters, dark grey coral and lush green plants.  Everything seeming to be melting into browns and yellows because of the heat and sunshine. 

I’ve been to other islands and archipelagos around the world, but Bermuda stands out.  The way it’s so close to the east coast of the US yet feels like it’s on the other side of the world is one.  The architecture being influenced by Britain and Europe makes things feel familiar while the way Bermudian use local resources make everything seem unusual.  Many of the plants grow throughout the US yet they are mixed with endemic species that only grow in Bermuda.

For me, the way the water invades everything makes it special.  There’s never a point that you are not reminded that Bermuda is surrounded by ocean.  The color of the water is amazing, but you can find the same color of seas in Punta Cana or Jamaica, but those places don’t have the near shore outcroppings of coral reef like Bermuda.  I spent a day snorkeling off Elbow Beach and was amazed at how much marine life was less than a 100 yards from the sandy beach and tourists. 

Nature is a mix of native and introduced flowers.  Around every corner are flowers in bloom.  Colorful hibiscus flowers are a favorite.  Many, if not all of them, aren’t native to Bermuda.  Hibiscus is a strong group of flowers.  The rose mallow is a flower I use in yards and rain gardens all the time in New Jersey, and can survive the harsh winters.  But in Bermuda with its mild summers (highs in the 80s) and winters (lows in the 60s) provide a landscape for a wide variety of hibiscus.