You might call Robert Salmon a late bloomer.
His gardening bug didn’t hit until he and his girlfriend Catherine Fuller built a new home in Penfield nine years ago. As with many new-builds, the land surrounding their house was barren.
The couple viewed landscaping and developing the garden as a challenge.
Now, the Salmon/Fuller garden on Legacy Circle in east Penfield is a showstopper. The yard now draws garden enthusiasists who love viewing bursts of color in early spring as 7,000 daffodils and tulips begin to bloom. Because of the late spring weather this year, people can still see the blooms.
Salmon, who heads the corporate communications department at Carestream, is now fully engaged in the garden, having taught himself the intricacies of growing flowers and plants through reading and taking classes at Rochester Civic Garden Center.
“I’m not the type of person to sit around and watch TV,” he says, so gardening keeps him active and outdoors.
Gardening, in fact, has become Salmon’s retreat of sorts. He’s an early riser and enjoys the morning sun, and has found feeding and watering the garden to be therapeutic.
“It’s very peaceful and relaxing,” he says.
Salmon particularly enjoys the red Triumph tulips, whose deep red color blends well against the green landscape. He sources his bulbs and plants from several local nurseries, including Grossman’s Garden Home near his house and Wayside Garden Center in Macedon. Catalogs also are a good source for bulbs, he says.
Salmon and Fuller designed the garden so they can enjoy it in other seasons after the tulips and daffodils have faded. The couple mulches the ground instead of deadheading the bulbs, and hostas are in view.
The front garden features a border made of rocks. Salmon found the rocks at construction sites in the new-build community, filled his wheelbarrow with them and pushed them home. Then the couple enlisted Christine Froehlich of Rochester Civic Garden Center for help with landscape design ideas.
Froehlich had to think creatively to design a garden that would be manageable for two busy professionals.
“It was a huge space and I didn’t want to create a maintenance nightmare,” she says.
Froehlich chose to plant masses of shrubs and perennials to fill in the space. As the couple wanted privacy, planting deciduous flowering shrubs that grew quickly, such as viburnum and red twig dogwood, gave the house some cover.
A major issue: “The soil on the site was impossible, rooty and poor quality,” Froehlich says. “Plus, the stone wall Robert had built around it made it impossible to see any of the perennials.”
The wall was over three feet tall, so Froehlich suggested raising the garden with good soil to solve both problems.
Salmon and Fuller decided on a “controlled wild look” for their plantings, and included grasses and plum and apple trees among the shrubs. The couple purchased an additional three acres behind their home to keep it undeveloped.
Fuller is now building a shade garden on the side of the home, and Salmon has beehives and a vegetable garden in the back.
When they do have time to relax, Salmon enjoys sitting at the bistro set in front of the home, watching their Welsh corgi pups Lilyrose and Morgan William play in the yard.
“This helps me recharge from everyday activities,” Salmon says.
MCHAO@DemocratandChronicle.com
Twitter.com/MaryChaoStyle
Great Gardens
Each month during the warm-weather season, staff writer Mary Chao will feature one of the region’s great gardens and profile the people behind the artistic creations. To suggest a garden or gardeners, email Chao at MCHAO@DemocratandChronicle.com.
Pest control
Keeping masses of bulbs away from deer and moles isn’t easy in Penfield. Salmon developed his organic method of keeping deer at bay, tying sachets of moth balls around his garden. Still, the moles do get to the tulip bulbs, as he points to a bald area where about a thousand tulips have disappeared. “We have the best-fed moles anywhere,” Salmon jokes.
More online
• Click on this story at DemocratandChronicle.com to hear an interview with Robert Salmon.
• Read about local gardening at gardens.DemocratandChronicle.com.
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