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Photo by David Speckman

If you’re renovating in or relocating to Northern Michigan and need a little outdoor inspiration, there are two words for you: Bob Drost. Drost, Northern Michigan’s landscaping legend, teamed up with his family, his crew and a slew of longtime colleagues, to build this Northern Michigan home for the ages on the shores of Lake Charlevoix. The following home profile was first featured in the April 2014 issue of Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine.

For the sixth year in a row, Petoskey-based landscaper Bob Drost brought home a Grand Award from the Michigan Nursery and Landscape Association industry competition in January. His first place entry, for the “design and installation over $30,000” category, was a rock vignette that encompasses a rock garden and a steamy rock pool that sits below a fireplace set into the rock wall. It all blends into the landscape naturally; as if a glacier melted and left it behind.

This emphasis on rock in landscape design is Bob’s signature style. He’s been enamored with rocks as long as he remembers—an innate fascination fostered by his childhood in Charlevoix, a town famous for its mid-1900s whimsical stone homes designed by local architect Earl Young. The first time, years ago, that someone told Bob that one of his stone designs was reminiscent of Young’s style, Bob recalls nearly busting a button. Since then, Bob has gone on to hone his own style manifest in man-made streams, gardens, outdoor fireplaces and elaborate outdoor living areas—all set into some of the finest properties in Northern Michigan.

Not surprisingly, the handsome home Bob and his wife, Diane, built for themselves on Lake Charlevoix has an emphasis on stone—300 tons of it. “That’s 30 truckloads,” Drost says, with a trace of awe in his voice. From two fireplaces crafted from massive Lake Huron boulders and built by the Drosts’ son Dustin to the foundation, to the rock slabs that lead to the breakwall, rock stars in the Drost home.

While Drost acted as his own contractor, he and Diane hired Mapleridge Construction to do the framing, siding and trim. The couple turned to Jill Rowley of Glennwood Custom Builders and Interiors to design the home. Since Bob and Jill have worked together on a number of projects, the Drosts knew she could help them capture the feel they wanted of a venerable, early 1900s cottage. The finished product is a tan-trimmed-in-black shingle-style home with Craftsman accents. In keeping with the lot size, the home is not massive—though anchored in stone and rising three levels, it feels very substantial.

On the interior, elements like carefully crafted woodwork, oiled white oak floors with a French bleed accent and formal cabinetry combine to parlay the feeling of a fine cottage with Victorian and Craftsmen influences. The home exudes careful detail, right down to old-fashioned cast iron pipes the Drosts opted for because of the way they block the sound of water rushing through them.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the construction process was the way Bob’s longtime friends in the Northern Michigan construction business took a personal interest in the home. Builder and woodworker Andre Poineau made it a point to drop by from time to time to check on the process, following up with suggestions for Bob. Jeff Collins of Glennwood Builders provided guidance and painting. The couple found a deal on the stunning cabinetry thanks to a tip. “It was exactly what I’d wanted,” says Diane.

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The rest of this home’s story is about how Bob’s talented landscaping crew (that includes his son Dustin) did a large part of the actual homebuilding. Bob still marvels at the way his crew managed complicated tasks like installing the 100 galvanized pilings that the home sits on and fashioning a barrel vault in the ceiling of the master bedroom to mimic the shape of a window that arches over a picture-perfect view of Lake Charlevoix.

The Drosts have been in the home for two years—time filled with small, daily luxuries like going to sleep in a bedroom that feels as if it’s floating over Lake Charlevoix; Sunday breakfasts at a table situated so that the waterscape seems to pour out across the window; watching the annual Boyne Thunder high-performance boating event from their balcony. It’s probably no surprise that a home created by a cast of people who have mostly spent their entire lives around Lake Charlevoix embraces its setting in such a comfortable, classic way. This home built on rock, lives very well indeed.

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Gardening: Tips for high yields in a small or thirsty garden

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How can you get the most yield from a garden where space is limited, and water is too?

Plant smart, and pay attention to the soil.

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“Your garden is only as good as your soil,” says David Salman, chief horticulturist at High Country Gardens, a Santa Fe, N.M., catalog that specializes in native and low-water plants.

Find out what nutrients your soil has — and what it’s missing — with a soil test, available through local cooperative extension offices at a nominal fee (home soil-test kits are less reliable, according to the Colorado State University Extension).

Encourage plant health by fertilizing with natural, organic fertilizers, which include fish emulsion and liquid seaweed, says Salman. Limit the use of chemical fertilizers because they don’t help build the soil.

“You will have more nutritionally complete vegetables if you have healthy soil,” he promises.

One trick Salmon recommends, especially for gardeners living in new housing developments, is adding a soil inoculant called mycorrhiza, a beneficial fungi. It’s found naturally in healthy soil, but often needs to be added to a new garden.

“New gardens in new subdivisions, their soil is scraped off as part of construction,” says Salman. “You need to put beneficial fungi back in.”

Peas, beans and soybeans could benefit from legume inoculants, which are species-specific (a soybean inoculant cannot be used to improve peas’ growth). Read product labels carefully or ask your gardening center for assistance.

“Your beans will do OK (without it), but if you really want to crank out the beans, you can do that with the inoculant,” says Salman. “It’s kind of a ‘grandma’s secret’ to growing great beans.”

Plants that can offer high yields with low watering include leafy vegetables such as kale, lettuce and spinach; beans, snow peas and sugar snap peas; and some varieties of cucumbers and squash, he says. Plant vining beans and peas if you have space or can grow them up a fence or trellis; plant bush beans and peas in large pots if space is limited.

Sarah J. Browning, an extension educator for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, suggests planting radishes, carrots, peppers, zucchini and summer squash for summertime bounty. Peppers grow well in dry conditions, says Browning, and root crops such don’t need frequent watering.

“If you watered them well and then mulched them, I think you could get a crop with fairly small amounts of water input,” she says.

Plant radishes early in the season or in part shade, and mulch them and other plants to retain moisture and combat weeds.

Browning recommends the cherry tomato cultivar Sun Gold and the slicers Big Beef and Celebrity as great-tasting high producers. Also look for disease-resistant tomato varieties, which are easier to grow. Browning refers tomato lovers to Pennsylvania State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences Extension’s “Tomato Report 2011,” which lists the best varieties in its tomato trials.

Melissa Ozawa, a features editor for gardening at Martha Stewart Living magazine, recommends growing okra and Swiss chard; both are heat- and drought-tolerant. Melons also can handle less water once established because of their deep root systems, she says.

Not all vegetables grow well in all regions, so read seed packets, matching days to maturation to your region’s growing season, Salman advises.

“One of the big problems with horticulture in this country is everyone tries to be one-size-fits-all, and this is just too big of a continent to do that,” he says. “You don’t want to grow a 120-day watermelon in Denver. They can grow those in Texas, but the maturation period in Denver is much shorter.”

Prolific, water-wise herbs include basil, oregano, parsley, thyme and rosemary, says Browning.

Salman offers space-saving planting tips for herbs: Plant lavender and oregano along the dryer edges of your garden, since they’re the most heat-tolerant, and plant Greek oregano and dill, plus annual herbs such as basil and cilantro, among the root vegetables.

Try growing perennials such as rosemary, English thyme, tarragon and lavender in your ornamental beds. They don’t require your vegetable garden’s mineral-rich soil, says Salman.

Garden Tips: Keep spring flowering shrubs blooming with pruning

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Last weekend, I took advantage of the weather to prune my forsythia that was crowding plants. I hadn’t pruned it much for the past two years, and it was becoming unruly. It put on a beautiful show of blooms this spring, but I knew that if I didn’t remove some of the old wood, it probably would not have as many flowers next year.

My approach was to remove one-third to one-fourth of the older (thickest stems with side shoots) stems down to the ground. A healthy forsythia is a vigorous shrub that sends up new stems each year that bloom the following spring. Removal of the oldest stems should be done after flowering because the buds for next spring are formed on the new wood by early summer. Pruning later in the season or in winter will reduce the flower display the following year.

A weigela was one of the plants being crowded by the forsythia. I planted it in early summer two years ago, and initially it benefitted from the shade the forsythia provided, but now it needs more light. I also have two mature weigela shrubs elsewhere in my landscape.

One of these weigelas is Wine and Roses, with dark burgundy leaves and dark pink flowers. It has prospered, but now it has become bedraggled, and there are dead twigs and branches throughout. Since weigelas are prone to winter dieback, this may have been caused by the cold snap last fall. The dieback could also be related to the increasing amount of shade provided by two trees on that side of the yard. Weigelas do best in full sun and will become straggly if planted in shade or crowded by other plants.

Perhaps I should remove it and plant a more shade tolerant shrub, but I think I will see if I can revitalize it first. As soon as it is finished blooming, I will prune out the thickest, oldest stems along with any of dead branches and twigs. To shape it, I will prune back any overly long stems to a side branch, being sure not to remove more than one-third of the stem.

Most other multistemmed spring-flowering deciduous shrubs are also pruned after flowering. This is because they too flower on wood produced the previous growing season. These shrubs include forsythia, weigela, lilac, viburnum, honeysuckle, mock orange, Nanking cherry, flowering quince, white-flowered spireas, beautybush and deutzia.

Also, don’t forget to deadhead the spent flowers or seed-heads from the stems you don’t remove. This will give the shrub a tidier appearance and allow its energy to go into plant growth rather than seed development.

— Marianne C. Ophardt is a horticulturist for Washington State University Benton County Extension.

Tips for high yields in a small or thirsty garden