“The creation of a thousand forests began with one acorn,” Ralph Waldo Emerson said.

You can also say that the creation of a xeriscape garden at Mohawk Valley School began with one person, Sandy Kerr. Last year, Kerr was looking for a gardening project she could complete as part of her master gardener’s course which she was taking from Stacey Bealmear, urban horticulturist with the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Office.

“I was inspired by the beauty of the Robert J. Moody Garden, across the street from where I was taking my master gardener classes,” Kerr explained. “I visited the Moody Garden several times and came up with the idea that such a garden could be created at Mohawk Valley School, in Roll, Ariz.”

When Kerr presented the idea for a school xeriscape to Dr. Doug Rutan, superintendent, and the Mohawk Valley School governing board, everyone was eager to get started.

A year later, Kerr’s idea has been completed, and the Mohawk Valley School Demonstration Garden was dedicated Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. What was once a dusty patch of ground on the school’s campus has been transformed into a xeriscape filled with drought-resistant plants and trees.

When Kerr described the process of completing the garden, she explained that things just fell into place as people throughout the Roll, Wellton and Yuma communities volunteered to help make it happen.

“Melissa Wilson, from Lowe’s Home Improvement, had been helping the school repaint the hallways,” Kerr said. “When I mentioned our planned xeriscape, she recommended we apply for a Lowe’s School Improvement Grant. We did and were given $5,000 toward building the garden. Melissa Mebus, from Lowe’s, was instrumental in helping us apply for the grant and move forward with our project.”

Stormi Carlson, science teacher at Mohawk Valley School, had her students help design the garden using information from the Arizona Game and Fish Department brochure, “Landscaping for Desert Wildlife.”

“Each student in grades 6-8 researched native plants from the brochure, chose 25 plants to use in the garden and drew their own garden design to scale,” Carlson said. “We chose the 25 most popular plants and placed them in the garden. Paper chains were laid out by students to help establish final placement of the garden’s paths.

“Designing the garden was a wonderful way to incorporate math and science into a real-life situation. The kids loved this hands-on activity and learned so much. Measuring accurately became a big deal when it came time to lay out the final garden.”

“News of the project spread throughout the community, and Jerry Cullison offered to donate gravel for groundcover between the plants,” Rutan said. “Bonnie and Ryan Stuhr offered to haul the gravel to the school, and employees from Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District offered to move the gravel by wheelbarrows to the actual garden site. We couldn’t have done the groundcover project without the help of so many generous people from our community.”

Community involvement did not stop there. When news of the garden made its way to Antelope High School, just down the road a bit, Rick St. Clair, construction skills teacher, offered to have his students construct benches and picnic tables for a patio area under a newly built solar panel array that now provides 30-40 percent of the school’s electricity.

“Mr. St. Clair’s students did a superb job building the benches and tables,” Dr. Rutan said. “They will be used by students every day and add so much to the garden area.”

Arizona’s centennial was celebrated at the school with a penny drive to obtain trees for the garden. Funds from the penny drive were matched by Lowe’s, allowing the school to purchase two palo verde trees.

Friends of the Library, associated with the Mohawk Branch of the Yuma County Library located in the school’s old gym, donated a jacaranda tree as part of their summer reading program; Frank Saldana, owner of Arbor Tech, volunteered to help with the tree plantings; and the school maintenance staff laid the drip system.

“Next on our agenda is purchase of plaques naming each plant and giving its scientific name,” Rutan said.

“We are excited to have Fort Yuma Rotary Club adopt our school as their project for this year. With their help, exciting plans are on the horizon for more school projects. Persons wishing to help maintain the garden or donate funds can contact the school at 928-785-4942.

“During our tight economy, everyone is learning to live on less. Schools are struggling, as well, to cover their expenses with fewer funds,” Rutan said. “However, with the help of everyone who volunteered time, money and materials, we have enriched our school campus with a beautiful garden and picnic area that is a lasting legacy for our students and community to enjoy. I wish to extend a big thank-you to everyone who helped make our garden a success.”

Karen Bowen is a master gardener and member of Yuma Garden Club. This column is sponsored by the Federated Garden Clubs of Yuma.

The Boca Grande Garden Club opens its season by welcoming Jane Godshalk, an award-winning floral designer at one of the finest botanical gardens in the United States.

Godshalk a Longwood Gardens faculty member, will speak at 1 p.m. Nov. 7 at the Boca Grande Community Center Auditorium on “Artful Holiday Arrangements.” Tropical plants and flowers of Gasparilla Island will be used as her inspiration for taking flower arranging to an art form.

Godshalk transform flower arrangement into something breathtaking, said Nora Lea Reefe, president of the Boca Grande Garden Club.

Article Photos

Jane Godshalk

A certified floral designer in the United States and the Netherlands, Godshalk studied with Canadian designer, Hitomi Gilliam, the club’s February speaker. She serves as an artistic judge for the Garden Club of America and writes a column called “Eco Friendly Floral Design” for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Green Scene Magazine.

At the March “2012 Festival of Flowers” she won a special award for her design in a tropical heliconia-based competition.

She’s also won awards such as the Garden Club of America’s national medal for “consistently innovative floral design,” the American Horticulture Society’s Great American Gardener Award” and several awards at the famed Chelsea Flower Show in England.

A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Godshalk earned a master’s degree in organizational behavior before finding her passion after her golf partner invited her to join a garden club in the Philadelphia area. She immediately started taking every floral design course she could find, and started a small flower business in her garage.

After giving a workshop for her club, she discovered teaching. Her calendar was soon filled with speaking workshops, which ultimately attracted the attention of Longwood where4 she teaches floral design.

‘With a happy marriage and family, good health, and a hobby that turned into a life-changing career, Jane’s enthusiasm is inspiring and infectious,” Reefe said. “The Boca Grande Garden Club is thrilled to bring Jane Godshalk to our community where every day our environment allows us to celebrate horticulture, flowers and art, three things that Jane brings together in every program.”

Fact Box

To Go

Who: Jane Godshalk, a Longwood Gardens faculty member

What: Boca Grande Garden Club season opener

When: 1 p.m. Nov. 7

Where: Boca Grande Community Center Auditorium

How much: Free to members, $25 to non-member if space is available

You should know: Membership in the club is open to 300 members on a first-come, first-served basis for $50. If no places are open, you may join a wait list. Call Nora Lea Reefe at (941) 661-4089.

Membership in the club is open to 300 members on a first-come, first-served basis for $50. If no places are open, you may join a wait list. Call Nora Lea Reefe at (941) 661-4089.

Her presentation is free to Garden Club members and open to the public on a space-available basis for $25. Reservations may be made by calling Kay Ferland at (941) 924-7328 or sending a check payable to the Boca Grande Garden Club, marked “Nov Mtg” in the memo line, to Doe Flannery at P.O. Box 1246, Boca Grande. Include name tag IDs. Admission by check or cash available at the door.

Membership in the club is open to 300 members on a first-come, first-served basis for $50. If no places are open, you may join a wait list. Call Nora Lea Reefe at (941) 661-4089.

Right. You’ve got 10 days to build a show garden. I’m giving you £50,000, a team of Japanese contractors and a translator. You’re up against some of the best designers in the world, so your reputation is on the line. Oh yes: and you’re doing it on the other side of the world.

No wonder the designers say entering the Gardening World Cup in Nagasaki, Japan, is more Challenge Anneka than Chelsea. This year’s clash of the garden design titans has been so popular with the public it’s been extended by a fortnight (it ends next weekend), and in all my years of going to flower shows I can honestly say I’ve never been anywhere quite like it.

For starters, I may have thought I was in Japan, but essentially I spent the week in Holland. The venue, Huis Ten Bosch, is a faithful reproduction of the Dutch Royal Family’s palace, complete with parterres, pleached tunnels and fountains. Only the faces were Japanese.

It’s a grand setting for a show that would like to be very grand indeed. The GWC dubs itself the Japanese Chelsea Flower Show, and that’s not entirely swagger. If you hand-pick twelve designers from the best in the world (previous alumni include Chelsea winners Andy Sturgeon and Sarah Eberle) the result is something special. Which makes it all the more strange how you keep coming up with parallels from the world of TV game shows. Never mind Challenge Anneka: there’s more than a passing resemblance to Ready, Steady, Cook.

The designers were all interpreting the same theme – ‘Peace and Restoration’, about as resonant in bomb-shadowed Nagasaki as anywhere. And the 10 days include sourcing all the plants: every nursery for miles around was stripped bare. So everyone began with the same initial ingredients, but with radically different results.

The dancing plumes of annual knotweed Persicaria orientalis, for example, were dignified in ‘Eye to Eye’, a breathtaking Islamic garden by Malaysian designer Lim in Chong (can someone tell me why we never see Islamic gardens at UK flower shows?). Its cool blue-and-white tiled floor and star-shaped pool among serene roses and cosmos stole the show, winning gold and best garden.

But in ‘The Butterfly Effect’ by Jo Thompson, fresh from her Chelsea debut (though sadly minus Doris the caravan), the persicarias danced merrily over clouds of fuzzy Caryopteris x clandonensis in a butterfly-friendly garden enclosed within Tuscan-style stone arches.

The caryopteris turned cool English in Richard Miers‘ elegantly sophisticated outdoor dining area, but were a single pool of muted colour on multiple Chelsea gold medal winner Kazuyuki Ishihara‘s Zen-like Japanese tea house garden with its single pine stooping gracefully to kiss the water’s surface.

Several bemused contractors were dispatched to dig up lipstick-pink nerine lookalike Lycoris radiata, a local weed, from neighbouring rice paddies. David Davidson, designer of Kirstenbosch’s acclaimed exhibits at Chelsea, kept them wild in a sea of purple Panicum virgatum ‘Chocolata’ beneath the parched bones of a magnolia to evoke apartheid South Africa, but for Karen Stefonick, from the US, they were shocking splashes of colour in a pared-down garden backed by twin rippled concrete walls and a single orange sun-like orb.

The theme, too, provoked quirky, original responses. ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by James Basson, a Brit living in France, was a thought-provoking depiction of a bullet ripping through concrete, while Korea’s Jihae Hwang (another much-admired Chelsea veteran) brought a tender garden about the humility of poverty, with exquisite details like its row of tiny Korean shoes under a bench.

Jo Thompson, who went through all this last year, told me doing the GWC is like childbirth: once it’s over you forget how monumentally difficult it was and start wanting to do it again. Now I’ve recovered from the epic jetlag and my coffee intake is back to normal, I’m beginning to think the same thing myself.

Mondee Tilley | The News

Landscape architect Chip Calloway, center, leads the Garden Gate Gardening Club over to the area where he designed a rose garden the club plans to build behind the Joan and Howard Woltz Hospice Home in Dobson.

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DOBSON — In honor of a dear friend and former Garden Gate Gardening Club member, Julie Bray, the club met Tuesday with landscape architect Chip Calloway at the Joan Howard Woltz Hospice Home in Dobson to discuss plans for a rose garden behind the home.

Calloway said he lost his mother who was staying in the home for her end-of-days care, so he donated his time to design a garden for those who have lost a loved one or for those visiting or staying in the Woltz Hospice Home.

“This is near and dear to my heart,” said Calloway over lunch at the home with the garden club.

The club’s president, Rosie Sink, explained to the group that there is a lot of sunshine in the spot where the garden is planned.

“I think this is such a wonderful project. Hope we can get local residents and businesses to help out with this project,” said Sink. “This came from heaven. Just look at the sky.”

Sink said Bray had four small children, so this project is especially meaningful for the group.

“She was here — so this means a lot to us,” said Sink.

Club member Susan Campbell remembered spending the last week of Bray’s life with her at the hospice home.

“Her favorite color was ‘yallow.’ She was from Virginia, so that’s how she said it,” said Campbell. “I know she is tinkled pink looking down from heaven at this project.”

She is passionate about making sure there are yellow roses in the garden there in memory of her friend who died at the age of 45.

Sheila Jones, director of development and marketing for Mountain Valley Hospice and Palliative Care, said the garden club needs to make sure the garden is wheelchair accessible for residents at the home.

“The whole point of this is making sure that people are able to enjoy the view of this garden,” said Jones.

Before the group walked out to the area where the garden will be planted, Calloway showed them some slides of his work. Members of the club, let the word “Wow” out as each slide of his work came up.

Calloway said people love to get married in his yard that is just outside of downtown Greensboro.

He said a few years ago, he invited chef Alice Waters to his home where he showed her his edible garden. She then invited him to California to design an edible garden for a school there.

Plans for the garden include a drip irrigation system, a bench and a picket fence.

Donations for the garden will be certainly appreciated, Sink said.

Reach Mondee Tilley at mtilley@heartlandpublications.com or at 719-1930.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 16, 2012 — /PRNewswire/ — Abe’s Garden, a proposed residential community and daycare center for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, will host a summit for leaders in the field of creating environments for the elderly at an architectural planning session, better known as a “charette,” on October 18.

Respected professionals from around the country will join those in Nashville at the full day event at the Nashville Public Television studios (at 161 Rains Ave) to discuss a wide-range of design topics that affect Alzheimer’s and dementia care. Additionally, the nationally recognized leaders will share their knowledge of “best practices” to inform the final architectural and interior design for Abe’s Garden.

The charette, and the ultimate design of Abe’s Garden, will enable the organization to provide an unprecedented level of care and comprehensive array of services for individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia in Middle Tennessee. Abe’s Garden will also be a community setting a new standard of research and development for future programs and communities caring for our nation’s rapidly expanding senior population.

The three nationally renowned design professionals will offer consultation and advice on how to integrate evidence-based elements that foster safety, cognitive and physical health, emotional comfort, and independence in routine daily activities into the final plans for the campus. Rosemary Bakker, ASID, MS, a gerontologist, certified interior designer, and an academic staff member at Weill Cornell Medical College; Margaret Calkins, Ph.D., a leader in the field of environments for the elderly; and Lorraine Hiatt, Ph.D., author and public speaker on the issues of design and planning, will share their combined expertise to help design Abe’s Garden as a state-of-the art community.

The charette will be facilitated by Jody Lentz. Also participating in the discussion will be the Executive Director of Alzheimer’s Resource Center of Connecticut, Michael Smith. Middle Tennessee representatives to the charette include Janet Ayers of The Ayers Foundation; Kim Hawkins and Allison Marusic of Hawkins Partners, Inc.; Deborah Robin, M.D. of Vanderbilt University; Saurabh Sinha of emids; Lesley Beeman, Mark Bixler, Carly Conrad and Manuel Zeitlin of Manuel Zeitlin Architects; as well as John Schnelle, Ph.D., Sandra Simmons, Ph.D., and James Powers, M.D., AGSF of Vanderbilt Center for Quality Aging.

“Hosting the charette is a reflection of our commitment to incorporating evidenced-based design into Abe’s Garden. The breadth of knowledge represented by these respected participants will ensure the integration of best practices in our campus design,” said Andrew B. Sandler, Ph.D., CEO of Abe’s Garden. “Abe’s Garden will be an innovative and comforting environment that provides individualized life enrichment programs to seniors and support for family members and caregivers.

“Abe’s Garden is a pioneer in the field with the understanding that it takes a village to create an environment of care that will enrich the everyday lives and functions of persons with dementia, while creating an optimum work space for dedicated caregivers,” stated Rosemary Bakker, ASID, MS.

Abe’s Garden Abe’s Garden is a 501(c)(3) organization, founded in 2007. In 2008, the Nashville based organization purchased Park Manor, a well established senior independent lifestyle community; and recently converted the second floor into an assisted living community in response to the needs of current and future residents.  

On the Park Manor campus, Abe’s Garden will provide evidence-based adult daycare and residential services designed specifically for individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias. 

Abe’s Garden will develop best practices for dementia care through a planned collaboration with Vanderbilt Center for Quality Aging. The venture could pursue research that evaluates programs and clinical outcomes. Research will be led by the recently endowed Abram C. Shmerling, M.D. Chair in Alzheimer’s and Geriatric Medicine at Vanderbilt University.

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The new Garden of Tranquility at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens embraces a graceful, simple design that has its roots in the ancient Chinese practice of feng shui, the art of arranging spaces with balance and comfort in mind.

The simplicity of the 7-acre garden belies the elaborate planning that went into each detail.

The garden features a winding path through a flower garden in the shape of the lucky number eight. A labyrinth is in the shape of an octagon, another lucky shape. Flowers are planted in a swirling pattern, considered essential to life as evidenced by the swirl of a fingerprint or the crown of hair on a baby’s head.

Four topiary animals watch over the garden — tiger, dragon, tortoise and phoenix.

The granite pagoda at the entrance to the garden symbolizes knowledge and wisdom, said Hope Gerecht, a feng shui expert who helped design the garden with Amy Shimp, general manager of Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens.

“For the first 2000 years, feng shui was only used in burials, not in the home as we think of it today,” said Gerecht, a Stevenson resident, who normally applies the ancient art to interior design.

“How we care for our ancestors affects our lives,” she said last week, walking through the garden as workers continued the job of installing elements.

“There is an invisible energy and movement and every space is unique. Here, the elements of the garden interact with personal elements,” Gerecht said. “This whole garden wove itself together.”

The design includes six granite benches, each bearing the image of the official flower of an Asian country. The meaning of the flower is written below the image in the language of the country.

Shimp said the yearlong project began when she noticed the local Asian population gravitated to the Peace Garden, an area on a hill overlooking water.

Some visitors simply found the setting ideal for contemplation. Others, like Wilbur Su, had relatives buried nearby.

When Wilbur Su’s father, Chi-Tsung Su, died two years ago, his family chose a grave site on the hill for the Lutherville plastic surgeon who was born in Taiwan.

“When we were choosing the site, Amy told us about plans for the garden, and my family and I helped by telling her what was important in the Chinese-Taiwanese traditions,” Wilbur Su said. “We couldn’t be more pleased with the way it turned out. They paid so much attention to detail. There is nothing else like this in Baltimore County.”

Shimp and Gerecht also had input in developing a conceptual design from Joseph Kim, who has a degree in landscape architecture and whose uncle is buried at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens.

“The concept came from ideas and influences of traditional Asian style and Japanese style gardening,” he said and the main idea was to create spaces where visitors may reflect, meditate and be soothed by memories.

“It is more than a garden with just plants and a designed landscape,” he said.

The garden was also designed to appeal to people of all cultures, said John Mitchell, chairman of Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens.

The public is invited to a dedication ceremony for the new Garden of Tranquility at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens, on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at noon, followed by light refreshments. The Oct. 24 dedication date was chosen after consulting a Chinese almanac for the best day to hold such a ceremony.

The ceremony will feature speakers, drummers, a traditional lion dance, fireworks, music and tours with an explanation of the main garden elements. Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens is located at 200 E. Padonia Road, Timonium. For more details, call 410-666-0490.

Hilton Munich Park is located at Bavaria in Englischer Garten (English Garden). The renovation has transformed disjointed and lacklustre spaces into a cohesive and sophisticated design, creating a retreat for business and leisure guests.

The lobby area scattered with furniture was converted to a cosier “human” scale, with options for socialising and degrees of privacy introduced. Prior to the renovation, the area’s scattered furniture and open-plan, double-height volume resulted in a cluttered feeling. JOI-Design eliminated this through the creation of “zoned” layouts. The seating and traffic flow had been separated with anodized metal balustrades of different heights, creating a cozy atmosphere.

The “S-shaped” sofa makes space for private grouping while barstools at café tables makes way for a quick coffee. The reception desk has been split into two halves with an overhead smoked oak panel inset with horizontal light strips creating a focal point.

A central light sculpture produced out of assorted lengths of glowing fibre optic flower petals hangs from the coved ceiling. The staircase landing lower petals coated in champagne coloured anodized aluminium are enclosed in a rectangular timber frame backlit by LEDs, forming an intriguing art installation. Glass and mirrored panels were used in the lobby etched with three overlapping patterns of gilded tree branches that disperse layered shadows of twigs. This

motif is also featured in the metal screens that encircle the lobby, dressing-up shop windows to give them a warmer appeal.

The People’s Bar also feature these layered shadows of twigs at the entrance. JIO-Design infused the space with abstract floral motifs of the custom wool carpet and the bespoke wallcovering patterned with winding tendrils. The lounge chairs were decorated with silky ruby-toned accent cushions creating a vibrant counterpoint to the soft champagne hued leather and velvet textures. The smoked oak bar was decorated with pendant lights which softly illuminate

each seat individually. The helix of shadows cast by the perforated, geometrically contoured pendants used in this space and elsewhere in the bar are mirrored in the spiral form of the cocktail tables’ silver bases.

For the 24×7-cover Tivoli Restaurant and Club which overlooks the gardens, JOI-Design infused conviviality and a refined Bavarian elegance. Inspired by the beautiful natural scenery, the company created a design which brightens the atmosphere and results in a more polished and comfortable guest experience. The new scheme uplifts diners’ arrival through the addition of a stylish

focal point at the welcome area. A fitted leather-clad wardrobe has been included to store guests’ coats, which feature rich chocolate leather, a hand-stitched border and leather-lined inset handles.

The renovation has been done in a way that guests at the restaurant will not have to pass the buffet area as earlier. The foliage-patterned curtains conceal the empty breakfast areas to provide a harmonious journey to the dinner table.

Tivoli’s oak wall panels feature laser-cut with poetically styled motifs of branches and birds, which have been adhered to backlit glass sheets to illuminate the restaurant. It has also added a connection with nature during the evening hours. Above the “Captain’s Table”, where private groups and single business people can dine throughout the day, oak pendant lights are placed which mimic the wheel spokes of traditional Bavarian horse-drawn carriages. The main dining area’s mirrored globe pendant lights provide a fresh, contemporary contrast to the restaurant’s predominantly matte finishes.

A crisp, neutral palette providing a clean backdrop for the fantastic views of the colourful Munich skyline has been designed by JOI at the Marco Polo’ event space, which is at the top of the hotel. The metamorphosed executive lounge is available for the business executives. The exciting contrast created through the bold crimson splashes in the carpet makes the space look illuminated.

All the 484 bedrooms and suites of the hotel have been designed with a contemporary interpretation of the park’s colourful scenery that is evident in warm earth and ripe berry tones and a design that unfolds as guests discover its layered details. The 31.4 square metre footprint in the bedroom made the designer create three zones – “resting” area, the “working” section and the “leisure” zone.

The first “resting” area contains a wide, comfortable bed tucked into the “protected” innermost part of the room. On the wall opposite the bed,

an “oversized” leather-wrapped frame defines the middle “working” section’s generously sized desk, dresser and television. The third “leisure” zone is next to the full-height sliding doors which lead onto the veranda and garden views. A plush chaise longue and a pouf are highlighted by a trio of “raindrop” pendant lamps hung at different lengths to emphasise the bedroom’s spaciousness.

The carpet’s foliage pattern in the rooms are suggestive of a walk in the park with hand-sewn stitches in the leather frame that evoke the traditional Bavarian tanned trousers sported in days past. Within its border, an understated tone on-

tone floral wallcovering adds charm. The desk doubles as a vanity and has a narrow mirror with a finely etched scroll that picks-up this floral theme while simultaneously “widening” the room’s appearance. A lamp is placed on top of it, which is a nostalgic design classic.

The neutral palette of the assorted suites and the Presidential Suite paints an elegant picture. A fluted, matte silver wall “frame” is inset with a pearlescent wallcovering. The space features tone-on-tone wool rugs with tree branch silhouettes that allude to the park beyond. Here, the contemporary contrasts with the traditional; for example, a masculine, dark walnut credenza sits adjacent to a cream dining table whose shapely legs have rounded turnings reminiscent of those found on Bavarian antiques.

 

Local landscape architect Chuck Baum stopped by the Garden Club of Montclair on Monday to discuss the artistic principals of landscape and garden design. Before his presentation, the Patch sat down with Baum to ask him a few questions. 

What are some of the rudimentary elements of landscaping?

Lines, composition, scale, proportion, texture, color theory: all of the things make the difference between a pretty little collection of plants and a real work of art in the landscape.

But the first rules are vision and budget. You need both. They have to marry together, so you start with that, but you don’t limit your creativity by your budget because you can be very creative and make beautiful art with a very low budget and low-cost materials. 

When it comes to garden design, how does Montclair as a whole stack-up?

Montclair is a wonderful area. In New Jersey, I have a self-perpetuating career because winter comes and kills everything! … But Montclair is full of Victorian and Colonial homes, which I love. 

Do you have a favorite street in Montclair?

I like Midland Avenue. That whole section of town … has had a renaissance in the last few years. 

What is in vogue now for landscaping and gardening? 

A lot of people call me asking for English gardens. But what is always in vogue in Montclair is a gorgeous but low-maintenance garden. 

What seems to be the trend now is the elimination of grass lawns, too. People want to make them smaller and smaller. Grass lawns I think are terrible investments because they are a monoculture, they need a lot of chemicals, they are susceptible to disease, and you have to water them a lot. 

What I am doing is taking lawns out and putting in expanded shrub or ground covers, and expanded gardens. 

Do you have a list of deadly sins you have compiled during your experience when it comes to landscaping?

Stop buying so much mulch! I see more landscape investments destroyed by piling up mulch on tree trunks and shrubs because it kills them.

What people want is succession in their gardens. I tell people it takes a year to make their garden. When you start, go shopping every two weeks and buy things that have one bud and get a bunch of those. Plant those and leave a lot of space.

Two weeks later, go shopping again. See what’s about to bloom and buy some of those. 

Do that the whole season, and next year it will all just happen.

Another big mistake is that people tend to create a hodgepodge lodge. People put in a little of this, a little of that with no composition and no sense of proportion. People buy these cute little trees and shrubs, plant them 3 feet from the house and in five years the cherry tree is eating the front porch! 

My advice is to look at a plant’s mature height and width.   

A lifelong gardener, Baum received a degree in biology from Montclair State University. He is a former Montclair resident, and operated an art gallery in town for nearly a decade. He now works as a landscape architect and contractor for New Garden Network. He currently lives in Verona. 

A strip of running water cuts down the middle of a rustic table made from thick planks of old barn wood and held up with substantial pieces of native Oregon oak. A riot of greens, squash, pumpkin, corn and apples heaped on and around the table symbolize the tradition of agriculture in the Willamette Valley.

The display is the third incarnation of a seasonal garden created at Bauman’s Farm by Portland garden designer P. Annie Kirk and landscaper Kevin Schindler.

“I had an idea for a pilot project,” says Kirk, who wanted to bring the farm-to-table concept even closer to home by making a farm at table. “What if everything was at your fingertips? What if you decided, I’m going to have these salad greens, these strawberries and pick them right at the table.”

So Kirk, owner of Red Bird Restorative Gardens, enlisted the help of Schindler of Autumn Leaf Landscaping. He was all for the idea of building a garden within a garden center and approached his friend Brian Bauman, whose family started farming in the valley in 1894.

“My heart is really attached to this land,” says Kirk, “and I know that’s true about Brian’s family and Kevin’s wife’s family. I wanted to make something that was a legacy of this land and that legacy is farming.”

The living display is meant to give customers a place to sit, rest and interact, all important concepts in Kirk’s design. Set before the table are cubelike seats made to look like bee hives in a nod to the essential pollinators. A few strides away across a hazelnut covered path, more aviary-impersonating seats surround a fire pit. And, of course, the rill of running water has plenty of room for bottles of Willamette Valley wine and the beer made from hops grown in the area.

For spring, Kirk set the table with blueberries, strawberries, edible flowers, sorrel and early herbs. The strawberries stayed for the summer, when the display included more greens, basil and early corn. The current version stays up into November.

— Kym Pokorny

When Pam Stevens and partner Lisa Boyes moved to The Windmill in Swavesey, the period property was in need of some serious TLC. Transforming the listed building into a super-stylish and comfortable home, the couple felt inspired to open their own interiors store: called The Shop on the Pond, it sits at the bottom of their two-acre garden. Alice Ryan goes shopping

Swavesey’s windmill sits in the most glorious spot. Seen from afar, black tarred tower and whitewashed dome standing proud on the horizon, it’s neighboured by nothing but open countryside. At this time of year, with the sky brightest blue and the fields golden with harvest-ready crops, it’s a beautiful sight.

Set on the outskirts of the village, down a slightly bumpy single-track road, The Windmill is home to Pam Stevens, her partner Lisa Boyes and their two business ventures – a boarding kennels, with room for more than 70 cats and dogs, and The Shop on the Pond, a chi-chi interiors store.

“We were looking to take on a boarding kennels – we both love animals, and have had cats and dogs all our lives – and this was the ninth one we saw,” explains Pam. “Of the nine, this was the first property that made me think ‘Yes! We could really do something with that’. . .

“The setting is beautiful and the building itself has so much character. I’ve always lived in houses that are a little bit different: I had a coach house at one point, then a four-storey townhouse covered in gargoyles. And I do love period properties; modern houses just don’t do it for me. So The Windmill ticked all my boxes.”

The mill, which has long-since lost its sails, dates from the 19th century; a plaque set into the brickwork reads ‘J. Redford AD 1866’. Converted from working mill to domestic dwelling decades ago, the main body of the building is Grade II listed.

When Pam and Lisa moved in, the house was in need of renovation: along with building an extension, which now houses their airy farmhouse kitchen, they have excavated and levelled floors, stripped beams, installed new staircases and decorated every room, from the ground floor right up to the sky-high turret.

Walk into the spacious entrance hall and it’s clear the couple have an eye for interior design. Fine paintings and antiques, sourced from various markets and auctions, sit alongside ethnic artefacts, mementoes from numerous trips to South Africa. The soft furnishings, which include curtains stitched from vintage brocade, are deliciously plush. The look is finished with silvered table lamps, a glittering glass chandelier, and two huge vases of fresh flowers.

“Above all, I wanted the house to be comfortable,” says Pam. “And I also wanted to incorporate the pieces that mean something to us: the armoire under the stairs, which I use as a linen chest, came back with us from South Africa; a lot of the artwork was bought in London.”

Each side of the doorway to the dining room, a large wooden figure stands sentinel: both vibrantly painted, one plays a trumpet and the other a mandolin. “Lisa found them in a shop in Cape Town: they were actually being used as part of a display, but she fell in love with them and made the shopkeeper an offer. Apparently they were originally made for a stage show, and there were 24 of them altogether.”

Having run her own beauty business for 30 years – she owned numerous salons in London – Pam decided to sell up and retire to Boulders Beach, Cape Town, where she owned a holiday home. She and Lisa moved out there but, after just three months of sun and sand, decided the South African life wasn’t for them.

“When you’re on holiday it’s lovely to sit in the sun, do a bit of shopping, have some lunch, then sit in the sun again. But the novelty soon wears off when you’re doing that day in, day out. And, to be honest, we found Cape Town quite a narrow-minded place to live. It just wasn’t for us.”

The couple, who met at a party 13 years ago, decided to come home and find a new challenge – hence buying a boarding kennels. “I went from running my beauty business, being suited and booted every day, to wearing scruffs and no make-up and picking up dog poop,” laughs Pam. “Apart from the poop-scooping, which did take a bit of getting used to, I didn’t mind at all – in fact, I found I really enjoyed it.”

Both animal lovers, Pam and Lisa have seven pets of their own: three cats and four dogs – Otis the ‘very friendly’ labradoodle, Baxter the ‘sweet’ golden retriever, Rosie the ‘adorable’ spaniel, and Henry the ‘rather bossy’ terrier. Most of their animal companions are rescues: Rosie, for example, was left homeless when her previous owner fell sick.

Continuing the guided tour of the house, Pam explains that the dining room, with its quaint curved walls, sits at the foot of the mill tower. An eye-catching oak staircase, built to fit by a local artisan, sweeps up to a first-floor guest bedroom, a second-floor bathroom, a third-floor dressing room and, right in the top of the mill’s polygonal dome, a reading room with panoramic views across the countryside; on a clear day, you can see as far as Ely Cathedral.

A door in the far corner of the dining room opens on to the open-plan kitchen: light and bright, it’s decorated on a classic baby blue and white scheme, inspired by the curtain fabric. Keep walking through and you reach the indoor swimming pool, with its glassy walls and pale rattan furniture.

Among the property’s most striking features are its multiple staircases: as well as two sets of bespoke oak stairs, a twist of intricate metalwork steps winds up from the hall to a second guest bedroom and bathroom (every bedroom has been fitted with its own en suite).

This room, again with glorious views, shows the couple’s interior décor skills at their best: decorated in a palette of contrasting chocolate and lime, lifted with little touches of tomato red and turquoise, it’s a masterclass in contemporary chic.

Window seats have been upholstered in silky velvet flock; a focal wall has been papered with bold flowers; the bedside tables sport quirky elephant-shaped lamps, topped with feathery shades (while being beautiful, this is a room which doesn’t take itself too seriously).

The master bedroom is another triumph. Decorated on a striking red, white and black theme, there’s a real sense of luxury here: jewelled bed cushions, heavy curtains, more velvety upholstery.

Beneath the master is the large sitting room. The colours in here are more muted – coffee and cream – but again comfort is king: the sofas and chairs, bought at the Mark Elliot store in Great Shelford, are invitingly squishy.

“This is definitely the most neutral colour scheme,” says Pam, “though lately I’ve been thinking about introducing some pink cushions. . .”

It was when the sale of her Cape Town house completed that the idea of The Shop on the Pond began to take shape. “That was a big house – so we found ourselves with lots and lots of furniture. It sat in the garden in a huge container for a while. Then I said to Lisa ‘I think we’ll open a shop’. . .

“The furniture went really quickly and I found myself thinking ‘I quite like this’. That was two years ago. We started sourcing new stock – and The Shop on the Pond has been going strong ever since.”

Housed in a purpose-build, which overlooks a large pond (hence the name), the shop now stocks an enormous range of homeware, from furniture (tables, chairs, dressers) to accessories (coasters, crockery, candlesticks). Laid out in a series of room sets, each has a different feel, ranging from contemporary country to boudoir glam.

“I only ever buy things I like myself,” says Pam, “and thankfully the customers seem to like them too.”

A mother and grandmother – she has two daughters, both in their 40s, from a previous relationship – Pam is 73. At her age, most people would think about slowing down, not starting a new business. But then Pam is not most people.

She created her beauty empire from scratch: “I was a single mum,

living in London, working all hours as a cleaner to make ends meet. Then a friend of mine said ‘You should train to be a manicurist’ – and that was the beginning of my business.”

Though Pam admits there were tough times – her company almost went under after key premises were destroyed by fire – she clearly loved running the salons. “It was brilliant. I had amazing staff, so loyal, and amazing customers; that’s what you miss.”

Setting up The Shop on the Pond with Lisa, in tandem with the kennels, has satisfied her entrepreneurial appetite: “We work really well together: there are no disagreements. Lisa wants to open a coffee shop next. . .”

Pam says Swavesey feels very much like home. “The people are just so nice. Not long after we moved in, Lisa broke an ankle. People we’d barely met were knocking on the door with food or flowers or offers of help. Wherever I’ve lived before, I’ve never had that.

“Some people might say I’m crazy, but I’d never swap a quiet retirement in Boulders Beach for our life in Swavesey: we just love it here.”

The Shop on the Pond opens on Saturdays, Sundays and all Bank Holidays, 10am until 4pm. Pam and Lisa are also happy to open by appointment on weekdays – simply give them a call on 01954 232247.

They also offer a mail-order shopping service. To find out more, and view a selection of current stock, visit www.shoponthepond.com

The Shop on the Pond is also holding a weekend of pre-Christmas festivities: on November 10th and 11th, shoppers will be able to enjoy mulled wine and mince pies – and 10 per cent off all purchases.