Marin

• The Marin Open Garden Project encourages residents to bring their excess backyard-grown fruit and vegetables to the following locations for exchange with other gardeners on Saturdays: Mill Valley, 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. near the East Street parking area in Boyle Park and 10 to 11 a.m. in Volunteer Park at Melrose and Evergreen; San Anselmo, 9 to 10 a.m. on the lawn at Town Hall at 525 San Anselmo Ave.; San Rafael from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. in Sun Valley Park at K and Solano streets. Go to www.opengardenproject.org or email contact@opengardenproject.org.

• The Garden Conservancy’s Marin County Open Day is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 16 at gardens in Kentfield, Mill Valley and Tiburon. $5 per garden. Go to www.garden conservancy.org.

• The Redwoods Shop and Garden’s open house is from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 16 at 40 Camino Alto in Mill Valley. Call 383-2741 or go to www.theredwoods.org.

• West Marin Commons offers a weekly harvest exchange at 1:30 p.m. Saturdays at the Livery Stable gardens on the commons in Point Reyes Station. Go to www.west marincommons.org.

• The Marin Organic Glean Team is seeking volunteers to harvest extras from the fields for the

organic school lunch and gleaning program from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Mondays at various farms. Call 663-9667 or go to www.marinorganic.org.

• Volunteers are sought to help in Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy nurseries from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays at Tennessee Valley, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays at Muir Woods or 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays or 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays in the Marin Headlands. Call 561-3077 or go to www.parksconservancy.org/volunteer.

• Volunteer hours are 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesdays and from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Fridays at the Indian Valley Organic Farm at 1800 Ignacio Blvd. in Novato. Call 454-4554 or go to www. conservationcorpsnorthbay.org.

• Growing Excellence in Marin (GEM), a program providing horticultural vocational training for Marin residents with disabilities, has a weekly plant sale from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays at 2500 Fifth Ave. in San Rafael. Items offered include garden plants, potted plants, cut flowers and microgreens. Call 226-8693 or email michael@connectics.org.

• The SPAWN (Salmon Protection and Watershed Network) native plant nursery days are from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays and weekends. Call 663-8590, ext. 118, or email blaine@tirn.net to register and for directions.

• Frank Treadway of Marin Master Gardeners speaks about “Growing Roses in Marin” at noon June 22 at the Civic Center Library at 3501 Civic Center Drive, Room 427, in San Rafael. Free. Call 473-6058.

• Marin Master Gardeners and the Marin Municipal Water District offer free residential bay-friendly garden water walks and health consultations through November to help homeowners identify water-saving opportunities and soil conservation techniques for their landscaping. Call 499-4202 to request a visit to your property.

San Francisco

• The Conservatory of Flowers, at 100 John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park, displays permanent galleries of tropical plant pecies as well as changing special exhibits from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. $2 to $7. Call 831-2090 or go to www.conservatoryofflowers.org.

• The San Francisco Botanical Garden Society, at Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way in Golden Gate Park, offers several ongoing events. $7; free to San Francisco residents, members and school groups. Call 661-1316 or go to www.sfbotanicalgarden.org. Free docent tours leave from the Strybing Bookstore near the main gate at 1:30 p.m. weekdays, 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. weekends; and from the north entrance at 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Groups of 10 or more can call ahead for special-focus tours.

Around the Bay

• Cornerstone Gardens is a permanent, gallery-style garden featuring walk-through installations by international landscape designers on nine acres at 23570 Highway 121 in Sonoma. Free. Call 707-933-3010 or go to www.cornerstonegardens.com.

• Garden Valley Ranch rose garden is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays at 498 Pepper Road in Petaluma. Self-guided and group tours are available. $2 to $10. Call 707-795-0919 or go to www.gardenvalley.com.

• The Luther Burbank Home at Santa Rosa and Sonoma avenues in Santa Rosa has docent-led tours of the greenhouse and a portion of the gardens every half hour from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. $7. Call 707-524-5445.

• McEvoy Ranch at 5935 Red Hill Road in Petaluma offers tips on planting olive trees and has olive trees for sale by appointment. Call 707-769-4123, go to www.mcevoyranch.com or email samantha@mcevoyranch.com.

• Wednesdays are volunteer days from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center at 15290 Coleman Valley Road in Occidental. A guided garden and site tour is offered at 10 a.m. June 16. $10. Call 707-874-1557, ext. 201, or go to www.oaec.org.

• Quarryhill Botanical Garden at 12841 Sonoma Highway in Glen Ellen offers third Saturday docent-led tours at 10 a.m. March through October. The garden covers 61 acres and showcases a large selection of scientifically documented wild source temperate Asian plants. The garden is open for self-guided tours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. $5 to $10. Call 707-996-3166 or go to www.quarryhillbg.org.

The Trowel Glove Calendar appears Saturdays. Send high-resolution jpg photo attachments and details about your event to calendar@marinij.com or mail to Home and Garden Calendar/Lifestyles, Marin Independent Journal, 4000 Civic Center Drive, Suite 301, San Rafael, CA 94903. Items should be sent two weeks in advance. Photos should be a minimum of 1 megabyte and include caption information. Include a daytime phone number on your release.

By Jez Abbott
15 June 2012

BALI, the 2012 Landscaping Show features new exhibitors, latest products and an update on key industry issues, says Jez Abbott.

FARMINGTON — Amid all the noise and clamor of Lagoon amusement park, some of Brent Buhler’s best work grows quietly.

The work is the pristine park pockets where people find shady refuge after spending hours rushing from ride to ride. The intricate arrangements formed by a wide variety of trees and flowers settle into the subconscious like falling leaves, telling visitors the park is fresh and clean.

“The park experience is accentuated by the fact that its guests are comfortable,” said Buhler, 52, who has been the manager of landscaping and horticulture for Lagoon for 20 years.

“Most people don’t realize how much work it is to keep things going,” he said about overseeing the trees and gardens on the amusement park’s 125 acres.

It’s a job the Pleasant View resident was practically born into.

Buhler’s parents worked at Lagoon, his mother as an accountant and his father as a part-time bouncer at the old Patio Gardens concert hall where top-notch entertainers performed.

A native of Farmington, Buhler said he did different jobs at the park until graduating from high school.

“We pretty much lived here as kids,” he said. “This was pretty much our playground.”

In 1992, Buhler returned to the park after earning a bachelor’s degree in botany from Weber State University in Ogden and taking additional courses in landscaping architecture and ornamental horticulture at Utah State University in Logan.

“We grow things here that they usually don’t grow anywhere else,” Buhler said of the park in Farmington.

That’s because of the microclimates in the park, which are a result of the landscaping, he said, and the park’s flood-plain sandy soils, which allow for more drainage, unlike lake-bottom soils that have higher levels of alkali.

The park has invested in drip-irrigation systems and has its own greenhouse on the grounds.

Buhler and his staff of 35 care for such tree species as Eastern white pines, emerald Douglas firs, weeping blue spruce, fruitless mulberries, Japanese zelkova and the popular tri-color beech.

Buhler also knows his flowers, planting an estimated 80,000 of them annually.

Buhler’s job duties include landscaping each ride with trees and flowers that will add to the attraction.

The most difficult project he was ever handed was landscaping the Rattlesnake Rapids ride, Buhler said.

With the ride, he said, trees had to be planted along the waterway route, preventing passengers from being able to see around corners, adding to the anticipation of the ride.

But the splashes of landscape people see while standing in line and the greenery overhead shielding them from the sun is something Buhler takes a great deal of pride in providing.

“Without the trees,” he said, “tell me what the park is going to look and feel like.”

“I think the Lagoon amusement park is very unique and has a charm all its own,” said Dick Andrew, Lagoon’s vice president of marketing. “And much of that charm is the commitment (the park) has had over the years to the gardens.”

Park employees do not cut down a tree unless they have received the approval of the owners, Andrew said.

Because, after all, there are those guests who appreciate every leaf, Buhler said.

“I have a lot of people tell me they go (to Lagoon) just to look at the gardens.”

Do you enjoy gardening and creating beauty in your own backyard? Would you like to share the results of your work with others to appreciate? The Museum Garden Club of Jefferson is looking for gardens and landscapes to be included in this year’s fifth annual “Gardens of Jefferson Tour” to be held on Saturday, July 21.

In the past, the tour has featured many different types of gardens from naturalist planting and water features to exotic plant species and pool area landscaping. Perhaps you have a greenhouse, rain garden, or interesting plantings you would like to showcase. If so, consider being part of this year’s tour.

For more information on how you can showcase your garden in this year’s “Gardens of Jefferson Tour,” contact Debby Zweig at 973-663-1033 or jeffersongardentour@hotmail.com. Respond by June 16.

Lorelei and Matthew Bartkowski and daughter Robyn have plenty of varieties suited to winter planting at the Highfields Garden Centre.

KEEN gardeners are a bit like golfers: doesn’t matter what’s happening with the weather, nothing will stop them venturing outside to do what they love best.

Rain, hail, drought, heatwave – gardeners and golfers will brave these conditions.

And while the rest of us are busy snuggling up under doonas and sipping hot chocolate in readiness for the long cold months of winter, golfers are hitting their balls and gardeners are – well, I had to ask an expert exactly what it is a gardener is doing at this time of year.

Lorelei Bartkowski, who owns the Highfields Garden Centre with her husband Matthew, says this is a busy time for those among us sporting a green thumb.

“People are currently mulching their gardens to suppress the winter weeds, and trying to protect their plants from frost using stakes and hessian, or spray,” she said.

“And now is also the time to plant winter flowers such as petunias and pansies which are frost tolerant ready for spring.

“Winter is also a great time to clean up your garden ready for the warmer season by pruning the perennials and getting everything neat and ready to grow.”

Mrs and Mr Bartkowski took over the Highfields Garden Centre a couple of months ago, and say that while they are keen gardeners, they are on a steep learning curve of the industry.

But while they might be coming to grips with the latest products, they know what is currently selling well for the garden.

“We are selling a lot of grevilleas at the moments because they flower during winter,” Mrs Bartkowski said.

“And the autumn coloured trees such as Chinese pistachios are also popular.

“People are stocking up right now for their spring plantings.”

Deciduous fruit trees and vegetable gardens seem to be making a come-back at the moment, with cabbage, cauliflower, peas, broccoli and lettuce all good for growing during the cooler season.

“We see a lot more people starting to grow their own fruit and vegetables these days,” Mrs Bartkowski said.

“It is something that has really picked up over the past four years – they are starting to consider the cost of buying them, and sprays which are used.

“And with all the articles in magazines and shows on television, there is lots of help available for those who are interested and prepared to make a bit of effort.”

The arrival of rain after many years of dry conditions has also changed the choice of flowers people are growing in their gardens.

“There is a renewed interest in those plants which are not so drought-tolerant – pretty things like roses which grandma used to grow,” Mrs Bartkowski said.

So what do these new business owners have in their own garden?

“Well, we don’t have much time to garden any more – this has been a big life change for us!” Mrs Bartkowski said.

“But at the moment, we have local natives, salvias, bush foods, a big vegetable garden and some easy-care fruit trees.

“Our garden is definitely more about functionality right now.”

Take care of gardening hands

Just because you love gardening doesn’t mean you can’t still have beautiful hands.

Winter is especially tough on skin, so try these tips to survive the rigours of the season and the garden unscathed.

Wear gloves

Most times, gardening dirt will just wash away, but protecting your hands is also about safety. Gloves can help protect you against things that can cut and scratch as well as any parasites that might be living in the soil. If you find fabric gloves too clumsy, try using latex or surgical gloves which are less bulky. Even if you’re happy wearing standard garden gloves, slip on a pair of surgical gloves first to help keep out dirt. Don’t like gloves at all? Then scrub up well with hot soapy water (including underneath your fingernails) and avoid touching your mouth, nose and eyes until you’ve washed.

Lather up

Before putting on gloves, lather them up with lotions and moisturisers to make wash-up easier. The dirt will be trapped by the heavy oils and will wash off with the moisturiser. Some pantry items you could use include lard or Vaseline. If you find your skin is too greasy to wash off neatly, rub your hands with a bit of cornmeal or oatmeal to help strip grease. A popular old-timers’ tip is to run your fingernails through a bar of soap to provide a barrier to dirt underneath the nails.

Scrubs and stain removers

Make an easy, all-natural scrub with two tablespoons of olive or vegetable oil and three tablespoons of sugar. Rub gently into skin for a couple minutes then rinse off. To remove stains from your skin, mix oatmeal and milk and rub in for a few minutes before washing off. Berry and fruit stains can be removed by soaking stained skin in household vinegar or cider vinegar. Use a nail brush, toothbrush or loofah for scrubbing.

Moisturise

Our hands can get quite dry from gardening since we wash them so often. Try using olive oil or baby oil from the cupboard to moisturise your hands.

If your cuticles are taking a hit, try massaging a bit of warm olive oil into them.

Read more lifestyle stories.

Tim Lang, of Dinner Garden, supports people to design and cultivate deliciously abundant and beautiful gardens. He will be holding a free planting demonstration at Noosa Botanic Gardens at Cooroy on Sunday, June 24.

AS THE cost of living increases, more people are turning to growing fruit and vegetables at home to save a few dollars, but it all could be a waste of time if not done right. That’s where permaculture expert Tim Lang comes in.

There are a lot of reasons why people can benefit from learning from Tim and he’s offering his advice free at the Noosa Festival of Water held at Cooroy’s botanical gardens.

As a nationally accredited permaculture trainer, Tim shares his extensive experience while working alongside people in their own gardens. He specialises in educating and supporting clients to grow healthy, organic food using locally available resources while limiting expensive inputs.

Tim takes his design cues from nature’s ecological processes and patterns and in turn empowers people to create and cultivate beautiful gardens and landscapes of extraordinary abundance.

He and his family have been cultivating their Cooran property in this way for the past two years since relocating from Brisbane for a tree change. Tim’s business, Dinner Garden, is for people interested in sustainability through the development of vegetable gardens, orchards, food forests, native gardens, cabinet timber plantings and natural area restoration.

On Sunday, June 24, Tim will demonstrate how best to plant a fruit tree, utilising the space around it for a small garden that evolves with the tree’s growth.

During his time at Cooran, Tim has been focussing on sustainability practices, particularly through gardening and the promotion and endorsement of local produce.

He was weeding his own garden when The Gympie Times caught up with him yesterday. Explaining his business, Tim said he provided support to gardeners and groups in an advisory capacity, just as a personal trainer would in regard to exercise.

“If you want to get a garden going but are not motivated or don’t know where to start, I can help,” he said.

“The main goal is to empower people through their own gardening success.”

Companion planting, or guild planting, is a suburban household’s friend and Tim will explain this at the free demonstration.

“In this instance, the fruit tree will be the central focus and I’ll be showing how to use the space around it while the tree is still young. My job is to teach people about planting plants to support the tree.

“The garden concept evolves over time with the use of ecological processes and patterns.”

Dinner Garden provides soil assessments for clients on site and Tim’s big tip for gardeners is to pay particular attention to soil health and biodiversity. Think crop rotation, companion planting, sunlight, water and drainage.

CLEAR LAKE — Central Gardens of North Iowa’s 12th annual Tour of Gardens and Homes will be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 23.

Seven Clear Lake sites will be featured, ranging from more formal designs to small whimsical sites.

Advance tickets are $10, and include a coupon for an ice cream cone at half price at Lake Meat Cheese Spices. Tickets on the day of the tour are $12, available at Central Gardens.

Advance tickets are at Central Gardens of North Iowa office, Clear Lake Arts Center, Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce, Larson’s Mercantile and Red Geranium, and HyVee West in Mason City.

For information, call 641-357-0700, email centralgardens@netins.net, visit www.central-gardens.org or find them on Facebook.

Here is a brief description of each of the tour sites:

• Alan and Donna Monson garden, 2512 S. Shore Drive — A pond, designed by Al Monson in 2009, is 17 feet deep when full, with a gradual incline to a beach at the west end and a gate system to raise and lower the water level. It is stocked with largemouth bass, catfish and bluegill. To the east are fruiting blueberries and raspberries.

A lush hosta garden is north of the house, with grapevines east of the house, and apricot, peach, cherry, pear, apple and plum trees grace the pond drive to the west. Raised beds of strawberry, horseradish, asparagus, rhubarb and wild onions are found throughout the property. There are also beds of annuals and perennials, lilac bushes, and ferns, and a vegetable garden west of the house.

• David and Jeanne Burgart garden, 202 N. 35th St. — The Burgart’s current project is a 10-foot by 24-foot planting space to the north of their house, which serves as a windbreak and plot to grow vegetables, as well as a place of beauty with lilacs and cotoneasters. On the south side of the garage are lily of the valley, snow on the mountains, and ferns, transplanted from Dave’s family’s century farm near the Wapsipinicon River.

Showy colors range from the cotoneasters’ pinkish blooms to old favorites like daylilies, hostas, dianthus and weigela. There is a vegetable garden, and pots of herbs adorn the deck. Several plants, including grasses, hollyhocks, and irises, were bought at Central Gardens’s spring plant sale. A new annual bed sports vibrant multicolored blooms.

• Eric and Courtney Klaehn garden, 9 S. 15th St. — A large perennial and shrub garden is located behind a native Iowa limestone retaining wall, with several varieties of stone crop sedum tucked in the crevices. A more traditional raised limestone planter is home for many shrubs and perennials. Another raised planter contains a vegetable and herb garden. Additional landscaping includes a new deck, brick paver driveway and brick paver walks. Eric is the landscape designer for Northern Stone Landscape Co. and owner/product developer for Northern Stone Landscape Products. Photos of their home can be viewed at www.facebook.com/ NorthernStoneLandscapeCo

• Michael and Pamela Hanna garden and home, 220 S. 14th St. — New this year in the Hanna’s garden are eight raised beds of varied sizes, built by Dave. The controlled spaces and raised height adds to the ease of plant care, as does liberal use of mulch around each plant. Various “artwork” in the yard includes relics from Iowa’s farming heritage — like a chicken feeder hosting begonias, an aged cream separator filled with impatiens, and a small wagon sporting petunias. In tribute to her son’s 22 years in the U.S. Air Force, Pam has placed red, white, and blue gazing balls around the south area of her lawn. Tiger lilies and Asiatic lilies, a rose bush hedge, coneflowers and the contrasting chartreuse-green of wild cucumber add color.

The first-floor living quarters of this 1890s home includes an artfully remodeled kitchen, with a stained glass window above the built-in hutch, both original to the home.

• Clear Creek School Outdoor Classroom, 901 S. 14th St. Ron and Martha Andrews, hosts — The outdoor classroom was established in 1986 as a cooperative venture between the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Clear Lake Community School District. In 1992, Ron Andrews was chosen to head the trumpeter swan restoration project. The goal of having 15 free flying nesting pair in Iowa was reached by 2004; 50 wild nesting pair were documented across Iowa in 2012. Several of them make their home on the Clear Creek pond.

An observation deck on the east side of the pond offers a perfect site to view many types of waterfowl. Hike along the well-groomed path encircling the pond. Pass over a bridge and try to identify various trees, shrubs, and native forbs.

Ron and Martha Andrews will be available throughout the day to talk about the Outdoor Classroom and the trumpeter swan restoration project.

• Todd and Barb Wendel garden, 712 Second Ave. N. — The front of the Wendel’s home has a bordered walkway that leads to a pebbled walk on either side. A raised, tiered bed is located in the front yard, with annuals in primary colors for balance. On the east side of the house are perennials in a tiered, raised bed, with scatterings of annuals for color. A variety of hostas and coral bells are also along this side of the house.

This season Barb added a water feature to her rock collection, framed with Boston ferns hanging from a tree branch. More ferns hang from the deck and garage. The biggest color splash is on the deck steps with petunias, New Guinea impatiens, and begonias. Perennial salvia is in the east corner of the yard and menarda and a peony are on the west corner of the drive.

• Central Gardens of North Iowa, North Eighth Street and Second Ave. North — See the new Mother Earth Workshop, take in the view of the whole garden from the Nature Education Pavilion, and enjoy free refreshments.

Tour through the distinctive individual gardens, many of which are at their most dazzling during tour. Stroll along the brick walkways, and enjoy the special features: the waterfall, pond and stream, the spray of the corner fountain, the peaceful courtyard, the Moongate, the statues, and comfortable seating, and take advantage of the chance to purchase one-of-a-kind artwork on display by a variety of artisans.

“I believe that edible landscaping is important because we sometimes lose touch with the process of where our food comes from,” said Gourley in a press release from the Belmont Food Collaborative.

The Collaborative, a nonprofit that also organizes the Belmont Farmers Market, is sponsoring Gourley’s talk.

“Edible Landscapes in Your Backyard” will run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The Belmont Farmers Market will open its seventh season on June 14. It will be held every Thursday into October from 2 p.m. through 6:30 p.m. in the back of the Belmont Center parking lot.

Evan Allen can be reached at evan.allen@globe.com

The Campbell River Garden and Art Tour, with 10 gardens open to the public on the weekend of July 7 and 8, offers something for everyone. Beautiful landscaping ideas abound on this tour, along with some specialty themes like creative approaches to composting.

A regular on the tour is the Comox Strathcona Waste Management’s Compost Education Centre, which provides a huge amount of information about green approaches to gardening.

Educator Elaine Jansen, known as the ‘Compost Diva,’ said more and more people want to learn about environ-mentally-aware gardening.

“We are swamped,” she said. “When I started seven years ago, we would see maybe seven people a week. Last year, almost 5,000 people came through.”

Visitors will be able to tour the community gardens as well as the Compost Education Centre. They’ll also be able to see what Jansen and Waste Education Contract Educator Gayle Bates have created for a new recycled art display.

Ecological gardening is also the key for mother-son gardening duo Mary and John Palmer, whose four acre Oyster River property is also featured on the tour. Mary has lived on the property for 40 years and in recent years, all lawns were removed from the four acre site.

“We decided we don’t want to deal with lawns anymore, so we removed them,” John said. “We made the decision for ecological reasons and just turned to gravel instead.”

A peaceful Japanese-style garden with pond replaces the front lawn, and Mary said that it’s now one of her favourite spots. The Palmers also don’t have any garbage pick-up – they recycle and compost virtually everything and have even built concrete bunkers for compost.

Of the four acres, two-and-a-half are managed woodlands, while the rest is what they describe as a “collector’s garden.”

“A collector loves individual plants and wants to make a home for them,” John said.

“For example,” added Mary, “I decided I liked hostas so I bought a hosta, and the next thing I knew I had 30 hostas.”

Mary added that she loves native plants and prefers to let them flourish alongside the rhodos, hostas and other plants she adores.

“Some people have a shrub here and a shrub there with bark mulch in between, well not me,” she said with a laugh.

Their green approach also applies to wildlife. After years of trying to think of ways to keep deer away, they finally gave in and simply fenced off the Japanese garden, and leave the rest for deer, rabbits and squirrels to visit as they like.

“If a deer takes a nibble from a rhodo leaf, well so what?” Mary said.

In recent years, Mary has developed a passion for orchids and now spends a huge amount of time watering and caring for her collection of around 100. The Palmers plan to display some of those beauties on tour day!

Ron and Bo LaFleur’s garden is also a feast for the eyes, springing forth from the rich earth created by Ron, who was crowned The Compost King in a City competition a few years ago.

Ron has a wealth of tips for building beautifully textured soil in a short time span.

Tickets for the Garden and Art Tour, which is sponsored by Royal LePage Campbell River, are available at the Campbell River Art Gallery, the Willows Market, the Visitor Information Centre and the Comox Valley Art Gallery. Tickets are $15 and the self-guided tour runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both July 7 and 8. Call 250-287-2261 for more information.

The Campbell River Community Centre is offering a bus tour, for $20 including your ticket, on Saturday, July 7 only. Call 250-286-1161 for details.

This past weekend I was in an ATV ride, raising money for the Holmes Foundation. I got to be outside, do something fun, be with friends and support skilled trades training – some of my favourite things all in one. It was awesome.

It also reminded me of how terrain can maintain and manage the environment. On the ATV ride we had a trail. The way the rainwater flowed made some parts dry and others a mess. Depending on how the trees and plant life grew, we got shade in some spots and sunlight in others. This got me thinking about the terrain around our homes.

I’m not a landscaper but I care about landscaping. Why? Because landscaping affects a home.

Most people think landscaping is a way to feature the house – increase its curb appeal. But more than just eye candy, landscaping around a house serves a purpose. It has a function. And it’s up to you to decide what that function is.

Do you want it to keep the kids safe? Keep them in view? Direct traffic? Protect pets? Protect the exterior of your house from bad weather? Protect your home from sun and heat? Manage the rainwater around your house? Increase privacy? What do you want it to do for you?

Good landscaping works with your home. Not against it. It’s a no-brainer. What you do on the exterior of a house will affect its interior. You have to be smart.

For example, planting a garden against your home’s walls might seem nice. But the soil around foundation walls has been disturbed. It’s not as firmly packed as undisturbed soil. It has more airspace. So when you water the plants, where do you think the water is going? Straight to the foundation. Not good. If you want to avoid a leaky basement, keep gardens and plants away from your home’s walls.

Let’s say you want to build a raised bed for a garden next to a fence. Great. What’s the first thing you need to think about? What type of wood you’ll need to enclose it? Type of soil? Type of plants? The most important thing you’ll need to address – before anything – is how is this going to affect the grading around your house. How will this affect your neighbours?

I’ve heard so many stories where one neighbour will be doing some landscaping on their property, and the next thing you know, there’s water pooling next-door. Why? Because landscaping changed the grade. And that affected the drainage.

Knowing exactly how landscaping is going to affect your house can be difficult. That’s why it’s smart to bring in someone who knows. Someone who can tell you what needs to be done to keep your home safe and healthy. And what landscaping options you have that increase your home’s functionality.

Are there ways you can take advantage of sunlight during the winter? Heat during the summer? Block tough winds that can damage your home’s exterior? Plants and shrubs that can help with drainage? Prevent leaks?

A good landscaper will know all the right questions to ask before a shovel even hits the ground. Like locating all the utility lines on your property. The last thing you want is to cut your cable – or worse.

They’ll also tell you the best way to maintain everything. Remember, watering the lawn is one of the biggest water wasters. The average suburban garden in Canada needs about 100,000 litres of water during the growing season. That’s a lot of water. But when you consider that the water being used for most gardens has been treated for consumption, that’s a huge waste.

The grass is always greener when we’re green. If you’re smart, you’ll collect the rainwater and use it for watering your garden and lawn. A professional landscaper will help you do this. They’ll develop a system and work the landscaping around it.

How do you find the right landscaper? The same way you find the right contractor. You ask a lot of questions, get a lot of references, and speak to a lot of past clients. You do your homework and check out their work.

And notice what kinds of questions they ask you. Do they care more about your budget? Or are they asking if you have kids? If you plan on having kids soon? How long you’re going to be living in the house? Any problems you need the proper landscaping to solve? This will tell you if they’re interested in doing a good job or getting the next job.

I don’t expect homeowners to know everything about homes and landscaping. But I do expect pros to know. And if you’re going to spend the time and money, do it right the first time. Spend your money once and you’ll be doing you and your house a huge favour.

Work for us – and we save money in the process. Everyone wins when we care.

Catch Mike in his new series, Best of Holmes on Homes, airing Thursdays at 9 p.m. on HGTV. For more information, visit www.hgtv.ca. For more information on home renovations, visit makeitright.ca.