Musings & Thoughts – Big Red Sun Austin

Zeroscape

Let’s talk about maintenance.

It’s up to us to make decisions about our own bits and pieces. When I first started visiting potential gardens with BRS, I had many a client ask me for a zeroscape. I always giggled knowingly at them, ha ha wink, we all know the word is really xeriscape – defined as a landscape that uses xeric plants. But, um. No. It’s come to our attention that there are folks who believe a garden needs nada. never. That we might guarantee their garden will never have weeds, nor frost damage, will laugh off drought, humidity, dog pee and drunken marauders. Never would it need a clip, or a pinch, a nip or full bush whack.

We quickly began to associate people’s garden maintenance requests with their personal grooming styles and I’m here to tell you- in our heads, we think we are spot on. So yeah, we are thinking about your bush when you are talking about bushes. Really. I’m not saying we all fall into strict categories- there is winter and summer grooming for us and our gardens agreed? But let’s name it to tame it- a little grooming all the time is just a good idea.

Speaking of- last spring I decided to rip out the Hades Garden. It was getting too expressive. Imagine that in a bikini? We were.

And truth be told, I’m feeling the need for some C O N T R O L. clipped tight clean control. Something that will do what I will it to do. And it’s a wee bit sad that I have a better chance of mother nature bending to my will than my two and a half-year-old.

Thus the new bliss garden.

at install last spring:

We used a few things we had hanging around the nursery and added pretty silver, blue, purple and yellow. And I’ve made it smell good- loads of lavender, so if I’m having a little melt down at work I just pop out into the new garden “to clip”. It gets clipped several times a week and it’s responding with vigor. Nicole Vesian said you can show your plants you love them by giving them a good clipping. This garden is an homage to her work with which I’m rather obsessed.

Voila. She is already putting out this spring after a winter of pruning and light fertilizing. We experimented with fertilizing the lavender all winter as it’s its growing season. And it’s about to burst forth with controlled lavender love.

I’ll tell you though- when a client comes in and says I want that… and points to the new Bliss garden. We have to say, wellllllllll. Will you love it and feed it and groom it weekly?

A bit more about the beauty of loving garden care.

Some of our most favorite-est projects are our gardens at Josephine house and Jeffrey’s. Larry McGuire loves JoHo to look like a rich woman’s yard and well… a-hem, we are here to make your techni- color dreams come true.

When we inherited the Josephine House property, it was feeling a little neglected.

Bravely brushing aside jeers “hey hey tutti-frutti” from other landscapers driving by- (that’s you Jeff Neal) we quickly put aside our innate snobbery about annuals and dug deep for our inner California housewife- little did we know, she rested very very close to the surface.
Now, we trip over one another to find the best color combos that can bedazzle and withstand the plethora of dog pee and Christian Louboutins popping about. And yeah, it needs bi-weekly love to look like this but so do you.

Slowly we’ve been asked to help other McGuire Moorman properties. Lambert’s is a particular love- minimal cowboy chic is our latest theme.

Yep even cactus need love and care to look their very best. Last spring we were asked to take on the beast of Perla’s on south congress. Dios mio- it’s hard out there being a plant- but we are getting her rhythm and we will thwart and stun the garden trespassers with our eye popping Long John’s Silver color theme. We have also been fortunate to add Clark’s to our constellation: “preppy plants please”. We do love how McGuire Moorman let’s each property find it’s own personality and we are honored to be working with them and the gorgeous By Georges as well.

Go East

The Violation made BRS do some quick and deep thinking about needing to move office. Brilliantly- Selena and Dylan founded BRS on the East side of ATX in 1994. After 22 years- the east side is a big part of the firm’s identity. Personally, it took me a little time to get my East Side on. But soon our neighbors were like family. The 6th street cowboy gives me a shout out.

When the churro trailer set up next door, I knew not to assume that they were frying this gringa up to serve to tourists. Or actual dogs for that matter. I stopped trying to find the home of every chicken I found wandering on the street and finally stopped bringing fabulous shiny piñatas to every party.

And when we looked in other parts of town to office- they just seemed a little too. too. not BRS. Thus our buckling down to try and stay put. Last week we took a trip to the history center to see if historically there was parking with this building.

This photo is from sometime b/t 1903-1914. But even before that in 1887 Kunz Groceries and Beer was on this corner. First street seems to have always been a mix of commercial and houses. It’s understatement to say that the history and politics of this neighborhood are very tough. After settling in our new home for a few years,

we arrived at work one morning to see our neighbors Sergio and Monica’s shop being bulldozed. This shit actually happens? I felt like a complete gringa asshole once again- never mind the fact that I had a yelling street fight with the new owner of the demolished building when he came to threaten me and my business the week before. The new owner told the Statesman — he wanted his building to be beautiful just like Big Red Sun. It’s confusing to become part of the fabric of this old neighborhood- we are valued in some ways but I’m sure also vilified for gentrifying. The CoA has contacted the business owners on Cesar Chavez about creating an IBIZ district- we sat in a CoA meeting and shuddered as we contemplated the city “solving” for “connectivity” issues on the street. This charming neighborhood has infected me. Last one in- shut the door to change. I’m sure that’s not the answer- but we do know that we have to honor this neighborhood, these neighbors and the changing city. And if the CoA is asking for our help- we’d be remiss to leave.

Violation

So- remember how shitty 2016 was? It ended for BRS with a parking code violation called in by one of our neighbors. As a result, the city has asked us to pave our courtyard garden to make it available for parking.

As a garden design firm, our garden is obviously an important part of our business identity. It’s also a hardworking space for our business-

For instance:

wait- there’s also a video (it’s worth a click)

This is just a day in the life of our hardworking garden. 2017 note- when someone comes and asks to film an underwear commercial in your garden ALWAYS say yes.

When we leased this building- the garden looked like this.

We cut the door into our space for loads of light and also so we could have a constant connection to the outdoors. Good for our soul and morale. Not to mention our baby plants- here grow our flower seeds we are starting for the Josephine house summer garden.

The courtyard has been a showroom/role model for our high end synthetic turf that we try and suggest to almost every client. This is an installation shot of the lawn.

We are a garden design and maintenance firm that does NOT own a lawn mower on principle. We have to have saved millions of gallons of City water from installing these all over town. It’s a big leap of faith for someone to put in a plastic lawn (!) so it’s great to have one that can be test driven.

Back to our violation–

The City’s request is for 9 parking spaces and a fire lane on the property that must be paved. PAVED?! the antichrist to gardeners.

The trashy little secret is that we do park in this courtyard and drive all over it…. storing trucks overnight etc. I’m telling you this turf is tough.

Thus after some major whining and flopping around, we’ve decided to take on the challenge of trying to abide by city’s needs while being green and staying beautiful in the process. We know the city also wants to encourage new thinking in terms of parking surface solutions, run off containment, heat reduction and tree health (note the heritage pecan at our fence line).

BRS will try and update our field notes here as we navigate the halls of our great city to find a kinder gentler alternative to paving the playgrounds of our scantily clad brothers and sisters, puppies, butterflies, bees and flowers.

“Meadow Mania”

So clearly having 2 chitlins has slowed mon field notes. It’s nice to be able to look back and see that the babies have made a softer and fuzzier me. And it’s not just my new baby fat and hairy legs. Long before they were twinkles in a petri dish, I had dreams of chubby little legs running through the meadow by our house. The details of not having an actual meadow fluttered way above my head. “Don’t worry sweetheart of a new hubbie, I’m a gardener- we’ll just make a meadow.”

Step 1- wait for the long abandoned and mostly waterlogged house next door to come out of trust.

Step 2- Bless it’s 1980’s soul and then quickly take it out of it’s misery.

Step 3- call friends at Native American Seed

Step 4- dazzle your new neighbors with tractors

Step 5- Voila- your new meadow.

Step 6-

Any of my fellow gardeners feeling a little fib in my pictograph? Think it went something a little more like this….

Step 1- agonize. fret. wring hands. argue about the property next door. Know that any new buyer will need 3 stories to get a city view- and an excellent view of our back garden and nekkid swimming.

Step 2- Secure next door property- knock it down and unleash a plague of rats on the entire neighborhood. starting with your own house.

Step 3- wait until the soil is perfect temperature, finally spread the seed

Install temporary irrigation, watch the birds convene daily to eat the grass seeds and then suffer 2 monster turd floaters that wash the majority of all the seed down the softly sculpted hill.

Step 4- re-sod with heinous squares of buffalo turf that take eons to establish

Step 5- finally get some grass traction- contemplate reverting to your father’s way of killing fire ants via pouring gasoline down the mound and lighting on fire. take refuge in Aztec Pest Control’s kinder and gentler way.

Step 6- crouch low when the city code inspector drives by frequently- has someone called me in for not cutting my lawn? Is there a code against having long grass? shouldn’t I know this somehow?

Step 7- Finally, get some luck, pull up the temporary irrigation after 2 seasons and get la niña!

I mean, was it worth it? Yes yes yes. I’m quite obsessed with it- I love it in the winter when it’s all gold and blowing. In the spring when it’s 5 bluebonnets and thousands of primroses bloom (the majority of the primroses at the bottom of the hill- ahem). Slowly, the other wildflowers are coming in- wine cups and other friends are self-sowing.

The second baby comes and what…is it hormonal….as we awaited Leon’s birth- in some weird nesting thing last fall I went out and dug in 100’s of flower seeds into the upper meadow. I’m telling you now that about 4 of them bloomed this spring.

So in a fit of maternal crafting this fall – Willie and I decided to make a butterfly garden in the upper meadow- with live plants. No more of this seed shit. And it isn’t pretty when the hormones have access to a planting crew, coincide with the native plant sale at the wildflower center & a need for some “alone time” in the nurseries.

I purchased oh about 150 4” plants. Willie and I dotted them all over the upper meadow & called my long suffering irrigation guy.

They came through my beautiful meadow and trenched to run temporary drip to the butterfly plants.

Is it worth it? Before we could even get the plants in the ground we had loads of butterflies. And watching the babies eyes light up is all that I had dreamed and more. Trust me hubbie- we’ll just “make a meadow. It’s what we do.”

Olivier Filippi vs. Home Depot – Round 1

We just finished up our fall planting here at BRS for clients and also for my San Gabriel and Vance garden. I always feel like such a crotchety old lady with my preference for only planting in the fall. Of course, we plant in the spring as well. But it does always feel odd to do stuff for clients that I hesitate to do for myself… but in the end, it is just a plant.

One thing that I do stand firm on, is laying out my own planting schemes. I’m such a stickler for plant placement that I left my 3 week old bambino with his daddy to come and lay out a client’s garden this spring. Maybe not the best idea to engage in 95 degree weather client relations on 4 hours of sleep per night, but, you know. We laid out the garden on a Thursday and began to plant on Friday. When we returned the next Monday, there were mysterious extra plants from Home Depot placed between our plants- which was puzzling and unfortunately, really annoying. I asked the homeowner with as much patience as I could muster (let’s hear it for Botox) what’s the story? And they told me that the plants were just so much bigger at the Home Depot so why didn’t we use them along side of the nursery grown ones that were the same pot sized but smaller plants?

The frustration melted away. You know that is actually a good question, and we actually have a really good answer for it, not that I had the bandwidth to explain it that day. We put the extra Home Depot plants in and 3 weeks later when several of them had expired we helped pull them back out. We knew in our guts why those plants had less of a chance of survival.

But I will say that the person who really made the point crystal clear, such that you could explain it to clients, was the slyly sexy nursery owner Olivier Filippi who’s nursery and garden we visited outside of Montpeillier earlier this spring.

The gardens are handsome too.

Olivier is a highly respected plantsman, who with his wife, travels the world to research the propagation of drought tolerant plants. He’s written a bible called The Dry Gardening Handbook that I’d highly recommend. Anyhoo- handsome Olivier has pioneered the use of a new type of grow pot that is long and skinny so that the roots of drought tolerant seedlings can grow properly.

His proven theory is to sell drought tolerant plants that have a root structure that is 3x the size of the plant above ground. This he deems a healthy plant that is most likely to survive outside of nursery conditions. To engineer this, he encourages the root growth by heavily pruning the plant for a couple of years in it’s long grow pot. The long pot allows the proper root growth of the 2 types of roots drought tolerant plants utilize. These plants first grow a long tap root to go for water deep in the ground. Then the plant grows side and surface(ish) roots to capture surface water. In the wheelbarrow behind him is how a taproot grows in on itself when pot bound. Plants that don’t have their taproot will not thrive.

And here’s the part that made me feel better, these plants generally grow their tap roots in the winter because that is when it rains and also when their above ground growth is slow allowing the root to go for it. And if they live through the first summer, they will begin to put out their side roots. And if they live through the second summer, the plants are established.

A newly planted area – note the water wells.

The first summer, Olivier supplements his plants with water in a tough love fashion waiting for them to wilt several days before finally giving them water and then he doesn’t water them again. Ever. If the plants die, they weren’t meant to live there. After all, it’s just a plant.

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your clippers.

Where has everybody been? Here at Big Red Sun, we’ve been working towards our PhD in City of Austin building codes. It’s scintillating. But somehow, I made time to make a last “pre-baby” run to Provence to mainline some contemporary garden design. We signed up for an uppity garden tour led by Mediterranean garden scholar and author Louisa Jones. Poor John Spong had no idea what he was in for.

There is oodles to tell- but i think the main take-away is clip your Mediterranean plants to show them your love. Nicole de Vesian, the mother of this style of provencal gardening, began dispersing it via her acolytes- most notably Marc Nucera. Every time I had encountered Nucera’s name, he was always described as a sculptor but/and he is also always described as the guy who clipped trees in these amazing shapes. Beautiful yes. Art? Sculptor? maybe not.

Mas Benoit, Nucera’s work with Idoux

Nucera’s work at Vesian’s La Louve But then we visited a not very well known garden, “Mas Benoit” by another Vesian acolyte Alain David Idoux. On the bus (yep, a bus?!) Louisa explained that Idoux was interested in geometry, the property owners collected contemporary art and greatly admired the artist Richard Long and ” american land artists”. Honestly- this sounded like the path to garden underwhelment or embarrassment- whichever is worse. But oh how wrong. How very very wrong. I have to admit- it was the first time I could conceive of a garden as a successful sculptural installation. The garden was really intense- I think because the intent of the designer was so clear. He was speaking clearly but in a most spare way, working in a truly minimalist vernacular, speaking in a quiet but huge way. I have never experienced anything like it- and clearly I really don’t have a good way to explain as evidenced by the sentence above OR anyway to show it from the pictures- which may actually be the key to it’s success? This man was not designing for a magazine photo- you need to be in this installation. The most I can muster about it’s success may be that it’s elements of construction are all extremely of the earth. There is no false note here. One of the first things you experience walking up to the farm house is this ante space. It features 2 trees in the yard and this broken vista through the clipped oaks to the back mountains. A bit later, one comes across a lavender planting- a wedge shape that acts as a kinetic sculpture as you walk along it’s length. The views open in relation to the sculpted tree in the field. The field relates to the agrarian nature of the region. This is all neat, but I didn’t really “see” it yet.

Up by the farm house, the planting design is luscious but quite spare even severe. (although later in the year i do believe they let the sage and lavender bloom so…voila)

A lawn lays in front of the house, the perimeters all touched by the clippers. Each tree sculpted over the years.

There is no path to lead you- but you know where you want to go- towards a subtle opening to the grass garden, an allée of olives- and towards the mountains.

The contrast of the grasses – which are to show in late summer are lovely with the clipped. As you enter the allée –it all falls into place. Everything you have seen before and what you will see after as you explore the garden. A large clearing is revealed and with in — sculpture trees. There, I said it. Yes, the trees were sculpture. they took my breath away. they are nothing. but… it made my heart ache.

And to the right another clearing and after, a meadow. And with in the clearing- the aforementioned homage to Mr. Long. And what do you know- did it rise above Richard Long or Robert Smithson? I’m not sure- but “i know it when i see it”, and this is art.

The rest of the garden humbly meanders along. There is no path to guide you. See a meadow and a crude bench from which one overlooks the meadow to the spiral.

Some rocks are lined up against the wild part of the garden to delineate. But now everywhere you looked- you saw the components of the garden differently. It’s hard to explain- but the trees, the clippings, the stones placed- all had a character. Not character. A character. They were individuals now. It was an odd awakening.

Walk along these rocks at the perimeter of the garden- come to the end and encounter a twisted olive- not to mention a massive oak that has been trimmed to guard the pool. (These Provençals think of pools as a necessary evil and tuck them away like a mistress perhaps?)

The owners keep the garden as Mr. Idoux intended- (He died prematurely and Mr. Nucera continues the garden) A full time gardener and his family live on the property and the owners visit often. The group appreciated the garden but didn’t love it. They thought it lacked soul, maybe wasn’t a “garden”. And perhaps they are right. There are no concessions to conventional needs (except that pool) but there are shady nooks, lawns, vistas, heart calming vistas in amongst the art- the garden makes you be in the land. not on the land. I have an urge to sum it up here- but I think that’s precisely not the point. more soon! xojb

It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.

I know i know- for a couple of reasons it’s easy to forget that i’m related to Dolly Parton. I try to play up the Anne Boylen side of the family for the sympathy card. But, you know I really relate to cousin Dolly when i’m trying to talk to clients about the price of…. subtle. I mean it’s like the older you get– it takes an inordinate amount of maintenance to look like you haven’t put any effort into your maintenance. And hear me now, but believe me later it’s as complicated to achieve that in the garden as it is under your chin.

Let’s start with chez Spong. We found a photo at the History Center of the original front of the house and decided to dial it back to pre- war chill.

At the time of purchase:

Sometime this summer:

And I confess, it seems annoying, even to me who understands why it costs so much, to pay to just take stuff away. But you know, pull up all those boring yaupons, get rid of all the excess stones, bricks, tiles, hire a really great hombre to wield a tiny little jackhammer to take off the additions to the patio while leaving the original 95 year old tile work, move the electric, re route the gas, hand dig around the heritage oak , bulldoze the wall and OMG look at all that dirt i just took out of that little bit of space down there?

And i really added were some limestone caps on the steps that were kind of already there under all the 80’s ca-ca. easy. and i’m installing a circular low wall that let’s us hang under the oak canopy. some grass. and you know. done. but mon dieu. it’s a fortune. BRS is too busy- i’m using subcontractors- i feel our client’s pain. I’ve been doing it in little bite sizes to hide the price from myself.

We’ve a couple other favorite clients who have faith in subtle. For a favorite recent project we arrived on site to this:

The client wanted it really to look like “nothing happened to the site- perhaps a bit enhanced”. So we planted thousands of natives. grasses, yuccas, some bushes, seeds etc. We pick axed them into the rock just like nature would have done it. The patient patient client was out of town during our install. She was sent photos that showed “all we had done that day” in which was all but impossible for her to see what she was paying for.

Finally Fall

Do i say this every year… the weather finally broke- it’s totally gorgeous here and we’ve been just working until we drop. Chucho dropped- has Chucho ever been sick since he started with the company at 15 years old? Yipes. But we are pecking away at it. We are in a funny spot- we have great great projects that we are working on- but we are getting backed up. Some clients are ok with waiting, but we are beginning to lose projects because we are booked out a bit. Which of course is a luxury but now a double edged sword. I get nervous about hiring another crew- everyone is clicking here together we are running 2 crews and i’d hate not to have top quality work. ack. So, of course I put my head in the sand a bit and think about E.A.S.T (east austin studio tour). We are working a post apocalyptic angle featuring our new planter series we are doing with Massif Concrete. look cute solo or en masse non?

But- also we are contemplating if gardeners will be the most powerful in the post apocalyptic world since we will be the ones who know how to grow food and utilize phytoremediation. Which as we all know, is using plants to pull toxins from the soil. And let me just say that HEMP is one of the most effective plants at removing radiation from the soil. So let’s all keep a good supply of seeds. I won’t be growing it in our exhibition el camino garden however. Gotta love a crew to whom I can say- Can WE just get a shelled out El Camino please? HOW HARD can it be? and 24 hours later- this shows up at the lot. jaunty right?

Justin and I are going to have to try and plant it up this week to look like a fully grown vegetable garden. i know all this apocalyptic talk makes you want to ask about the Hades Garden. I did have to kill some things that just weren’t cutting it- the wing thorn rose- cool but not for this location. The Millet never turned black- you must die. And of course i’m still picking out the amaranth. The green rose is a blooming fool. And the black pomegranate really makes black pomegranates- and grew from the 4″ stick to a 12′ bush.

and get a load of the stepelia- all those flies. SO nasty right? yay. the whole street smelled like old trash cans. It’s all floating around in my brain because this fence we just finished (see below) seems to be in the hades apocalyptic vein right? although really, i was thinking of the artist Louise Nevelson.

Burning it was just the best way to get it black and finished in one fell swoop. Hans with a blowtorch on a client’s property- the torture to our insurance company is really non stop. But really it was JT who suffered. Every single board was placed at random. with me figuring out the random. Poor patient JT- higher, lower, left, right, left. no, that one isn’t really right. we are all still talking so no permanent scarring physical or physic seems to have occurred.

more soon- Julie

Hath no fury

S- whoa. We’ve been a wee bit in the weeds. Quick ATX update.

The Hades garden had a major set back when sophisticated east side plant thieves stole several of the more choice selections that i had so carefully mail ordered and then nursed to happiness. quite dispiriting i confess. In spite, i let the garden wallow with the gaping holes in the ground until in a hormonal frenzy i got back out there and replanted it- albeit with some cruel choices. Fish hook cactus Mr. Rustler?

Here’s what Dr Robin pulled out my toe 2 weeks later after I tripped over my own trap moments before an appointment. (but it’s nothing in comparison to the sun spots on my hands- look at that?!)

But now all is growing in well enough for a first year garden. The mullien is blooming- will it really turn black?

A “red” pumpkin that we are trying to hide from the rustlers.

In other news, I just got back from a quick trip from LA and Palm Springs. I do love that the dishabille of the Chateau Marmont extends to it’s garden areas.

I feel like everything here has to be so neat and tidy. The confidence that you are cool enough to have something be real is true sprezzatura. But it’s all in the details non?

We also popped out to the Parker meridian in Palm Springs to see the Elysian designed landscape. Which is cute- but tidier in spite of an attempt at overgrown insouciance. Admittedly, overgrown is harder to achieve in the desert. But as charming as the Parker is- the Marmont feels actually authentic- but i think even this “fakeness” is on purpose at the Parker, which is in itself quite genius. landscapes talk. more soon. xojb

Meet me at the doritos stage

S- How can you miss all this?

i should have added, please don’t pee on my new garden. You know i loves me my SXSW. We taught the new girl Kate to play hipster homeless rockstar to enhance her first experience with the parade outside our windows. I did have a wee freakout on the guy who was sleeping in his van for a few days along side the building. Justin went all organic on him like any other pest. first with sea weed spray on the garden, then a bit of composted manure. none of which really didn’t seem to budge him. A friend last night pointed out that perhaps he smelled worse than anything we could throw at him. mercy sakes alive-the whole thing makes me bolt. It was good timing because I needed to get up to see the NYC apartment one last time as it is under contract. I can’t remember if I told you that it was published late last year in NEW YORK Rooftop Gardens by Charles de Vaivre. Ooh la la. It’s a big old phat spread- and it’s nice to have it documented before another girl gets to have her way with it. It’s hard to leave an established garden. Terraces are a little more instant gratification than in ground gardens- but still they take time. And the patience is worth it- but i’ve such a hard time getting our clients to chill with the fact that construction is messy and takes time. And sometimes things have to go backwards to go forwards. Below is what the terrace looked like before this girl got her hands on it.

you know i can’t resist a little fake grass.

then the discouraging backwards to go forwards….

It was imperative to install a perfect new roof membrane. it took forever to make sure everyone one came by to inspect it- but this is the foundation on your house- what’s underground is the most important of all. And of course it’s what keeps rain off your neighbor below-lawsuit city in NYC- so wait to get it right. beginning to lay the marble custom cut tiles. no grout for drainage. lots of tips for the freight elevator guy.

custom planters from brooklyn.

finally, the uppity fake grass.

Scented geraniums for the inaugural season’s annuals.

then finally 8 months later, move in day. (i should have kept the pink on that vintage couch)

and 4 years growth gets perfect hedges (the remnants of a dinner party visible there)

Clearly, i’m feeling all nostalgic. I had some fancy photographer come and take pix of the inside- if he ever gets them back to me, i’ll put them up so you can see them. well- as long as we are imbibing in some real estate porn- check this listing out that we went to go see when we were there. gorgeous right? i begin to get obsessed all anew because there’s always a new garden to be made…xojb