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"Conversations with Alaska Gardeners" is your gateway to exploring the vibrant world of gardening in Juneau, Alaska, where the wilderness of towering mountains and the vast blue sea meet. This podcast series brings to life the unique challenges and unmatched rewards of gardening in the rugged yet beautiful terrain of The Last Frontier. Join us as we celebrate the passion and resilience of Juneau's gardening community, sharing insights, tips, and stories from those who thrive amidst the challenges of Alaskan gardening.
Conversations with Alaskan Gardeners is your gateway to exploring the vibrant world of gardening here in Juneau. Join us as we celebrate the passion what gonna we're We're
Speaker 2:morning. Conversations with Alaskan Gardeners. We're back. We're backing with you. Mark and Dave from Landscape Alaska.
Speaker 2:We're on the air. You can be on the air too. It's a call in show. 805861800. Gets you on the air or you can text to the same number.
Speaker 2:Ask us questions. Invite us to see fascinating things. Argue with us. Perhaps you have some different point of view. We're always willing to talk.
Speaker 2:So it's... Today's topic is going to be about landscape design. We're going to explore some of the criteria, some of the contributing factors, some of the causes and some of the results. So if you got your pen and pencil and you want to talk about some particular thing, give us a shout. Margaret's got a Bachelor's in Landscape Architecture from the University of Oregon and she's been designing landscapes in Juneau for forty years, forty two years.
Speaker 2:And some of the most exciting landscapes you've ever imagined came right out of her pencil, her pen, and her imagination. Before she starts doing landscape designs, there's a whole sense of conversation that goes on with the client. And when you start talking to a prospective client, Margaret, where do you start?
Speaker 3:Well, I don't know, Dave. The reality is I grew up in a landscape that was very formalized and it was in the wild. So that tension between the wilderness and the arranged formal landscape is something I like to bring to my work. You need the order to be able to maintain public places, and you need to have the structure, but at the same time you want it to complement the bigger landscape, which is what wraps around us in Southeast Alaska. So one is not exclusive of the other, but plays to it.
Speaker 3:And that's kind of where I come from. I do the formal and the wild as a compliment.
Speaker 2:There's never a moment when you're here in Southeast Alaska that you can imagine you're someplace else. No. You just open your eyes and look around and the giant landscape is the dominant thing. The personal small landscape you're standing in and working on, that's a whole different bang shebang.
Speaker 3:And the bigger landscape is so magnificent. And yet you can't create that in someone's yard, but you can create things that compliment that and also compliment the client for what they want. People who just want to have lawns, well, that's easy. People have lawns. But people who want to have fully formed landscapes with all different kinds of seasonal effects, well, takes some work.
Speaker 3:And luckily, I've had clients that that that's what they want.
Speaker 2:We got a call already. Okay. Good morning Conversations. Are you there? Well, call back again.
Speaker 2:We'll try it again. It's not your fault. It's ours. Hello?
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. Hi.
Speaker 4:Hello. Can you hear me?
Speaker 2:We can now. Yes.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Thank you so much for your program and for talking about all these amazing green and wonderful things in Juneau in Southeast Alaska. And I like the phrase that you used, fully formed landscape. And some of those can be curated and created and some of them just are, right, in the natural environment.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 4:What I'm wondering about is when when I look at pictures of downtown, the greenest spot and the greenest patch, that would be, I think, very interesting place to create a curated garden would be Telephone Hill. I mean, the walking path and what's there. It's the greenest spot in downtown. You see office buildings, you see concrete structures and the rest of it. And the green patch in the middle of all of it is Telephone Hill.
Speaker 4:And I know a lot of tourists go there because they're curious about historic residents and stuff. But have you guys had any thoughts or wild ideas about what could be possible in curating a community garden along Telephone Hill?
Speaker 3:Sure. You betcha.
Speaker 2:And it's a place that you can access via elevator.
Speaker 3:Not only that, they have all those cherry trees. They have the footprint of remnant gardens that exist. I mean, they're allowed to have tall grass and a wild thing underneath them. But you already have the framework of a community garden there, and it could be well developed and complement the downtown even more.
Speaker 2:And so much of the modern landscape plants that we see in the older landscapes around Juneau and Douglas are seen there on Telephone Hill. The big Canadian lilacs, the old spireas, and the mature conifers. But really, it is those Telephone Hill cherries that dominate them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and everybody's crazy for them. You know? We don't know exactly where they come from. They were brought here in somebody's suitcase a long time ago and propagated and planted and developed.
Speaker 2:It's so unusual to have a tree that comes from seed being as fruitful and delicious as that particular cherry is. Most cherry seeds, when you plant them and they grow and give a tree, they're going to give a distorted, unpleasant, bad tasting, not very fruitful fruit.
Speaker 3:They must come from somewhere in Eastern Europe. I'm just saying...
Speaker 2:Probably so.
Speaker 3:You know...
Speaker 2:There were so many people from Eastern Europe that came here. Yeah. Cherries are very, very common there.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And a lot of people, you know, one hundred and fifty years ago that came here brought things in their suitcases to plan on planting and having in their gardens or in their landscapes here. Not that they were formal, but that they wanted to have them as part of their home that they carried with
Speaker 2:them. Their home and their culture.
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Thanks for the call, buddy. It's always a good topic. And I'd love to see that happen. I hesitate to say it's a it's a a viable proposition.
Speaker 2:So it's just too much.
Speaker 3:Conflict.
Speaker 2:Too much conflict and too much money at stake. You know, but it's a good idea. So there you are and you're working in the landscape design and you always got to take into consideration what are the big views that this particular property sees?
Speaker 3:Well, it's really about the client. Any design that is made is for the client. So it's up to the client to be able to communicate not specifics about what they want or what they want to keep. So if it's about views, they have to say, I want to maintain this view. I want to always be able to see the water, or I don't want to look at my neighbor, or you know what it is.
Speaker 3:It's a
Speaker 2:two way street. I don't want to see that boat with a blue tarp every time I open my eyes.
Speaker 3:Yes. So successful design is really about the client being able to communicate somewhat to the designer their dreams and ambitions. It doesn't have to be perfect and it doesn't have to start off being successful, but it has to be able to grow to be successful. So it's really about application and playing to their desires. And also...
Speaker 3:And the function, the form and function of what a landscape is.
Speaker 2:And you, as a more experienced participant in the landscape scene, have to give back some feedback also. When they start talking about about their likes and desires, you're able to communicate with them from your your position of having having been there before with many Yeah.
Speaker 3:But most clients don't care about what I think.
Speaker 5:Margaret, you would have been helpful when our homeowners association decided to go ahead and put in new trees through the whole neighborhood.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well But there were
Speaker 5:so many moose that they had to be wrapped in wire cages. So if somebody could have told us, hey, those trees are gonna be there, but they're gonna be wrapped in ugly wire cages for six years. And that's what you're gonna look at until they grow up. So if you could have shared that, if we would have had you, that would have been helpful.
Speaker 3:We would
Speaker 5:have changed our mind.
Speaker 3:You know, I have to honestly say I don't try to change people's minds. I share my thoughts with them and I leave it up to them. I'm not here to sell them anything. If they want something and I can design it for them, then I like to say that. But if they're not going to pay attention to the fact that there's going to be wire cages, well that's on them, that's not on me.
Speaker 3:And I do my best work with people who are receptive to the idea of what can there be? Let's open the door and have a vision of what are some options. And
Speaker 2:you have to also remind them that life brings change, and that what you want right now and what you're able to do and perform right now may not be the same in twenty years. Or forty years. Or forty years. We have a client who's been a client and a friend of ours for forty years and the landscape that we installed in her home was absolutely spectacular. And the tour buses would come and it's been featured in magazines and and she was very proud of it and very successful at it.
Speaker 2:And it changed her life entirely. And she became an avid gardener where she never was before. But that was then. And now forty years later, what was the joy of her life becomes... A burden.
Speaker 2:A burden. Right. Something that has to be managed. So there is always that sequence. Got to recognize when you're in your landscape and doing it, you may have to change what you had.
Speaker 2:You may not always be able to keep that.
Speaker 3:Well, maybe. You know, on the other hand, it has to do with how big is the site and you have to manage it no matter what. And even if it was just planted in the lawn, you'd have a hard time mowing that site. So perspective has to do with adjusting your expectation in terms of how you can manage and live with what you've got. And your landscape designer can't make that happen.
Speaker 3:That's something that's internal and personal to that person. And no matter what, it's a difficult site, it's all on a hill, and mowing the lawn is not the option.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of walking up and down the hillside. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So anyway, you know, I understand.
Speaker 2:Lots of stairs and trails.
Speaker 3:We all go through, you know, I'm forty years older too. You know, we all go through time, but you still like what you like. And gotta just love it.
Speaker 2:And you gotta be able to manage it.
Speaker 3:Whether you do or not, just let it go to hell.
Speaker 2:Get over it. Well, we've certainly seen a lot of those, haven't we?
Speaker 3:You know, it's like...
Speaker 5:Final episode advice, let it all go
Speaker 3:to hell. That's right.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, age works against you. It's not something like, Oh gee, I'm 20 years old and I can manage it. You know, it doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2:But when you're 20, you think you're always going to be 20.
Speaker 3:I know, Dave.
Speaker 2:It's like, Gee, and I think I'm always going to be my age.
Speaker 3:Well, plan on getting a lot older.
Speaker 2:That's all. I love it too. And on that point point, it's tools from Tyler that make that easy. You can go to Tyler Rental and get some, tools to make Little your
Speaker 3:chainsaws and
Speaker 2:Your life's so much easier. Little chainsaws, big chainsaws, extended reach chainsaws, things to take branches out 20 feet up in the air. Boy, do I love having access to all that stuff. Yep. Thanks a lot, Tyler Rettle.
Speaker 2:You really, really contribute a lot to the gardening success of our community. And not just gardens. I mean, I know you do all kinds of stuff from the the giant constructions to the mining and all the welders and everybody that does industrial kind of stuff in town knows you and deals with you and is is delighted to be able to do so. I know I speak for thousands of people when I say thank you, Tyler. It's been a great, great service having you here.
Speaker 2:And I'll look forward to it for the rest of my life and existence. I love dealing with you guys. Thanks a lot. Now, now talking about landscape designs and the changes, a good part of our work involves going to somebody's house and having to adapt the landscape to their changed situations. Either they've got new kids or their kids are gone or they've decided that they're gonna have dogs and never had dogs before or they used to be the only landscape around, the only home around, and then suddenly the trees around them are all down and there's houses being built right up to the fence lines and they're agog.
Speaker 3:Well, that's what I'm saying is that in the formal landscape, you can keep it personal. You can design for someone's yard to be where they want to be and how they can manage it. I grew up in a house that was built in 1905. And the landscape at that time was the Monet Garden, where you have a fish pond, maples, you have flowering camellias, you have... Formal stonework.
Speaker 3:Formal stonework, all that stuff. And yet right behind where our house was, was the Wild Northwest, where the wildflowers would bloom in the spring and the leaves were beautiful and the trees were maples. You know, it was just a whole other...
Speaker 2:And the wildlife was there.
Speaker 3:And the wildlife was there. And that contention between the formal and the wild is something that attracts me tremendously. And I think that's really been a big part of my success here in Southeast Alaska because boy, we're surrounded by wild. So they give a little bit of order and people love it.
Speaker 2:And they also love the sense that the wild is right there.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Just on the other side. And that's what we were talking about earlier about if you just look up, no matter where you are, you look up and suddenly, rather than being there in the middle of your lawn, you're there in the middle of Southeast Alaska. And the Yes, mountains and the forest and water birds and the sky and all that cloud show goes on, all that stuff. All that plays into how you are out in your yard or out in your developed landscape.
Speaker 3:And not only that, it changes every couple of hours. You know, the weather moves in and goes out and the sun shows up and then...
Speaker 2:But wasn't it great yesterday? So
Speaker 3:it's a dynamic environment. And you want to have your landscape that you, if you're interested, you want it to be dynamic also, and it can roll with the punches all season long.
Speaker 2:And it's so different season to season. Like last winter was so harsh and it lasted so long into the springtime that everything went retrograde. Things that normally bloom in July didn't even bud up until August or even in the beginning of September. And the hydrangea flowers that we expected to see being red by now are still green by now, you know, and the...
Speaker 3:Those are slowly changing.
Speaker 2:They are. That's right. They're slowly changing. It's true. But not like, you know, not like the year before.
Speaker 2:So... Well, know what
Speaker 5:the snowmageddon that we had or whatever they called it, would it be helpful for people if that could happen again, to take some pictures of their yards and lawns now so they're not trying to deal with it while it's all covered with snow in the spring if they're trying to describe to you what they always looking for. And besides the aesthetically pleasing designs you guys do, you gave some advice a couple episodes that I wanna share with my folks that... About noise mitigation and about the structure of the shrubs or whatever. Do you mind sharing that again? There's somebody who's asking me about it.
Speaker 2:Okay. If you think about noise mitigation, think about it in terms of like a stream of air. And if you... Or or you could visualize it as a stream of smoke, or if you think about in a wind tunnel or something like that, and you you blow something at an obstacle, its response is to roll up the face of the obstacle and down over the other side of it. But if you make your obstacle instead of being a wall, have it be an inclined plane, then the sound and the wind and the smoke travel and they they hit that inclined plane and they begin rolling up.
Speaker 2:And instead of rolling up and falling down, they're able to continue that path and lift the sound and the smoke and the
Speaker 5:haze up and over you. So So it isn't just about absorption. It's about deflecting it into perpendicular. Right.
Speaker 2:And so you have both things happening. You have lots of little stems that that are disturbing the sound mass, but the the whole mass of the plant material is more triangular. And so it takes the sound as a stream and lifts it up into the sky and up and over you. And and you think about how they do those those concrete walls around freeways, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's that's not as effective as if it were an inclined plane.
Speaker 5:It's like a pinball machine.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Just rolls the sound right a bit and over and back down at you. So anyway, that's it's something that it it... I didn't make it up, but it's something that I learned a long time ago. Talking about things that we learned a long time ago that are still fascinating.
Speaker 2:I love to look at deciduous trees in the wintertime. I love to look and think about what was the history of that particular tree? How long ago did something happen that made it shaped like that? And you can look at the branch structure and you can see, oh yes, it lost a top about, you know, a third of its life ago and and responded by growing these three new tops. And that's that's what we see now is kind of a a bulgy top tree instead of a single trunk top tree.
Speaker 2:That's it's always thrilling to me. Enough about that, though. Let's think. Let's think about about... There's another criteria when you're doing landscape design, and that is who's going to maintain it.
Speaker 2:And one of the first questions we always ask when we have a new client is how much time are you willing to devote to maintaining your landscape? Because that's going to determine an awful lot.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, but at the same time, here we are in Southeast Alaska and the climate plays havoc with that concept. In your fantasy, you can say, Oh, I have at least ten hours a week that I can spend. But the reality is when it rains every day for a month, ten hours a
Speaker 2:week, you don't do it. So
Speaker 3:as long as when the weather is good and you can get out there and enjoy yourself, there's no reason to have work that you hate. You know, it's... That's not what drives the beauty of the landscape.
Speaker 2:And another one is there are... You know, and last winter was the perfect example for it. There are environmental concerns that come... That throw a stick into your wheel.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:You know, all those people that had the beautiful hedges of arborvita trimmed and nice and healthy looking and giving them a nice background to their scene. And at the end of the winter, it looked like broken fingers sticking up out of the ground. Well, you know... So disappointing.
Speaker 3:I can honestly say anybody who still has nice arborvitae, you should internally tie them up for this next winter because I have a feeling we're going to get hit with a lot of snow again. And if you tie them internally so that they don't splay apart, you're going to come out ahead and be happier. Those incredible trees that got dug up at our other site. You know, I look at how big, you know, arborvitaes are like 15 feet tall. They didn't splay apart.
Speaker 3:And it snowed down there. Uh-huh. You know, Montana Creek, Give me a break. It's just... Life's just weird and it's wild.
Speaker 3:And you have to just roll with the punches and do the best you can. But if in advance you know you're gonna have a bad winter, which I think we all in our hearts feel that way this year, and then go out and do something about it before the snow comes.
Speaker 2:And so when you tie them together internally, you're not talking about tying them tightly. You're talking about putting a collar around the main branches in a loose enough pattern so it doesn't interfere with them moving around, but it doesn't let them fall apart. Right. Uh-huh. And you want to use some kind of material that's not going to dig into the bark.
Speaker 3:A corded shoelace
Speaker 2:kind of thing, a round kind of strapping. Either round or flat. You could use flat strapping
Speaker 3:if You you can find know, and don't have it be dark rather than white because you'll see it.
Speaker 2:Bright yellow. Bright yellow. Yeah. But we do that for a lot of trees that we manage. And if somebody wants to see a couple samples of it, you're welcome to come and visit us at the nursery.
Speaker 2:We'll be open for the next month and we're going to be open on Tuesday through Saturday from ten to four and on Sunday from noon to four and we're closed on Mondays. You can always call us up and ask, are we open or is there something you want in particular? Our phone is on our website. It's 321-4149. And that'll get right to us or you can send us an email at landscape Alaska at Gmail.
Speaker 2:And we get comments and questions and orders every day coming in. So don't hesitate. Don't think you're going to bother us. We like and expect to communicate with you. And if you want to be added into our email newsletter, make sure to tell us that.
Speaker 2:Send us an... An ask me to to put you on the list. They'll have to have it be your permission. Okay. So And you're
Speaker 5:open today until when? Till 04:00 today.
Speaker 2:And tomorrow? Noon till four.
Speaker 5:And again, cleverly hidden one mile north of
Speaker 2:the Ok Bay Roundabout, right? Cleverly hidden one mile north because we can't have a sign on the street. So our mailbox is painted to look like rhododendron flowers. You'll have no trouble noticing it. I mean, people find us all the time, so I'm sure that you can do it too.
Speaker 3:Look at the website because it shows a map.
Speaker 2:And website shows a map, but it also shows a picture of our driveway. So until next year, this is Mark and Dave from Landscape Alaska.
Speaker 3:Keep up the good fight.
Speaker 2:We're wishing you all happy gardening.
Speaker 1:Conversations with Alaskan Gardeners is your gateway to exploring the vibrant world of gardening here in Juneau. Join us as we celebrate the passion and resilience of Juneau's gardening community, sharing insights, tips, and stories from the experts.