I have a confession. Mr. B and I are cold-hearted murderers (of the flora kind)…read more
Severe drought over the past 5 years has meant tough water restrictions. In my town, yard watering was regulated by house numbers - odd house #s can run their sprinklers on M-W-Sat, even #s on Sun-T-Th. I think. I could never really remember. My grass was confused.
So, we decided to do the right thing and finish off our grossly un-pedigreed Bermuda and crab grass. We murdered it...it was ugly anyway. Round-up and putting the kabash on the water hose did the trick.
Now, reduced to a moonscape, we were the ugliest house on the block. My desiccated plants and neighbors definitely *had* to hate us. The Gladys Kravits' of my neighborhood, http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/imgLib/20090723_Mrs._Kravitz.JPG, were peeking out their windows in horror. The City of Corona thought we used too little water, so raised our rates accordingly.
Finally, in 2014, I hired a landscape architect. But after 16 long months of excuses/delays/empty promises, I'd had enough of him. All I had was a set of foo-foo plans that had cost me an arm & a leg, but off-the-charts un-implementable. In my desperation, I scoured Yelp yet again. I found Wayne Andrew, my ultimate Yard Whisperer.
Our first meeting in December 2015 went well. Armed with decades of experience and a great wit, he lit up when I spoke of my ideas: picket fence, arbor, roses, river rock pillars, playful garden art, artificial turf, and low maintenance, drought tolerant plants. He looked at my disastrous "professional" drawings and obviously pitied me. Not only were they unrealistic, he assured me he could create something beautiful for half the price.
At this point, I should warn you this project has not been an overnight wonder, we still had to wait our turn. Busy man. But the true professional that he is, he stayed in frequent contact with me. While I waited, we created and massaged a new set of do-able plans, he, his son, Tyson whom I must bestow the title "right-hand man", and I. And when if finally became "our turn" the end of July, I finally met the rest of his dedicated, dependable crew. I have great respect for them all. Wayne and Tyson have been on the job almost every single day, working right alongside them. The rock pillars took extra effort because, he took over for his subcontractor after I did not like them, and ended up re-building them himself.
Wayne runs a "pay as you go" business with meticulous invoicing. With the degree of complexity of my job, (removing creepy dead plants, leveling, pouring a new driveway and laying pavers, building the new rock pillars with old river rock, building and painting a new arbor (he designed it using the architecture of the house in his design), and installating timed, low voltage lighting and a timed drip system), it has taken almost two months from start to finish, with little time off for good behavior. No magic wand here. And that is why we must all be patient.
Now it is finished. Better than I could have envisioned. I appreciate his and Tyson's creative suggestions, but especially their cooperation with me, as I was quite opinionated, both in design and choice of plants. The end result is beautiful, changing with each season. And he will be THE guy I call when I am ready to do my back yard.
Many thanks to his subcontractor, Dave Queyrel of Inland Wrought Iron in Riverside, who created my Victorian style fence, and Unique Outdoor Designs in Corona for my special Victorian style, hook lamppost. These are both real eye catchers and which Wayne expertly supervised during the entire installation.
