Ladera Working Day Number Two

The Internet connection here is shaky so I feel like I am trying to write, think, post and select photo's as fast as I can, seems I just get going and oops I've lost it. Hitting the save key a lot. There is so much to tell and show. I started this blog because I was working here in 08 having such a blast that I needed to talk about it. Two years later about 3/4 of the work I did still looks pretty good the rest was either destroyed due to new construction, neglect or is already overgrown.



I am here because hurricane Tomas smacked Ladera and much of the southern part of the island, most of the damage was from Canneries to Vieux Fort, the north was pretty much unscathed. Vieux Fort is still without water nearly 30 days after the storm, I was there today getting supplies and you would not know they had no water except for the giant government water tankers on the street. The island received 26" of rain in 30 hours, the rain caused massive mud slides which resulted in structural damage, loss of lives and nearly an entire village being wiped out.

Repairs at Ladera are being grabbed by the horns with an aggressive plan to reopen 15 units by December 15th and an additional 7 units or more by Christmas. I am currently staying in a most deluxe accommodation, one of the original new Tace Hill units I was contracted to landscape in 2008, this place is still spectacular even storm ravaged.



Of course the main concern is to make sure nothing slides down the mountain. This is being accomplished through the installation of gabions, wire baskets filled with local river stone (which is now even easier to obtain, having washed down the mountains) that are terraced into retaining walls. The first layer of gabions is buried, acting as a footer, the next ones are set back for greater stability. All this work is done by hand since no equipment can reach the slide areas. For lack of a better explanation Ladera is cantilevered on top of the mountain ridge. Over 300 hundred ton of rock has been installed and there is still much to go.



I am hopeful that I will be able to load some video at some point but with this connection I will not hold my breath, today I got some good video of the work and some excellent photo's. One of our tasks was tool shopping in Vieux Fort, we needed to buy flour for the restaurant and after much searching found it in what was basically a hardware store, you got to love that. Additionally, I went in search of grass seed and my driver Trevor took me to a garden center I never knew existed. They had seeds; watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, etc., in a glass case under lock and key. The price for a small package of most seeds was 35EC which is about two times US, so the Us price would be $ 17.00 per package, think I know what to smuggle.
It is strange, Ladera is jamming with activity from 7 am till 6 pm then it goes dead quiet. There are only three rooms occupied, me the owner and his daughter and son in law, tonight Mr. Hooper gave me a whistle in case I need assistance at night from the security guards, actually it is pretty far out. Peaceful and secure. Ladera's motto is a View with a Room and they aren't kidding. Each room has at one exterior wall facing the Caribbean, I fall asleep each night yearning for morning just to inhale the view.

Good Bye Indiana, Hello St. Lucia

Someone commented on my face book page that this blog is about to get more interesting and indeed I would have to agree. This blog began in St. Lucia, West Indies in 2008 and I am returning to work at Ladera in St. Lucia this Friday. If you follow the weather (not necessarily the news) you might know that St. Lucia was struck by hurricane Tomas Halloween week end. Much of the damage is due to horrific land slides that drug houses, buildings and jungle down the mountain sides toward valleys and the Caribbean Ocean. Lives were lost, chunks of roads dropped hundreds of feet, mud filled houses, power and water are only now being restored, things in general are a mess and over whelming.

The owner of Ladera called me last week to see if I would be interested in coming down to help. Of course my Caribbean soul answered almost immediately a resounding "yes". I am thrilled to be going back to Ladera I only wish the circumstances were different. I leave with some trepidation as I have never worked on such a large scale, as in helping to stabilize a mountain but I will give it my best.

Likely I will not be on the blog until I get organized in St. Lucia. The Internet was not exactly dependable the last time I was there and I imagine the hurricane has done little to improve that. In addition I just purchased a new laptop (I don't even have it yet) and camera so it might take me a bit to get acquainted with their operation.

I am really excited, they expect I may be needed for a couple of months. There are a few loose ends I am scrambling to wrap up in the next couple of days. Two drawings for spring work, final instructions for the two guys we still have working and winterizing my own piece of dirt, just to mention a few. My clothes and travel junk are already laid out on the pool table, I'll go through them a couple of more times to pare down the items at least by half. Some of the best packing advice I ever got was to lay everything out, get rid of half the stuff and take twice the amount of money you think you need. Just looking at my snorkel gear gets me jazzed up.

There are lots of videos and news items if you want to see what St. Lucia looks like right now. Just Google St. Lucia hurricane Tomas and you will see what awaits me. If you are following along meet me in St. Lucia in a few days and I will show you first hand how to repair a resort after a hurricane (hopefully). You can also check out the resort where I will be working (Ladera), it is magnificent with a breathtaking view of the Pitons. My blog profile picture is taken looking out from the restaurant to the Pitons. Wish me luck.

Happy Holidays

All good things must come to an end and thus is the fate of seasonal landscaping in northeast Indiana. For most of the crew this will be the last week of work. So Happy Holidays everyone, we will indeed see you in the spring. Islandscapes will keep posting and I am hoping to add some holiday adventures soon.

Millgrove's National Spokesperson

Some jobs are just flat out exciting and this one was definitely a transformation that built excitement as we worked our way up the lot from the lake. When you live on a piece of dirt for a few years you do not always see the potential that exists. But put a new house on that land and the opportunities shout out. When you couple that with a client who has clear visions, plant lists and expectations for outdoor living you begin a blueprint for beautiful gardens.

I met with Trish and Doug Miller at their new house before the siding was installed. Doug was content to let Trish and I hash out the general concept and we chatted for a couple of hours discussing her vision, goals and plans for family living at the lake. Time was not on my side when it came to drawing and putting a bid together as Doug and Trish were going on vacation soon. Their are many new rules and regulations on Clear Lake now and some of what we wanted to accomplish required hands on interpretation of the building and landscaping codes. Since Clear Lake just hired a new administrator the process was a bit slow but we managed to work things out.

The original proposal and drawing was a bit more extensive and included a second retaining wall and entertainment area that we opted not to install. Additionally we have made provisions for an outdoor kitchen on the road side patio set for spring installation. We will continue the project in Spring after the magnificent new fence is installed and the garage is rebuilt.

Trish and I sat down the other day to record this video and I figured she would be smooth since she is a high school volleyball coach and used to talking to media, kids and parents but I was not prepared for how gracious and complimentary she was toward Millgrove Landscaping and myself. I must say I a super happy with the job as a matter of fact I entered it in a trade magazine as a before/after project and it will be featured in Lawn & Turf this December. It was wonderful to work with Trish, she participated in all phases of the design and like me is an immediate gratification kind of girl so the plants and materials are big and look like they have been installed several years instead of a few weeks.

If I would have written the script myself I could not have been as articulate, compassionate or well spoken as Trish when discussing our landscaping project together. So I would like to have Trish act as the official international spokesperson for Millgrove Landscaping, thanks Trish and Doug it was a pleasant couple of months.

Block Walls, Rock Walls, Cement Walls

We do every phase of installation some customers like to get their hands dirty too and we might do just part of the install. You might recognize this house as one where we installed a paver patio with a Ohio State Logo in the pavers. We did not build the walls but I did design a plant scheme and we prepped the beds, planted the trees and larger shrubs and healed in the plants.


The home owner is planting them later in the week. Next year he will also install weed barrier and stone in the beds. These kittens kept us entertainedd, they were just days old when I drew the plan and now they are weaned and oh so cute.




The job on Coldwater Lake wrapped up last week and I am very satisfied with the results. The challenge was to update a landscape where failing concrete walls were cracked and leaning but hidden by a mostly dead euyonomus hedge. Replacing the walls was not a current option but one that will likely happen down the road. (I have before pictures in a previous post) We had an original plan just to paint and patch the walls and attach vinyl lattice to cover a pair of large steel straps that had been bolted into the wall in a attempt to hold the shifting corners of the steps.


After we had it stripped it became obvious that we needed to disguise the area where the top wall had a four inch crack and was leaning out five inches. My first thought was to run a trellis in front of the section of wall that leaned which was about 40', I would need five 4 x 8' panels. We built one test panel in our barn and took it to the site. I was never sold on a 40' trellis as it would make the already longer side of the walls appear even larger. By moving around our sample trellis it was easy to see that it would be even more effective to use the trellis's separately and spread them out along the top wall. This allowed me to hide each of the larger cracks in the wall and spread out the panels to create better balance. We put three seven gallon clematis on three panels and will be anxious to install a couple of large silver lace vines in the spring. Karl Forrester grass and large burning bush fill out these beds for easy care a lots of color.


The client had three mature trees removed so we brought in several ton of soil to even the earth before we installed a new yard. Irrigation heads were added to the system to water the new turf. Since it is late in the season and on a hill we used Futura blanket for erosion control. The home owner liked it so much that we installed it on the top side of the wall. I think erosion blankets can be seen from outer space.



These natural glacial stone walls are one of our trademarks and many people in our area are starting to copy them. This customer only wanted one side of the failing landscape timber walls replaced. Before we even finished the one side they wanted a price on the other side of the house. They decided to go ahead with the second side but are already requesting a quote to rebuilt the steps. Of course they need to do it since our straight new stone walls will result in a gap between the walls and the steps. Currently they have some fancy bagged green stone for treads I sure hope they do not keep it as I feel it is dangerous as a tread to easily sliding under your foot. They have enough timbers left over that we could rebuild the stairs and use timbers as treads.

This is one of the last jobs of the season, we are wrapping up loose ends this week and will likely be shutting down within the week as all our work will be complete.

King Willie

Clinton was in the White House, his first term when I met Bill Asher. Millgrove Landscaping was still a baby and we had just landed the biggest single landscape contract in Steuben County (still is), which was an outlet mall near I69 that had been bought out and was expanding, doubling in size. Unfortunately for them the land they chose on the north side of St. Rd. 120 was low land swamp which required lots of modification and segmented retaining walls (block) of which we installed 21 semi trucks full. Each block weighed 71 lbs, and we were often short handed to the point where we once had a one armed wheelbarrow operator. Anyway on one of those days I sent one of my three permanent employees out on a mission, "go find me some warm bodies and don't come back until you do." I kept a supply of Millgrove t-shirts at the job site and barely looked at the guy Randy had brought me as I tossed him a shirt and gave him instruction on where to start work. He was introduced to me then as King Willie at that time that was all I really wanted to know.

Now some 18 years later I often ask The King, Bill Asher if he agrees as to how I think we should begin a job. Bill is my go to guy who manages all my big projects and with whom I have a strong design/build partnership. He has developed into a good leader, efficient installer, excellent instructor and supervisor with the ability to take my blueprints and make my visions come to life. I trust his judgement, skill and common sense to deliver an outstanding project and to bring it in on time and on budget. We have an easy communication between us and he gets my visions better than almost anyone. When I ask Bill, "do you see what I see?", he often answers, "not yet but give me a couple of days on site."

Thanks Bill, I could not do it without you. I am still not sure how you got the name King Willie but you sure are King of Millgrove Landscaping but don't forget it is The Queen who rules.