The LACASA Garden Tour means a lot to me.
In the summer of 1999, there was in my life a harmonious convergence of events: The first LACASA Garden Tour, which sprang from a series on gardeners in the Livingston County Press by Linda Neff called “Great Gardens,” was set to take place; I was about to give birth to my son; and my dad started digging a hole in his back yard.
My father loved working with his hands. He built a beautiful home on a lake in Brighton Township, and then he did some amazing work on an old Victorian house in downtown Howell, which he bought as an investment property. As he worked on that old house, he fell in love with it, and he and my mother decided to live in it. After he renovated the house’s interior, he turned his attention to the outside.
And that is how he went on to land a spot on the second-annual LACASA Garden Tour.
What started as a small hole in my parents’ side yard became this huge, amazing pond, constructed by hand entirely by my father.
A column I wrote at the paper in July 2000, just before the second LACASA Garden Tour, tells part of the story:
My father loves to do physical labor. He’s a mason by trade and has a deep appreciation for rock and stone.
He also does things on a large scale.
If my dad were a painter, he would have been a muralist like Diego Rivera. If he were a writer, he would have written “War and Peace.” If he were a rock star, he would have written “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.”
You get the idea. He always does things in a big, big way and his backyard pond is no exception.
It started as a small hole in my parents’ side yard.
The next day, it was bigger, and a couple days later even bigger yet.
Every single day throughout the July heat wave, my dad was out in the yard digging, and the hole kept getting bigger and bigger.
My father worked slowly and steadily during the day. He treated his work as if he were punching a clock — starting in the morning, breaking for lunch, and then working throughout the afternoon. At night, he surfed the internet for information and supplies.
He kept on digging until the hole in his yard appeared more the size of a Great Lake than a pond. To an outsider, he could have easily looked like Don Quixote with a shovel, but there was a vision in his mind — and as he dug, he designed.
First came the interior of the pond. Then came a waterfall and a statue and a butterfly garden. Finally, there was a beautiful patio made of rock.
In all, nearly nine tons of material went into the project: four tons of Canadian ledge rock for the patio, and five tons of field stone for the pond. What amazes me to this day is that every single boulder, and every piece of ledge rock was hauled into the yard and placed by his hand.
It’s a breathtaking creation, something you’d never, ever dream of finding in the yard of a city home. Unless you’re looking for it, you’d never notice it from the street or sidewalk because it’s so tucked away; it feels very European and relaxing.
I marvel at it because I saw first-hand how much work and energy went into it.
I spent much of that second LACASA Garden Tour sitting with my nearly 1-year-old baby on the deck of my parent’s home, right next to the pond, enjoying the steady stream of admiring people coming through. The lovely weather, the laid-back vibe of the tour, and my usually quiet dad beaming and chatting with strangers about his pond are memories I’ll cherish always.
Six years after that, my dad died. Now, each year, as the tour comes around, the memory of my dad digging the hole that became a pond makes me smile.
Everyone with a garden on the tour, or who enjoys gardening, understands how transforming outside spaces is a physical labor of love, a melding of the mind and hand to create something beautiful. Gardeners are special people with an appreciation for the earth and a love of beauty.
The LACASA Garden Tour for the past 26 years has showcased that creative dedication. Trust me on this: If your soul needs some feeding, take part in the Garden Tour. You’ll be helping LACASA, which works with victims of child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault; you’ll also be paying tribute to people who do the most with what they have, and use that of which they can dream to create things of peace and beauty on earth, just like my dad.
And who couldn’t use a little peace and beauty right now?
More information, as well as tickets for the Garden Tour, are available by clicking here.
