Category Archives: Projects
Encore! Well…. maybe just a do-over.
To those of you that tuned it to watch ”The Ultimate Backyard Makeover” on FOX 61 this past Saturday, I must first say thank you. Not only did you perservere through a long blog series, you went the extra yard. Now, if you found yourself saying “what the heck was that?”, you are not alone. Apparently there were some technical difficulties in the Fox 61 control room, and half of the show did not make it on air, so if you didn’t get it, it wasn’t you. Fox 61 will be re-airing the the show in all its glory again this Saturday (Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel) and this time you’ll get to see the whole thing.
So if you have it in you to give it one more try for cause, please tune in. Oh and just in case, better have a copy of your favorite movie to watch if things go awry again. I think I’ll rent moonstruck……
See you in the garden,
Scott
A deserving Family and 15 Minutes for Blue Heron
Epilogue
Promoting a small business can be a daunting task. Finding the right venue to get your message out, getting ad copy just right and staying within a budget, all can test the reserve of even the most creative soul. That’s why, when the Backyard Makeover project presented itself, I gladly jumped onboard. A role in a televised production, on a local station, professionally filmed and produced, would surely provide needed exposure and credibility for Blue Heron Landscape Design. Most of the other participants, already advertisers with Fox 61, undoubtedly also knew of the value of this exposure, and also were quick to sign on. With stars in our eyes, we arrived, prepared for our companies expected fortunes.
Fate, I have always maintained, has a sense of humor, it seems, that it also has a sense of purpose. Here was a group of companies determined to take advantage of a brilliant opportunity, unexpectedly finding a greater purpose; Present a very deserving family with a private place of respite that they would not otherwise be able to afford. Now, I don’t mean to make our homeowners out as destitute, for they are not. Simply good people, that life threw one too many curve balls. And by no means are we, the participants meant to appear as saints, most assuredly we are not. This rather simply, became a feel good story that would benefit both sides in ways that neither could have imagined, and that is good story to tell.
Thank you to WTIC FOX 61, for providing this opportunity, and thank you to each of the other participants for making my job easier. Special thanks to Ron and the crew at R-N-L Enterprises, for without them we never would have pulled this off. And, thank you to you, readers, for the opportunity to tell this story, I know time is precious, and this has been a long blog. I hope you have enjoyed it.
Now, I must go, it just started to rain again, and I think I left my tools outside……
Follow this link to more pictures of the project from start to finish. http://www.flickr.com/photos/blueheronlandscapes/sets/72157620605924926/
See you in the Garden,
Scott
The FOX 61 Ultimate Backyard Makeover is scheduled to run Saturday June 27th at 12:30 pm. Please tune in! And feel free to email me any comments, even those less flattering.
A deserving Family and 15 Minutes for Blue Heron PT. III
At this point in our story, I’m sure many of you are wondering about the film crew, and what it was like to have them around and filming every action taking place. And they did film every action. Cameras were rolling for each task as it happened, and the principal from each company was interviewed either by the producer or the reporter assigned to this story, and sometimes by both. Tim, the producer, Scott the Cameraman and Jeff, the reporter, were great. They worked very hard to keep each of at ease, and were very careful to stay out of everyone’s way. The real trick for us was to act normal on those occasions, discussing a certain aspect of the project, and realizing halfway through the discussion that a camera had snuck up on you and was getting candid footage.
This seamless interplay between the film crew and the contractors was especially important beginning Monday morning, the second week of the shoot. The jobsite would be teeming with activity, as we were scheduled to finish everything by Wednesday morning, and all needed to feel at ease.
During the first days of the project, we had identified a large dead Ash tree that hung precariously over the area where the new playscape would be located. Knowing this tree had to come down, was the easy part, the challenge was to find a professional to take it down within our timeframe. For this, I placed a call to Jeff at Precision Tree Experts. I have known Jeff for a long time, and knew he had the expertise, and the right equipment to handle the job. Jeff jumped at the chance to help us out, and now here he was on Monday morning with five trucks and his whole crew making short work of our hazard. During his initial visit to the site, Jeff had also identified a second tree, with major problems. This one, a Red Maple, prominently figured into our shade/patio garden. Losing this tree would change the entire feel of the patio area, but the hazard would out way the aesthetics, so down it came, causing a reworking of the plantings also.
While the tree work was happening, Gregorio and his crew were busy installing the patio, leaving the area for a short period of time while the Maple was being removed and the stump was ground. They arrived around seven a.m., and would have the patio, steps and sitting wall done by the end of the day. They were quite a sight, each crewmember performing his task, working in symphony with the others, methodically bringing their portion of the project to completion.
During the afternoon, the playscape was delivered and installed, and by the end of the day, we were ready for planting and mulching, and the return of the R-N-L crew.
Tuesday morning, found our site busy again. Winterberry gardens had arrived with the plant material and a crew ready to plant. The R-N-L crew had returned and fired up the Takeuchi, and my Blue Heron crew, Mike and Justin, were also there to help plant and mulch. By Tuesday afternoon, we had managed to finish everything except a narrow area next to the garage that would be left as access to the back yard for R-N-L to get through and hydroseed the lawn area. That and the few plants and small amount of mulch would be wrapped up on Wednesday morning, by the combined R-N-L/Blue Heron crews. We had met our goal, and the homeowner’s now had a beautiful new backyard.
Now for the cool extras; New England Patio donated a beautiful patio set with six chairs and an umbrella. An important component made necessary with the loss of our Maple Tree.
And for the ‘piece de resistance’, at least according to every guy that came through the site, was a Sterling Gas grill. Beautiful with its stainless steel finish, side burner and an infrared element for finishing the selected entrée on the electric rotisserie, (que the angelic music…). It stands as a beacon of barbeque, a guidepost to the gourmet …… Sorry, I got carried away.
For those of you old enough to remember those great TV dramas of the seventies, tomorrow’s entry will be the “Epilogue”. I always liked that segment “Epilogue”, and we’ll see if we can’t bring this series to its proper end (sarcastic applause… I know it been a long blog).
See you in the Garden,
Scott
The FOX 61 Ultimate Backyard Makeover is scheduled to run on June 27th at 12:30 pm. Please tune in!
A deserving Family and 15 Minutes for Blue Heron PT. II
Day two of our project began with a job meeting. This is a common occurrence, especially when so many contractors and vendors are participating. Four of those participants met on the homeowners back porch, and the discussion quickly centered on our first obstacle, and what would prove to be an ongoing theme for this project….Rain. Each contractor, stood with his umbrella, the whole group looking more like the crowd at the US Open, than a group of artisans set to reconstruct this backyard. Quickly, we dispensed with ‘interesting topics’, such as; “I wasn’t given enough notice for this project!” and “There’s no way this will get done by Friday!”, and refocused around the homeowner’s story and the opportunity we each had to help them out.
Each participant would bring his certain product or talent to the group; Ron from R-N-L Enterprises, would provide site work, bed prep, brush removal and lawn establishment. Darren from Birch Mountain Earthworks would supply us with mulch, topsoil and playscape mulch. Bryan from Winterberry Gardens would bring in the plant material and plant it. My job was to design the overall layout of the site, including, location of their new shed and new playscape, size and shape of the new patio and sitting wall, and the layout of all the planting beds. I also would be scheduling each of the participants time on the site, keeping each abreast of the schedule, and coordinating with the film crew as to their arrival, so each could be filmed in action and interviewed for the final production. After getting a little understanding and relief from the executives at FOX 61, we set our schedule and were off.
R-N-L got to work immediately, clearing brush scraping sod from the beds, and excavating areas for the shed, the new playscape and the patio. They are an efficient crew, and were able to make quick work of theirs tasks, with the help of their Takeuchi Compact Track Loader (See picture at right). Carefree Small Buildings delivered the new shed, and with the precision of a surgeon the driver placed it exactly in the spot R-N-L had created for it. When commenting on how good the driver was, he replied to me, “oughta be, I been drivin’ this truck for 46 years”.
Next in were John from Nicolock Pavers, and his installer Gregorio. Jamie selected her paver style and color, Gregorio and I discussed the patio layout, and we set Monday as the day for installation. Unfortunately, rain and schedule conflicts, would put the rest of the project off until the next week, but come that Monday morning, the place would come alive with activity.
In part III, tomorrow, we’ll do our best to stay out of everyone’s way, as the jobsite becomes a flurry of activity, including some emergency tree work, the patio installation, plantings and some very cool extras.
See you in the Garden,
Scott
The FOX 61 Ultimate Backyard Makeover is scheduled to run on June 27th at 12:30 pm. Please tune in!
A deserving Family and 15 Minutes for Blue Heron
Each one of us, or so we were told by Andy Warhol, will be famous for fifteen minutes. And so, comes the time for Blue Heron Landscape Design. While pumping gas one day, I returned a call to a Ron, a Landscape Contractor friend of mine, who had left a message for me regarding a “Backyard Makeover” show the local Fox affiliate was preparing. They were looking for a Landscape Designer to head up the project, and would I be interested in being that person. He explained they need someone to look at the winner’s yard and come up with a plan for all the goodies that had been donated by the other participants, and oversee the construction and delivery of the “Ultimate Backyard”. This was right up my alley, so with eye towards exposure for the company, and the chance to help out a deserving candidate, I jumped in and set my alarm for fifteen minutes.
Several weeks later, I had heard that a winner had been chosen, and that the project was ready to commence. So I waited for a call….. and I waited for a call….. and, on Monday June 8th, while pumping gas at that same station (que the eerie music) my phone rang. “Hi Scott its Bruce from Fox 61, are you ready for your fifteen minutes?” The plan was for me to meet the homeowner and then be interviewed on camera by the producer, and….could I be there in three hours? and they would like the project finished by Friday (yes that same week!) so production could air the final product the following Saturday? The fast paced reality of TV had shed its light on Blue Heron, and I was not amused.
WTIC Fox 61 was looking for a deserving family within its broadcasting area, that had a problem backyard, and story to go with it. Almost one hundred submitted applications, which were narrowed down to the three most worthy. These three were presented on Fox 61’s website and a winner was chosen. Here is the winning entry:
I would love to win this contest for my husband and my daughter. We bought our home several years ago seeing much potential in the run down, unkempt back yard. Little did we know then that I would be diagnosed with MS a year later and become unable to work or help much with the physical activity it would take to transform the gardens and lawn. In December, we had a baby who was born with a congenital heart defect and required surgery just last month. Now that she’s home and recovering faster than anyone could imagine, my husband has been very intent on creating a play space for her in our backyard. I think he envisions many things for our daughter, but a safe deck (our stairs are being propped up with kitty litter buckets!) and grass would be the simplest luxuries! We see so many possibilities when we look out our windows – we simply lack the time, energy, and funds to realize our dream backyard.
Later that day, after having rearranged a considerably busy schedule, I met with the winners and the film crew, and we were off and running. The homeowners Matt and Jamie, along with their daughter Adeline, couldn’t have been nicer, and were very appreciative of what was about to happen to their yard.
Tomorrow, we’ll look in on the contractor meeting, See what each is donating, and encounter several obstacles in the project. Until then……
See you in the Garden,
Scott
The FOX 61 Ultimate Backyard Makeover is scheduled to run on June 27th at 12:30 pm. Please tune in!
