T
he first thing that I do when I wake up in the morning is open the blinds. My garden is there, just 10 feet away,” says Colleen Brannan of Sunset Hills. “I can walk around the garden and see what grew and what changed. I can watch it grow from my bedroom window.”
When she speaks of her garden, she is talking about a multifaceted vertical landscape: One that is terraced and laced with hostas and azaleas, yellow and purple coneflowers and zinnias and toppled with native hibiscus. But more dramatically, it is a garden dominated by a towering waterfall that rushes and splashes its way from the top of the property to the patio just outside Colleen’s kitchen, screened porch and dining room.
It is a waterfall close to Colleen’s heart. “We bought the house in 2000,” she recounts. “We must have looked at 80 to 100 houses. Before we bought a house, I knew I wanted a waterfall. When we looked at this one, I knew I loved the house itself and then we walked to the back yard and I said to my husband, ‘this is where we can build our waterfall.'
Building a waterfall and properly terracing the vertical space proved not to be a gardening slam dunk. An existing wooden tie wall needed help. One contractor dropped off materials and never came back. Another contractor created a waterfall that leaked, requiring Colleen and her husband Bill to continually add water to keep it flowing.
The project was not a complete disaster. In fact it was pretty enough to be featured on several Lindbergh School District garden tours throughout the years. Still, it was not what Colleen and Bill had hoped for.
Plus, the extremely hilly, half-acre lot was only partly up a subdivision hillside, topped with invasive bush honeysuckle. They were able to tear out the honeysuckle, but each time a heavy rainstorm occurred, water coursed down the hill, deepening the trench that was an otherwise dry creekbed. For a solution to their topography dilemma, they turned to Chris Siewing of Nature’s Re-Creations.
Chris worked with this natural topography and created a more visually appealing 'faux' dry creek bed starting at the top of the property to catch the hillside runoff. Now during heavy rains, it becomes a rushing stream that directs the water into it's own waterfall and keeps the garden from flooding. He also enlarged and reworked the existing waterfall to make it a properly functional centerpiece of the landscape.
When it comes to the perennials and annuals that give life to the space, Colleen has learned through experience. “When we bought the property, I knew what a rose bush was and I knew what a spirea was, but I really didn’t know anything,” she says with a laugh. “I looked at books and I asked a lot of questions. I think it (gardening) is in my blood. Both of my grandmothers were gardeners. I propagated one grandmother’s rose bushes and I have them by the garage wall."
“For me it is all self-taught,” she says of the gardening project she notes has been 23 years in the making. “I try new things and if it doesn’t work, I try again.”
One thing she would definitely try again is adding compost to her garden beds before mulching. “I added compost last year and then mulch on top of that,” she recounts. This year everything just boomed.”
Throughout the years she has sought advice from professionals, including a garden architect who drew up plans she has followed fairly closely but much of the garden carries Colleen’s stamp. These days, the mother of four and grandmother of 15 calls on her grandkids for gardening help when she needs it. “I pay pretty well and they will help me with things like raking leaves and trimming hostas,” she says.
Much of the work, however, remains in her capable hands. “I never get tired of being out here,” she notes, as she surveys the hillside. ‘It’s my favorite thing to do.”
