A Conversation in the Garden with Alma Hecht
(Page 2 of 4)
May/June 2008
By Jennifer Jewell
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NH: Once your intentions and the design are more or less determined, how do you prepare a site for planting?
Hecht: I rarely amend the soil unless it’s terribly depleted or compacted from construction. My approach is to choose what will thrive in the given conditions—the wind, the somewhat anaerobic but nutrient-rich qualities in clay, or the sharp drainage of sand. I prefer using small plants; they establish more quickly and readily.
NH: What advice would you give to someone starting a garden or a
garden renovation?
Hecht: Ask yourself what you want to do with the space. What gardens have you seen that you like? Go to a local arboretum to see how the space is arranged. Visit your local nursery to see what appeals. Walk around your neighborhood. Look at paths, gates, fences, walls, materials and the plants that are healthy. Start collecting materials. The next time it rains, go stand outside and see how the runoff moves; observe the drainage. Transform a runoff area into a streambed with a rain garden at the foot. Take lots of photographs. Get ideas from magazines. Clip out articles and photos.
Remember to be realistic—don’t fight nature. Get dirty. Keep your nose to the ground.
Elemental Fun
Hecht designed this Oakland garden for a chemistry doctoral candidate and an ecological restorationist. A pergola, which will eventually be laced with grapes and roses, shades the small deck outside the kitchen’s sliding doors. Hecht used "urbanite"—pieces of broken concrete found on the property—to expand the deck, build dry-stacked vegetable beds and make a bench for the new front garden. She replaced a rotting wooden fence with black chain link, which disappears beneath the evergreen clematis, passion fruit, Lady Banks rose and native grapevines that transform the space into a private green island. Native yarrows, reed grasses, silktassel trees, toyons, Pacific Coast hybrid irises, checkerblooms, hummingbird sages and de la Mina verbenas thrive here.