Entertainment
What Does It Take to Learn to Garden? A Willingness to Do It Yourself.
“If somebody comes in and just does it for you, you miss out”: A beginner shares what his first garden taught him.
If there were a manual on making your first garden, Chapter 1 would presumably recommend that beginners identify a piece of level ground where they can carve out a not-too-big bed or build a raised one.
One scenario unlikely to be suggested for novices: a series of beds and borders scrambling up and over multiple levels of terrain.
But that was precisely the situation Matthew Axe and his husband faced when they bought their home in Sea Cliff, N.Y., six years ago and began making its landscape their own. “We’re constantly battling the sands of time,” said Mr. Axe, a former vice president and creative director for Martha Stewart Living who now works with beauty, home and food-brand clients.
He’s not just talking gravitational pull: The growing medium underfoot is a shallow layer of topsoil over a base of sand. As they soon discovered, if they’re not careful with their plant choices and planting techniques, “things end up down at the bottom of the garden.”
