Backyard Paradises by Ann Johnson Design
22 September 2011
“Priceless”
“For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been’.”
John Greenleaf Whittier
It’s mid-September as I write these lines, safely past the Labor Day traditional end of summer, time to put away the barbecues and so forth, a time made all the sadder this year for me because of the incredible amount of work I did in a most elaborate Backyard Paradise. When, as it sometimes is, it is standing tall, I have no trouble justifying using those words to describe it, but, as is most often the case, I am in the throes of yet another extended year of maintenance and repairs, well, as the Drifters once sang, “the glitter rubs right off, and you’re nowhere.” Unless, of course, we wish to define up to your ears in paint and sawdust as somewhere!
I bring that up, though, because the one genuine regret I have about that most elaborate yard is that most elaborate yard. Not because it is elaborate, but because it consumed an inordinate portion of my life to build it, and because I lacked the experience to know better than to use the untreated redwood that is such a feature in my own yard, or as the termites think of it, the main menu item! Sometimes the best thing we can do is pay a little more and avail ourselves of those who know all the ins and outs of what one most needs to do to not only create and build a Backyard Paradise, but to build it in such a way that the dreary, yearly upkeep that is such a constant in my own life is eliminated.
Recently, though, I came across the very type of company I most wish I had commissioned for my own yard, although their business is actually on the other side of the continent. But for those who are able to do business with them, well, why wouldn’t you want to? Ann Johnson Design is actually located in the state of Georgia, and is surely one of the reasons that state is so achingly beautiful in the early spring. Although, from my perspective, looking at yards like these on their website, which clearly require, at most, an absolute minimum of maintenance, makes them incredibly gorgeous.
Really, though, that’s the whole idea behind hiring experts to take care of such things. Dealing with a company like Ann Johnson Design means that one gets the benefit of 14 years of performance, high-quality work, and experience, and it’s the last factor that is most telling. I have a high-maintenance yard situated in an area that doesn’t drain well, in part because of the soil, in larger part because of my own lack of knowledge of how to properly drain it. Ann Johnson Design understands that “Landscape architecture can be a work of art, but it must have practicality behind it.”
That’s the thing, though. Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know, which is why we should pay a bit more for experts like the folks at Ann Johnson Design. I suppose we’re all guilty of forgetting at times that a body of knowledge in a certain field is not the same thing as universal knowledge, although I’ve certainly gotten a most thorough education on that very point. Knowing how to fit a drawer is incredibly satisfying, but had I known not to use termite food untreated redwood in a Backyard Paradise… man, that’s priceless!
Joseph
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