Les Brake - The Heart of a Gardener

On our way from the banana belt of Wasilla to Willow, a full zone colder, we saw Mt. McKinley.  No big deal, people drive on this road every day.   Well it is a big deal, the third tallest mountain on the planet and the tallest in North America.  We're a couple of hundred miles from the mountain here.

 

My niece, Alison, once went along with her neighbors,  friends, and renowned photographers  Fred and Randi Hirschman on a visit to photograph a local garden.  Alison raved about the place and before my recent visit, she called the gardener and asked if we could come and visit.  Little did I know that I was about to see the exceptional garden of such a well known and delightful gardener. Alison had mentioned Les Brake's name but for some reason, it didn't register in my memory that this was the Les Brake whose garden has been featured in magazines including Horticulture Magazine, Sunset, Country Gardens, Gardens Illustrated, Better Homes and Gardens and the Home and Garden TV channel, and is considered among the state's premier horticultural attractions.  I had even read his essay, "Annual Features" in the 2000 Heronswood Nursery catalog.  (Page 167 for those of you who still have the catalog.)   I was prepared to see a nice garden; I was not prepared for the wonders in store beyond this sign.

Les Brake moved to Willow, Alaska (Zone 2!) from Odessa, Texas in 1984.  Equal parts southern gentleman, Alaska pioneer, and rabid gardener/plantsman, Les is a warm, welcoming, funny, and knowledgeable host.

Photograph courtesy of "The Frontiersman" and used with their permission.

 

 Jerry Conrad, Les' partner makes the amazing twig furniture and structures you'll see throughout the garden.  Notice the detail on the table. Yum!

 

 

So, what grows in USDA zone two you may be asking yourself.  Well, quite a bit actually!  You knew that more images of meconopsis were coming didn't you!  I was particularly fond of the combination here of  Meconopsis (either grandis, betonicifolia, or x sheldonii) with the buttery flowers of Trollius × cultorum 'Cheddar'

 

Les credits his success with the clan of blue poppies to Willow's cool nights and to copious amounts of compost.  He told a story about visiting a famous Scottish garden where he was asked if there was anything he'd like to take home to his garden.  When he said he'd like a piece of their meconopsis, the gardener reached into the soil with his bare hands and separated a piece of the plant.  This experience of such friable soil convinced Les of the importance of compost.  The adage, to make a beautiful garden, create beautiful soil is certainly apt.

 

 

A view of the lawn through the beds closest to the house.

Venturing further.

Les had been keeping a wood fire going for 19 days as there had been a lot of moose around lately and he said that the smoke and crackling sound of the fire are a deterrent to these "pigs on stilts" that had been eating his ferns (unusual food choice for them.)

Lilacs still blooming at the back of the guest cabin where garden luminaries, Ann Lovejoy, Dan Hinkley, Helen Dillon, Bill Thomas (director at Chanticleer), Tom Fischer (executive editor at Timber), Lauren Springer Ogden and Scott Ogden, Baldassare Mineo (former owner of Siskiyou Plant Nursery), and Steve Lorton (Northwest editor at Sunset for 25 years) have all stayed.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking over at the back of the house.

 Notice that the path to the pond is paved with the bark that Jerry peels from the twigs with which he makes his furniture.  That's a LOT of work!  This is one answer to the question, "What do you do here in the winter?"

It's trendy to have a water feature in one's outdoor living space these days.  Here's how it's done in Alaska!

Wouldn't you love to have this in your garden?  

Another view of the back of the house, a  swath of  lawn flanked by generous mixed borders.  Notice the roof on the porch.  I was invited out there to take pictures that you'll see later.

 Because of the shadows, it's difficult to see how deep and especially how long this border is!

After the lawn, paths lead through a wonderland of horticultural delights!

 

Jerry and Les met us at the front of the house and Les asked us to go and explore the garden on our own before he joined us.  He mentioned that people who garden in "that zone that rhymes with heaven" were a little spoiled.  I told him that I garden in a zone that rhymes with hate and I'm even more spoiled!   He said that there was one plant in his garden that he thought would not be familiar to a gardener from the Pacific Northwest and sent me searching. 

 

 Was it a test?  The only plant with which I was unfamiliar was Nomocharis pardanthina, a cool lily family member.  In looking at the interweb, I found that Far Reaches Farm  has it for sale and found this article on the Pacific Bulb Society's website.

What a beauty!  Love it!

 

If I were a better blogger, I'd present the garden in a much more orderly fashion but even now, I'm still so excited by what I saw that I'm jumping from one area to another!  Past the garden you'll see in a minute is this incredible moss garden.

 

 

We in the northwest are  lucky to be able to grow moss so well!  There are botanical gardens in other parts of the country that  would love to have such a  glorious moss carpet!

 Throughout the garden there are places to sit and enjoy the beauty.  However, like most gardeners, I don't think that Les spends much time sitting in his garden.

Les opens his garden annually for the Wasilla Garden Tour and has opened it at other times to raise funds for a variety of worthy causes.

 

People are sometimes puzzled to hear that, in addition to moose, rabbits can damage the branches of deciduous trees.  No, it's not flying bunnies like in the Monty Python movie.  When the snow is so deep that it's surface is level with the branches, they make yummy bunny food!

 Splendiforous use of foliage color contrast to punctuate this part of the garden. 

Here's the euphorbia responsible for that!

The Thalictrum were mostly  still budded but here's a brave soul that was open.  Imagine the garden with a pink and white haze of these blooming over it.  Delicious!

We weren't the only ones enjoying the garden!

Les explains that it's not like a Disney movie around here.  They've seen bear eating baby moose and eagles tearing apart sitting ducks. Nature is what it is.  While we were here all seemed peaceful.

Walking not far from the house in the opposite direction that we'd just been.

 

From the roof, one gets a nice perspective.  I'm not a fan of heights but when Les invites one to his roof, he goes!

 Notice the "water feature" in the background.

I asked Les if he was ever tempted to move to a more temperate climate.  He said  that his mother taught him that a gardener will make a garden wherever he finds himself.  It is not the geographical conditions but the condition of the heart that inspires one to garden.

Certainly, here resides the heart of a gardener!

While there is indoor plumbing, I had to see the interior of the outhouse

the walls of which are covered with Jerry's intricate twig work!  I didn't have my cell phone with me and my camrea's zoom lens couldn't take in  the whole interior.  You get the idea, like the garden, this was faboo!

 

 

So, what does Les do in the winter to keep himself out of trouble?   Well, he makes and covers his garden with these ice luminaries and holds another open during the Christmas season.  For many this has become a holiday tradition.

 Photo by Les Brake and used with his permission.

 Read an interview about how to do it here.

Photo by Les Brake and used with his permission.

 

 What a joy to see this garden and to make a new gardening friend!  Thanks again Les and Jerry for sharing your garden with us!

P.S. Les just sent these pictures of the garden in peak bloom.

Zone 2 friends, zone 2.