Transformations: Bali

Transformations: Bali
Front Yard | Back Yard| Bali | Drycreek Valley | Woods behind the Back Fence

Bali (View Slideshow)
Bali is named after the Indonesian island famed for its terraced rice fields. It extends from the stone walkway alongside the drycreek, up to Inverness Road, out to the split rail fence that goes down the roadway serving as access road to the residences downhill from my property, and concluding with the end of the terraces, where they meet the large iris beds that extend to the Drycreek Terminus.

The woods in general were one big snarl of nasty vines (poison ivy, catvine, many others), pine trees, sweetgums, and a thicket of plants growing into and against one another, all on slopes that ran off all of the nutrients and water, leaving the soil depleted and poor. Over time, I removed all of the pines (several hundred, many immense) and sweetgums, and thinned out the other trees so each had a proper growing space. The remaining native trees in Bali are dogwoods, winged elms, maples, and oaks. When Thyme After Thyme went out of business, I bought tons of viburnums, native azaleas, banana shrubs, mock orange. and Japonica camellias, and created an understory. Over time I added beautybush, forsythia, beautyberry, and no doubt other things.

But the slopes remained a problem. In 2018-2019, I undertook a major project of terracing the entire slope in relation to where existing plants were situated. That 12-month project transformed the area, and included the installation of new paths and seating areas. It now retains water and soil nutrients, and has benefitted from the import of a lot of leaves and other tree rubble from Inverness Rd. and bags of leaves I nabbed from curbs around town. In installed new beds with transplants of things either doing poorly elsewhere, or things (dwarf nandinas, irises, lamb's ear, ornamental grasses, dwarf gardenias, and other groundcovers. etc.) divided from existing plants on the lot.

The part of Bali closest to the house was planted with Bermuda grass for a relatively narrow stretch that extended all the way to the gate at what eventually became the side terrace. There were no steps or walkway, just grass. At the edge of the grass, the grade dropped and sloped into the woods, which are populated with pines, oaks, maples, tulip poplars, and other hardwoods, plus a whole lot of native white dogwoods. Originally these were all covered in muscadine grape vines, poison ivy vines, catvines, honeysuckle vines, and other vines that were strangling them. There were also abundant sweetgum trees that I eventually removed given their propensity for reseeding prolifically and smothering all other life forms not already consumed by vines. Harvey helped to improve the grade of this area with dirt excavated from the installation of the backyard brick paths, and I hit the area hard with a herbicide to get rid of the unwelcome vines, etc. I then began to plant the area with trees and shrubs from various sources: transplants (e.g., the crape myrtle, vitex, a pair of gingkos, artemisia), gifts (e.g., barberry that Harvey had removed from another job), and most of all bargains from the Charmar out-of-business sale, which provided most of what I ended up installing: forsythia, Forest Pansy redbud, Kousa dogwoods, Eastern redbuds, and purple beauty berry. Along the driveway are a Nectarine Sweet Surprise, a Freedom Pear tree, mock orange, bridal wreath spirea, and an Oriental limelight artemisia groundcover. The stone steps that provide the border are lined on each side with lamb's ear, with additional plantings in this area including winter jasmine and a Leonard Messel Magnolia.

It became part of Bali in 2018-2019 when I began terracing the slopes in the woods. It now includes a series of terraces that retain the rainwater, instead of serving as a very steep and unproductive slope that was difficult to walk or plant. One of these terraces was converted to a pathway that provides direct access to the Sky Patio.

Inverness Parkway (View Slideshow)
Bali extends all the way to Inverness Road along the top. To help preven soil erosion, I tried to level the shoulder of the road and plant it with things that would knit the soil together. The show begins with daffodils of dozens of varieties that start blooming in late January and run through April. As the daffodil foliage fades, a new layer of foliage comes in, particularly black and blue sage. I also included a number of ornamental grass varieties to stabilize the soil and keep it in place, and added bridal wreath spirea that had been around the mailbox but blocked vision of oncoming traffic (such that it is on this quiet street). This border now holds up pretty well, with a steep dropoff into the terraces at the next level of altitude.

Sky Patio Terraces (View Slideshow)
The Sky Patio Terrace is named after a tiny patio off the top floor of Leonard Hall, where I lived when a student at Kenyon College. This patio provides the best panorama of the whole woods, both in terms of elevation and vista, following my clearing of some trees that were too close together for healthy growth and that blocked the view. The Sky Patio is part of a series of terraces built in 2018-2019 to replace the original slope and ravines, each built at the level of the shrub crowns that I'd initially planted in the slope, hoping for a natural effect. That approach produced very poor soil, given the steepness of the slope and runoff of water and nutrients. The terracing has altered the landscape both visually and functionally. The functional part includes a series of new paths that provide access to areas once remote, and opportunities for new seating areas like the Sky Patio. The Sky Patio Terraces are circumscribed by what were formerly two ravines that channeled water from the road to the valley. I filled them in as terraces and they now hold water, rather than draining it.

High Patio Terraces (View Slideshow)
The High Patio is a small seating area at a high elevation in Bali, though not quite as high as the Sky Patio, which is at a higher point along Inverness Road. It accommodates a bench but little more. It is circumscribed by the former ravine that is now a bridge (also the border of the Sky Patio Terraces) and the Split-Rail Fence Terraces along the border of my lot.

Jughandle Patio Terraces (View Slideshow)
This area was installed in 2010 by Harvey Chandler in the shape of a jughandle uphill from the pathway that provides the border for the Japanese Garden. The patio includes a bermed area surrounded by a path, ergo its jughandle appearance. The berm already had a native maple tree, and I added a rhododendron and a Nuresagi Japanese maple. The Terraces extend back to the pathways that demarcate this area from the Pocket Patio and Sky Patio. It includes a patch of Lenten Rose surrounding an Asian panel.

Woods Staircases (View Slideshow)
The Woods Staircases were installed in 2019. I'd always wanted to put in stairs because the slope could be very slippery when wet, plus the slopes always eroded in heavy rains and ended up with deep ruts that made footing uncertain. Judy showed me a technique of using treated wood (4x6) in 3 or 4 foot segments that are held in place by rebar (2-3 feet long) that I sledgehammer into the ground, usually 3 rebars per stair. I installed a staircase at each point in the woods walkways where the slope produced problems in footing, about 100 or so individual stairs in all.

For variety, I installed a separate set of stone walkways connecting the Sky Patio with the walkways below, fortifying them with smaller stone bases to keep them from slipping from their moorings.

Split-Rail Fence Terraces (View Slideshow)
This area extends along the split-rail fence that borders the property along the access road to my neighbors' driveways. On the high end it abuts the Pocket Patio Terraces, on the bottom it borders the Irises at the top of the Dry Creek Terminus, and on the final side it borders the pathway running parallel to the fence. It was originally somewhat of a wild frontier; it's now terraced with a variety of shrubs, including loropetalums, witch hazel trees transplanted from the backyard, beauty bush, and other rescued plants from elsewhere on the lot.