Reviving a Garden

Eric Stromer: Hey I’m Eric Stromer. You know I love it when people ask us to help out their friends. Meet Grace and her friend Malaika Whittaker of Reseda California.

Malaika: I hope you guys please come in to help my friend, Grace. Her yard is pathetically dead.

Grace: I’ve got problems with my sprinklers, the wall. I’ve got problems with my lighting.

Eric Stromer: Malaika and Grace, this is the most amazing dried flowering plant garden I’ve ever seen. How do you do it? It’s like—growing right here actually not growing but dead.

Malaika: Yeah, this is like the eclectic valley of death. You know, we got some sparse greenery. This is just a tinge and everything else is just dead.

Eric Stromer: So tell me what is the history of this is.

Grace: Well actually it started out at one point in time very beautiful. It was green, it had pretty white flowers. It smelled so good.

Eric Stromer: So do you turn on the water?

Grace: Actually I have sprinklers.

Eric Stromer: You do have sprinklers. I see the grasses actually looking fantastic and then some of the trees are working out. But then every other plant is dead.

Grace: I’m assuming because it’s pretty dry. It’s not getting much water.

Eric Stromer: My suspicion is you have a broken sprinkler but we’ll get into that in a minute. The other thing too that I notice is that the center block wall is a great attempt. You did this?

Grace: I did.

Eric Stromer: A couple of pieces are rebars which are three quarter inch long pieces of steel. It’ll go in every so often through this wall. Fill this with cement, put a cap on the top. It will look fantastic.

Let’s go see about that broken sprinkler. Stand back ladies because anything can happen here. What I’m thinking is that you get yourself a broken head with someone.

That’s water actually. All right, so obviously, you’re getting a tremendous amount of moisture here in this area and then over here, it’s like a barren dessert. The bad news is you’re not getting water out because all the pressure is coming out right here and it’s not getting out to these valves in the yard, hence all the dead plants.

So we’ll fix this, we’ll fix those, that will happen there. This won’t happen here and all—will no longer be a millionaire with this sprouting little oil deal here, okay?

Grace: Great!

Eric Stromer: We’re going to take this yard from dead to drop dead gorgeous. First, we’ll do some serious weeding and fix the sprinkler system. Then, we’ll stabilize the garden wall and top it off with a row of handsome capstones. We’ll give the walls a splash of color and add some luscious new plant.

Grace: Oh my God! And on the third day, Eric said, “Let there be light.”

Eric Stromer: Thank you.

Grace: You know, that’s what I’m sort I’m saying. It’s gorgeous.

Eric Stromer: Pay attention to this wall. And this remember, there were no caps on the top. It’s now amended and fortified with cement and rebars so the structure has integrity. Also, all the sprinklers are brand new customized specifically for the garden bed. So you don’t have to overspray, we’re not wasting the water. Plus photovoltaic lighting, it is solar driven. It’s all sets now.

Grace: Oh my God! Beautiful, it works!

Eric Stromer: It works! For you it’s restored.

Grace: It’s finished and it’s beautiful and I love it.