THE market

WALTON’S GARDEN CENTER

Bettering Dallas by Organics

8652 Garland Road Dallas, TX 75218 214.321.2387 www.waltonsgarden.com

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Crowbar Cardio

Fitness Center

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That’s when Chase got involved. She convinced the owner to agree to a repair agreement and they developed a rapport.

Conditions inside the house can only be described as horrible. There was no running water and if there was any electricity, it was being stolen from another user. Her work

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Residential Mortgage Lender

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NMLS 1403412

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Urban Thrift

Thrift store

9850 Walnut Hill Ln. 214.341.1151

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Family & Individual Counseling

5310 Harvest Hill Rd Suite # 282 Dallas, TX 75230 214.629.6315 www.therapistdallastx.com can prove dangerous; several times she had to enter the home during compliance checks.

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“There was a young man that was so out of his mind that he didn’t even know we were there. He was shooting up between his toes. People were passed out on the floors and couches and pallets of debris,” she says.

Later the owner was arrested and sent to jail on a non-related drug charge. Chase made the effort to visit him in jail to continue their work. That touched the homeowner.

“That made a really big impact on him. He said, ‘I can see you guys actually care.’ At this point he was clean, so he could see a little more clearly. He started making plans with a neighbor down the street to sell the house.”

This is essentially how Chase sees her job. She injects some humanity and a different perspective into a process that can often feel devoid of either.

The Dallas Police could have gone in and arrested the homeowners and the people staying there, but that would not have fixed the root of the problem, Chase says.

“They can only arrest so many people, and there’s always going to be people sleeping in a flop house,” she explains.

When it comes to Belle Nora, Chase is still thinking outside the box, even though the problems there are vastly different than those of a flop house.

Chase says the job gives her hope. It’s not every neighborhood that cares enough to call about another person’s house, she says. And clearly, our neighborhood cares. She says she’s been getting calls about Belle Nora since her second day on the job.

“I think a lot of people in this community are really proud to live here and they have a real devotion to their neighborhood,” she says. “That’s one of the reasons I love to work here. There’s so much personal investment in their neighborhoods. We have no lack of love from our communities here.”

It’s Texas and it’s summer, so that means one of two things: You have crunchy, brown grass or a very high water bill. If the water company is getting rich off of you, then your to-do list includes mowing in 100-degree heat, along with fertilizing and reseeding. Neighbors Curtis Fesser and Brad Boling were in the same leaky boat until one day they asked themselves: Why have grass at all? They now enjoy a beautiful, shady, low-maintenance garden filled with art and personality. And their water bill? Cut in half.

After purchasing a home in the Alger Park/Ash Creek Neighborhood back in 1998, they hopped on the lawn work treadmill, spending hours to maintain the “perfect” blue/green fescue grass in the front yard and improve the “patchy” St. Augustine in the back. When it began to thin due to heat, they did everything they could, including watering at least twice daily. “It became a dreaded and arduous chore,” Fesser recalls.

Around that time, though, they started hearing more about water-wise landscaping (aka xeriscape), which conserves water by using native or drought-tolerant plants. “We began to watch garden shows, YouTube videos, [and read] magazines and newspaper gardening articles,” Fesser says.

They began simply with a maple tree in the front yard. When it acclimated and began to flourish, they were hooked. Bed by small bed, they replaced all grass with a shade garden, adding concrete pavers they poured themselves, as well as an arch, a bench, a lovely statue of the goddess Autumn, and a simple birdhouse which Fesser embellished.

Initially, they had no particular plan or vision. “It was trial and error,” remembers Boling. But they were determined, and maybe even, admittedly, a tad obsessed. “In the beginning,” Fesser says, “I worked in the garden nonstop. Literally. I would sometimes get up early in the morning and start a project and work until the a.m. hours. Got to love a handy spotlight and understanding neighbors who appreciate and understand a crazed gardener.”

The couple agrees that the garden took on a life of its own, “though infusing art was always in the back of my mind,” Fesser says. The couple loves art, and Fesser studied it in college and has exhibited in local shows. One of his creations hangs from a towering tree in the front yard. The cascading, Chihuly-inspired piece is a tribute to Boling’s mom and is crafted from snipped metal and a chandelier purchased at the Habitat ReStore.

Following a path from the front yard to the back, you’ll pass a bed of rosemary, sage, chocolate mint and echinacea before entering a whole other world. This narrow space leading to the backyard is their Meditative Space, a favorite for both men. Drought-tolerant ferns curl gently around a bench that faces a 6-foottall Ganesha, a Hindu deity known to remove obstacles. “My favorite spot,” Fesser says, “is the quiet space in front of the Ganesha sculpture. It’s removed from the rest of the garden and peacefully quiet.” It’s no wonder they have dubbed their garden, “Sacred Space.”

The backyard’s Balinese/Hindu theme began with the discovery of a giant Buddha head at the famed Jackalope shop in Santa Fe. They chuckle at the memory of carting the bulky piece back to Dallas and installing him right away despite a driving rainstorm. Giant murals painted by Fesser, featuring Buddha and Ganesha, have since joined the various sculptures.

They first attempted to plant in the notoriously difficult clay soil of this area but rapidly realized that raised beds would be a necessity. There was the learning curve of understanding and identifying just the right plants, such as salvia greggii, nandina, liriope and crape myrtle. And since the beginning, squirrels have constantly crashed the party.

Living on a creek has posed unique problems as well. Mosquitoes, of course, can be nightmarish. That lovely little pond stocked with Koi fish? It’s a sore subject after snakes slithered up from the creek to enjoy some sushi. And don’t even bring up those beavers who visit occasionally. Fesser sadly recalls his beloved lorapetalum shrub and its beautiful purple flowers. “I babied it for three years, and it was gone overnight because of a beaver,” he says, shaking his head.

Throughout the garden, which overlooks Ash Creek, you’ll find Jerusalem sage, Japanese aralia, hellebores, viburnums, agave and many a fern. A path winds through the backyard, leading to various seating areas, spaces Boling calls “vignettes.” Each has a bench, surrounded by plants in beds and in containers, as well as art pieces, most created by Fesser from recycled, repurposed materials.

Though the couple has had lifelong love affairs with gardening, creating their peaceful water-wise garden was not without its challenges.

Despite the cranky soil and nuisance critters, it’s all been well worth it, and they encourage others to consider water-wise gardening. Their most important advice: Research. Get to know your surroundings the first year; note sun/shade, dry/moist; do a soil test; drive around and note successful gardens similar to your conditions; be patient. And, they add, make your garden your own, a reflection of you.

To Boling, their sacred space is “a place to come home to after a hard day at work to relax.” Fesser agrees: “For me, it’s escapism, a place to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. It’s also a place to reflect and ignite creativity. There’s something about art and gardens that creates a certain harmony. It’s a beautiful pairing.”