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FeedPond Overfloweth
A plan for a small backyard enhancement evolves into a dramatic face-lift
By Andrea Grazzini Walstrom
Photo by John Abernathy
Diane Bishop leads a compact and predictable life: daily walks with the same friend, working at her husband’s development firm just down the street, spending time with family members who live nearby, puttering around in her gardens, and—for excitement—occasionally taking trips with a group of neighbors that has traveled together for years. “I don’t like change,” she says. Not so for her husband. “Wayne is creative and adventurous. He thrives in the chaos of a new project.”
A decade ago, after years of heading the Minneapolis architectural firm Walsh Bishop, which designed commercial buildings such as Wilson Learning and Northwest Airlines corporate offices, Wayne embarked on a globetrotting career as an international real estate developer. Jetting off to places like China and Bulgaria, he served as the visionary behind ambitious developments, including his latest venture: a real estate project that will be the largest in El Salvador.
In his spare time, Wayne channels his formidable energy into a never-ending renovation of his own home—despite the reservations of his stability-loving wife. When Wayne proposed installing a pond in the couple’s backyard in the spring of 2005, Diane went along with the idea with the acceptance, and wariness, that 41 years of marriage fosters. “I told myself, ‘I’m not going to look in the backyard,’” for the duration of what she knew would be an enormous project, in spite of Wayne’s insistent understatements.
Photo by John Abernathy.
As he describes the progression of the project, the usually subdued Wayne gets more animated by the moment. “It started as a commitment to improve the house that we will retire in,” he says, earnestly describing his intention to build a pond that would give their backyard, initially “one big forestry mess,” a bit of landscaping interest. As he started developing plans, Wayne quickly realized that a retaining wall was long overdue—it would both improve the view and prevent runoff into Lake Alimagnet, on which the property sits.
After hefty stands of buckthorn were cleared away, half a dozen large oak trees and a lovely stand of birch emerged. Looking up, Wayne saw the possibilities—the architect envisioned an irresistible new space. “The under canopy of the trees, in effect, created an outdoor room,” he says. Inspired, Wayne created a model of the existing topography and trees on the home’s lot. He added details as ideas came to him, including scale models of the hundreds of traprock boulders—each painstakingly measured, marked, and cataloged—that would be used in the rapidly expanding design.
Wayne discovered the traprock at a closed-off quarry in Osceola, Wisconsin. The normally bland stone had bathed for years in soil minerals that left stunning hues of maroons and oranges—Wayne was smitten. Soon, Bobcats were swarming the yard, positioning and re-positioning the massive boulders under Wayne’s vigilant supervision. A nearby neighbor’s front yard was destroyed, as it was the only access point to the Bishop’s backyard. (Out of gratitude, the Bishops re-landscaped it to blend seamlessly with their yard.) Wayne also hand-placed each of the palm-sized Mexican river rocks into the bed of the waterfall stream, which spans a 12-foot drop from the back deck of the house to the lake. (Only to later remove them to give the water an appearance of depth.) He was in landscaper’s heaven.
Meanwhile, Diane concentrated on surviving the ordeal. “It was the summer from hell,” she says. “There was nothing fun about it at all.” Cement mixers were crushing her beloved primroses, and bulldozers plowed over delicate wildflowers. “It felt invasive to always have people there working,” she adds.
Despite her misgivings, Diane ventured into her new backyard upon the project’s completion in September 2005. “I had tears in my eyes,” she says. She looked over the cascading stream, anchored with walkways and casual stopping points throughout, and concluded, “It was worth it. It was just beautiful.” And to top it all off, most of her flowers came back by the following spring to frame the design with even more color.
Andrea Grazzini Walstrom is a Burnsville freelance writer.
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11 ISSUES (1 YEAR)
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