Leech Street Residence and Fence and Gardens

My apple trees will
never get across
And eat the cones
under his pines,
I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.

Robert Frost 1874–1963
American poet
(From a 17th Century Proverb)

Residence and gardens

Goodrich Gardens |
Leech Gardens |
Moon viewing pavilion |
Pavillion debut|
Garaage/Gardenhouse |
House history |
North High Bridge Park Sculpture Garden

Leech home |

Robie Duplex |

The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration
of the five senses.

Hanna Rion 1875—1924,
English author

Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes.

Anonymous

Gardens are a form of autobiography.

Sydney Eddison,
Horticulture magazine,
August/September 1993

In the garden there are no hours--only seasons

Joe Landsberger

The (sculpture) gardens of Goodrich Avenue and Leech Street,
as well as the North High Bridge Park

Goodrich Gardens | Leech Gardens | Garden house | North High Bridge Park | 2017 WENGT

Leech Street Garden

The memorial space (before)

August 2009
My neighbor of 30 years passed in and I promised her I would place her ashes, and those of her several cats, near her favorite shrub rose.

So I bought her house in 2010, cut down trees in the lot, brought in boulders, and created her new resting space. Hope you like it Lorraine!

La Maison Jaune (the Yellow House) has newly refinished floors, scrubbed walls, and coats of paint. And also a new landscaping job in its south lot. What fun!

January 2013
At the beginning of the year I decided to design, build and install a fence in its adjoining lot, at the intersection of Goodrich Avenue and Leech Street.

Japanese covered gate designs
March: The ornamental panels at right were a true find: they were from my neighborhood's Schmidt Brewery (originally the Cave Brewery 1855) . It's complex was being redeveloped and the panels ended up at a salvage yard.

The design at left included concepts I sent to Phil Holtegaard Timber Framing in Lanesboro via email. Phil took up my challenge of creating a munamon (棟門), a traditional Japanese gabled-roofed garden gate, from my inspiration and series of images.

After we worked through his finished design, he applied his woodworking skills to the details, precision and artistry necessary to a timber frame/mortised project, which in turn was to become a source of pride throughout the neighborhood.”

Schmidt Brewery, Saint Paul, Fence Panels

I bought the 21 panels and returned them to our neighborhood.

Phil Holtegaard, Lanesboro, Minnesota

Summer:
Phil looking over the post and beam frame

transporting the gate frame

September: It took two trips to Lanesboro to transport the gate in my Explorer...

Pavers

October: My neighbor had surplus pavers.
Evenings I would chip the cement away to salvage them.

October: The panels in the lot with pavers in the background

October: The roof is at back, the holes are dug, and the frame is ready for raising. The temporary cross boards fix the exact width for the roof installation--tenons must meet mortises--no margin for error!

October: Here the gate frame is raised and I measure, measure, measure!

November: No, this is not me carrying the iron panel...

November: The paver neighbor also had work done on his steps--and needed to dispose of 6-foot by 14-inch by 7 inch limestone which I gladly embraced--even though they weighed up to 300 pounds each. I discovered levers, fulcrums, etc. in moving and placing about a dozen!

The crew: Nate Mauer, Julio Castaneda and JC Fence

November: It was a struggle to find a crew to install the fence and gate since it was a custom job and most commercial outfits won't do such work. But Nate Mauer, Julio Castaneda and the crew at JC Fence did the job: beautifully!

Christmas 2013