In his spare time on some weekends, Captain OCD works at what used to be a golf course but is now beautiful gardens. Before the golf course, it was a dairy farm. He could not be having more fun. These 90+ acres are about one-third wetlands and the property is not visible from a main highway or any other regularly traveled street, although it just on the other side of thin strip of big trees between the highway and the property. Few people know that this beautiful oasis exists. It is one guy’s vision and hard work (the owner of the property), and some of Captain OCD’s work and ideas. It will always be a work in progress, but it’s available now for weddings and special events.
General grounds in no particular order, up above the valley bottom:
It’s pine-candling season, but Captain OCD’s full time job leaves little time for this:
Looking down toward the valley bottom:
Down at the valley bottom. These poplar trees divided the fairways.
Golden dawn redwood:
Pretty substantial tree to transplant:
Bald cypress:
River birch:
From the valley bottom, looking back up toward the main gardens. That row of trees and bushes line a stream that divides the property:
This large pond/small lake at the bottom of the valley is completely hidden by brush. The story is that it’s the result of the dairy owners digging and selling peat.
Beavers!
Looks like a lot of work to finally arrive at the realization that he’s not getting paid enough to chew through this entire tree:
Those who employ corrugated plastic drain pipe as beaver protection: 0; Beavers 1:
Timber bamboo, about 40 feet tall. Looks like I couldn’t be bothered to straighten this photo I took while hanging out the side of a swift-moving, extremely bouncy Kubota RTV, which I find much more fun than a bunch of bushes :
Captain OCD is building a series of interconnecting ponds down near the bottom of the valley. He starts waving his arms and describing a beautiful scene as if everyone else can envision what he sees. There are no drawings: the entire plan is inside his head because the dirt and the rocks tell him what to do as he builds the projects. The inside of his head must be beautiful. I’ve learned to trust his vision because I’ve seen what he can do. And because all I see is dirt:
But a few of the thousands of golf balls they’ve discovered throughout the property:
He’s transplanted all of these trees from elsewhere on the property. Good thing he knows how to operate an excavator:
This space looking at the new ponds will be a level grassy area for another wedding location on the site:
Not an inspired equipment pose, and I don’t mean the Google Images kind of equipment posing you just got distracted by:
Back up toward the old clubhouse, where most of the weddings take place. Looking down on the new pond area:
Main wedding area:
Silberlocke Korean fir:
It’s also a working nursery. Almost all of the plants, especially the Japanese maples, are propagated on site. There are thousands in this old green house alone, and thousands more in boxes and pots on site.
This is just part of the site. Missing here are more than 10,000 trees including Japanese maples, all manner of rare and unusual conifers, and fruit trees and bushes in various stages of growth and for sale; pomegranate, persimmon, Asian pear, and apple groves; blueberries, Korean garlic, kiwi; palm trees, and assorted vegetables and other fruits. And almost no one knows it’s here.
