26 August 8 • 2019
jn
A
round 2001, Bruce Hoffman
decided he was sick and tired
of seeing messy grounds
surrounding his lovely Bloomfield
Hills home, where he and his wife,
Shelly, had lived since 1996.
“It just hit me one day,” Hoffman
says. “This is ugly, and I don’
t want
to look at this anymore. It was
schmutz everywhere.”
His experience was somewhat
limited. His grandparents had a little
strawberry patch in their yard in
Detroit near Mumford High School,
where Hoffman would pick berries.
“My mom had a tiny plot — a
couple of corn plants, tomato
plants,” he says. “I’
ve always been
interested in gardening. I like
watching things grow.”
So, he brought in 20 yards of dirt
and wood chips and got to work
cleaning out grounds covered 100
percent with weeds and brush,
beginning with the side of the house
along the driveway.
Ultimately, he tamed and nurtured
his 5,000 square feet of grounds into
five separate gardens — including
the front and sides of the house and
the walk-under to the basement
at home/cover
arts&life
LYNNE KONSTANTIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
DERRICK MARTINEZ PHOTOGRAPHER
from
Nothing
Beauty
Beauty
TOP TO BOTTOM: “A fire pit is in the
middle of the gardens,” Bruce Hoffman
says. “We make a fire, bring out a bottle
of wine. We were toying with the idea
of getting a place Up North. Our friends
said, ‘
Why? Your place is like a vaca-
tion.’
” Hostas are to the left, then the
middle is layered with purple astilbes
and white Shasta daisies; A juicy purple
calla lily and long-stem roses. “Calla
lilies are super expensive — they’
re
not a perennial in Michigan,” Hoffman
says. “Instead of buying new ones each
year, I dig up the rhizomes, along with
my dahlia tubers, store them in a paper
bag in the cellar in my basement over
the winter and replant in the spring.”; A
pair of hybrid tea roses, also known as
long-stem roses.