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.