A lifetime garden

For Lois Nottage of Kaneohe, home is where you’ve created a garden and raised a family.

The landscape designer has been doing just that for nearly six decades, transforming her property into an oasis of coconut trees, palms, ferns, bromeliads and lush, green lawns. All three of her daughters held their wedding ceremonies in her backyard on Kaneohe Bay, the nuptials framed by three curved coconut trees Nottage planted.

She placed them in the yard as young saplings and grew two others from coconuts. The secret, she says, is to bury a fish in the potting hole. It’s part local myth, part good fertilizer, Nottage said.

Over the years, those trees grew taller and matured along with her three daughters and a son. Now some of her grandchildren — she has eight — are marrying at the same site.

"My roots are here," said Nottage, pointing to the coconut trees.

The award-winning gardener put in every plant and tree on the property herself. It was hard work, considering she had to condition the clay soil and clear invasive haole koa before transforming the yard into her vision of a Hawaiian garden by the sea.

Nottage, who declined to say how old she is, saying simply that she is a "senior citizen," is a self-taught landscaper who learned most of what she knows from her mother. She’s run Garden Consultants, a landscape design business, for 30 years.

For most of those years, she ran it with her late friend and business partner Jean Thomas, but now works collaboratively with Stan Miranda of Turf & Shrub Care Hawaii Inc.

The backyard, an outdoor living room with a lawn that overlooks the bay, is full of memories. Besides the weddings, it’s been a place for family gatherings, parties and school reunions.

She’s chosen low-maintenance plants and perennials, which over time have proved to do well in the climate. For the lawn she prefers centipede grass.

"I don’t use flowers for color," she said. "I use foliage."

There are personal, whimsical touches everywhere, from ceramic figurines she made to an old cast-iron bench that became the base for overflowing bromeliads.

A large, round concrete container arrangement is also her creation. It holds a yellow tabebuia tree surrounded by glass fishing floats and succulents of various textures.

Near the front door a hollow ceramic owl she made hangs from an ornamental tree branch and recently became a nest for a shama thrush and her three chicks, Nottage said. The male stayed close by to watch over his brood.

Listening to the birds sing and call to one another was a gift from the garden, said Nottage.

The trees on the property were chosen for their fragrance and fruit. Her husband Peter’s favorite is an allspice tree, which gives off scents of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg when its leaves are crushed.

She loves the large lychee tree out front that provided years of fruit. Red-centered bromeliads planted next to the tree climbed up its trunk and now nestle in its branches.

A walkway next to the tree leads to a guest cottage where her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren stay when they come to visit.

A home garden would not be complete without herbs and vegetables for the kitchen, so Nottage has them mostly in pots and containers. She grows the usual quartet of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, along with lemongrass, Manoa lettuce, basil, mint, parsley, chives, arugula and red chard.

For other gardeners, Nottage has simple advice.

"Plants need to be fed." Just like children, they need nourishment, coaxing and some time to set down roots where they will thrive. If they don’t do well in one area, she recommends moving them around until they find the right home.

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