Take, for example, the time Jill was mounting an exhibit called “Got You Stumped” for the Boston Flower Show. They borrowed a 40-year-old, 24-inch chainsaw from a neighbor to carve up tree stumps left on the sides of roads by utility crews. The revered chainsaw broke during their watch.

“Bob dismantled it and found that a tiny part had snapped,” marvels Jill. “He just fabricated a replacement piece from a little scrap of metal and installed it.” Problem solved, neighbor happy. 

Being Mr. Fix-It is doable with small machines, but as Bob was to find out, it's not so easy with the Big Boys. Fifteen years ago a contractor friend parked a huge old excavator on the property for the weekend and told Bob to go ahead and use it. “In a morning I’d made a road!,” says an incredulous Bob. “I was excavating stumps with the flick of a finger. Sitting up there in the cab, I felt like a giant spider.”

The next time their friend left the excavator, Bob got into trouble. “I was way out in the middle of the woods,” he remembers. “It broke down, and it was very difficult for the truck carrying the repair equipment to reach it. I learned then not to borrow other people’s expensive equipment.”

Does Bob the builder now stick to backhoes, Zippers and the like, whose parts you don't have to be Superman to fix? Why, yes he does. ~ Lisa O'Brien

The tastes of Bedrock's owner Jill Nooney (a.k.a. "collector of plants"), range from the exotic (look for the Japanese emperor oak, Quercus dentata, that's near the Gothic Arbor) to the "garden variety." Take her use of vegetables and herbs, which are tucked liberally among her beds. But whereas parsley and beets are serviceable (and delicious) in my garden, at Bedrock, they turn into playful, graceful, or even exquisite color, texture, and form.

"I'm always on the lookout for foliage that makes a statement, holds up for a long time, and has interesting texture," Jill explains. She regularly uses upright, vase-shaped swiss chard and bushy, wavy-leaved kales in her borders.  'Bright Lights' swiss chard, Beta vulgaris 'Bright Lights,' adds spear-shaped leaves and splashes of the deepest hues, while 'Redbor' and 'Winterbor' kales (Brassica oleracea), offer contrastable texture and muted colors.  Though not in the ground this year, another favorite is 'Bull's blood' beet, Beta vulgaris 'Bull's Blood', for its stunning burgundy foliage. These cold-hardy veggies stick around at least through fall: Beets and swiss chard will stand the early, light frosts and even a mild freeze, and kale more so, its flavor sweetening and color intensifying with each successive chill. 

​When there's time, Jill cuts down these biennials during fall clean-up. When she doesn't get to it, the kale will volunteer clouds of delicate, yellow blooms the following spring, with both plants giving up seed for next year's crop soon thereafter. ​

Herbs are especially handy for adding textural interest, and when allowed to flower, they attract any number of beneficial insects. Look for the lush ground cover complementing the stand of pineapple lily, Eucomis 'Sparkling Burgundy', by the back door of the house: It's Petroselinum crispum, or curly parsley. It, too, stays green all season and withstands the cold. In the Garrish Garden you'll find a healthy stand of 'Bronze' fennel, Foeniculum vulgare, mixed with purple coneflower, Echinacea purpurea. You can harvest and cook with the fennel leaves all summer, and again with the seed come fall. (Learn more about using fennel in the kitchen  here.) Parsley and fennel have the added bonus of being host plants to the Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly, so be sure to plant enough to share.

This year, Jill is experimenting with dill, Anethum graveolens, and anise,  Pimpinella anisum. Or at least that is what she'd planned some quiet evening this winter past. By the time the large packet of anise arrived in the mail, she says, she'd "long forgotten what brain storm she'd had for its use." Inspiration came the other day in Conetown, when she scattered its seed in a large circle in the dirt with an entryway at one end.  Will it please the inveterate tinkerer? "We'll see," says Jill. ~Lisa O'Brien