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WBM june 2011
Golfers playing a round on
the Nicklaus Marsh course
hearing the wild bird call
might think their errant slice may have
roused a nest of geese, or ducks, or
swan, but no. This is Chuck Root’s
way of signaling his mate Karen, lost
to him in the landscape that surrounds
their home, a lush garden that Karen
has handpicked and planted since the
couple chose this lot in 1996.
Chuck explains the bird call is used
by everyone in the family to summon
respective members of the flock.
Michael Moorefield had originally
designed the house to be set back
into the heavily treed lot. “Along
came Hurricane Fran,” Chuck says.
“The hurricanes send up little twisters.
They’re very short-lived but very
intense. They took out 23 big trees on
this lot.”
In a few minutes, Karen appears in
a wide-brimmed mesh Aussie sun hat,
clippers in gloved hand, cell phone
on hip holster. “This is the thirteenth
summer for us in this garden,” Chuck
says. “When we started it was almost
empty,” and then Chuck disappears
down a path and into the adjacent
marsh brush that borders Howe
Creek, leaving Karen to think back
to the garden’s beginnings. She says
one man, Bill Carter, a local grader,
took what she had envisioned, and
with his grader created intersected
paths through layers that eventually
led downhill to the lake banks. “He is
just a genius with that piece of equipment,”
she says.
The house, a contemporary beige
brick structure with sheer elevations
surrounded by reflection pools and
fountains, was sited far enough back
on the lot to add an envelope of privacy
along the front façade. “I wanted
the house to feel like it was part of the
lot,” Karen says. “I didn’t want it to
look like you could have picked it out
of a magazine and dropped it on the
lot. Michael Moorefield designed it
and he just did a beautiful job.”
The garden has grown up around
the home. Working with a pickax to
turn the hard, red clay pan, Karen
hauled everything she planted — from
the nursery to the garden — in the
back of her car. “It was my size, it was