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A lesson in natural design

This is the story of how Arthur and Kate Brewster turned a mess into a masterpiece. 

Back in the early '70s, another couple found the property they'd dreamed about: three acres of woods on the shore a big lake in semirural Ohio. The land sloped gently to the south. A stream ran through it. There was a beautiful old stone foundation in the woods (although the couple never discovered it). And a huge oak tree with a spread of more than 90 feet capped a knoll near the little brook.

So they bought the property. Then they proceeded to destroy it.

First, they cleared away an acre of big beech and maple trees along the road. Then they threw up the most unimaginably conventional house you could ever imagine. This entire cleared area was then planted in lawn grass. A picket fence was built along the highway frontage. Italian poplars and Japanese maples alternated in a military row — dot-dot-dot — along the fence. And, as soon as they had a chance, the couple got someone to mow all the underbrush on the forest floor, taking out shrubs, vines, wildflowers and saplings.

Parklike, they called it.

Now it was time for them to turn their attention to the lake, so they summoned the bulldozers once again, clearing a 50-foot-wide swath of forest right down to the water's edge.

It not only gave them the lake view they'd dreamed about, it made way for a new walk as well: a 250-foot strip of concrete from their back patio straight down to the shore. Then they built a dock of chemically treated wood
and bought a big motorboat. Life was complete.

But a few years later the couple moved away and the house stood empty. No one, apparently, could see whatever it was that had so attracted them. Not for the price they were asking, anyway.

The house stood empty for 10 years. Weeds invaded the lawns. Trees invaded the weeds. The house began to lose its embarrassing nakedness. And down by the shore, shrubs had sprung up in a dense thicket where grass had been. The couple decided to lower the price.

It was at this point that Kate and Arthur Brewster came along. They had the ability to see potential where others saw only problems. They knew that with a bit of imagination and a lot of work they could turn that suburban fiasco back into a wooded wonderland.

They bought the house.

They knew that if they were to heal the scars left by the previous owners, they'd have to restore, replant and rebuild in such ways as not to crush the tender roots and tiny saplings that were struggling to renew the land withouthuman help.

But what about that 250-foot strip of concrete? Leave it there or rip it out? Fortunately, a friend in the excavation business told the Brewsters he needed a lot of broken slabs for a retaining wall on another job. Out went the concrete.

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