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Open Gardens Day features 29 area water gardens

Saturday, July 14, 2001

By Susan Banks, Post-Gazette Garden Editor

Everything happens for a reason.

	From Ron Pullman's front yard, he can see the Japanese teahouse, pond and bonsai he installed on what was a hillside covered with brambles. (Bill Wade, Post-Gazette)

Just ask Ron Pullman. In 1993, during a visit to Japan, he was introduced to bonsai and koi. Although he admired the beautiful trees and fish, he really wasn't that interested in acquiring either. Not until 1997, when he moved into a house in Robinson and started designing a garden to fit onto the precipitous 1 1/2-acre lot around the new home.

Now, he not only presides over a Japanese-inspired garden that fits beautifully into the landscape; he owns and cares for a dozen bonsai and tends to 34 extraordinary koi living in the large pond he constructed for them. Those are some of the reasons Pullman's garden is one of 29 that will be featured tomorrow during Open Gardens Day, a tour sponsored by the Horticultural Society of Western Pennsylvania.

	'The Art of Water in the Garden' WHEN: The Open Gardens Day, a tour of 29 area water gardens sponsored by the Horticultural Society of Western Pennsylvania, will take place tomorrow. HOURS: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday TICKETS: $30 for members, $40 for nonmembers. Available from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at the Phipps Garden Center (formerly the Pittsburgh Civic Garden Center), 1059 Shady Ave., Shadyside. INFORMATION: 412-361-8677. More on gardening: 6 North Hills gardens open for today's tour Sandy Feather: Judicious pruning promotes future growth

When Pullman moved into the home five years ago, the property was a challenge, to say the least. The house sits atop a steep hillside that was covered with brambles and grapevines with a few boulders thrown in for good measure.

Ignoring advice to do major excavation, he decided to work with the property and designed a garden that has a distinctly Oriental flavor, meshed with a bit of California savvy on the creative use of difficult terrain.

Over the past 3 1/2 years, he has constructed a multilevel deck, the large pond, complete with stone walls and waterfalls, and a Japanese teahouse that doubles as a home for his bonsai collection during the winter months. Underneath it all is a network of pumps, piping and filtration systems that boggles the mind. No space goes underutilized.

And he has thrown himself into the discipline of bonsai, taking lessons from Joe Samuels, a renowned expert on the art who resides in southern Florida but came from Aliquippa.

In his spare time, Pullman has educated himself about koi, buying all his specimens from breeders in Japan because he says that's where the more unusual and beautiful fish are found.

While all of this is amazing, what is most extraordinary is that this financial planner -- he's owner and CEO of Pullman Financial Corp. -- did the bulk of the work with his own hands, at night, and on weekends with the help of friends.

Hauling stone for the waterfalls, installing decking, building the teahouse and putting in the filtration system are just a few of the things he's done. He laughs as he recalls putting up lots of lights so he could work well into the night.

	A tree from the Florida Everglades has found a home in Ron Pullman's garden. (Bill Wade, Post-Gazette)

Visitors to the property during tomorrow's tour are in for a treat. Tubs of miniature waterlilies line one deck. Bonsai from his collection are featured throughout the decks and in the hillside garden behind the pond. In the pond, lotus, waterlilies, iris and papyrus grow. Amazingly, they are left alone by the gorgeous, colorful koi, which are notorious for destroying pond plants. A large bronze mermaid sits to one side, overseeing the activity.

The koi alone are worth a visit. Pullman, 42, points out some of the rarer ones, but says he doesn't have a favorite. If you pick one, he says, it's sure to die.

The plantings on the property are interesting but there is really nothing exceedingly rare. Instead, Pullman has melded texture and color, using plants like hosta, lilies, ornamental grasses and Japanese maples. Many of the plants in the ground are gifts from clients and friends.

Pullman points out the dragons and other Asian motifs on the teahouse's etched doors and windows. The design was his, but he credits Karen Navarro, the artist who did the work, for understanding his idea and running with it. There are also stained-glass windows in the teahouse, collected from an old building years ago. Pullman had forgotten he had them until he ran across them again and realized they would be a perfect accent in the teahouse.

Other highlights include the lighting fixtures on the bottom deck that Pullman picked up from an old monastery. The hanging planters come from Mexico. A potter made the water lily tubs. Even the stands for the bonsai are special; Pullman made them himself.

	Several koi swim in the large pond Ron Pullman constructed. (Bill Wade, Post-Gazette)

On the deck walkway by the teahouse, a large grouping of Elephant Ears (Colocasia) are planted in a tub. He says the stunning structural plants are from friend Larry Holmes of Holmes Farms in Barto, Berks County, who will be loaning him seven large prize koi for the tour.

Pullman is quick to credit friends and mentors for their help, especially Glenn Vietmeier of Country Club Gardens, Steve Spagina, Tristan Staydhur, Ab Myer, Rob Hughes, Fred Barton, and last but not least, his fiancee Paula.

With all this work completed, you might think the garden is finished, but it's not. Pullman still has a significant amount of hillside left to work on. And it is steep, so steep that looking out over it from the decks above, visitors might think they are in the treetops. He is full of plans for the remaining property, and expects to be finished with the entire project in another five years.

It was Pullman's vision that turned this unruly hillside into an Eden. But even he couldn't have planned the effect created when the sun rises each morning from the mist-filled valley behind the house, lighting the garden in a truly magical way.

Just ask him: Everything does happen for a reason.