- I'm Madeline Hooper, I've been gardening for over 20 years.

And of course, with gardening, comes a lot of aches and pains.

So I finally decided that maybe I should find a fitness trainer to see if I could fix my problems.

And a fellow gardener introduced me to Jeff Hughes.

[soft music] After working with Jeff, it dawned on me, what would be more exciting than to travel all over America, visiting a wide variety of gardens and helping their gardeners get garden fit?

[upbeat music] Taking care of your body while taking care of your garden.

That's our mission.

[fading music] - Oh boy.

Madeline.

We're in Connecticut.

Where are we-- visiting today?

- We're in Connecticut.

So today we're gonna visit a really special guy, whose name is George Schokoff.

- George Schokoff.

That's a very prominent sounding name.

- Good name.

- Yeah.

- And George has created a garden called Hollister House.

- George Schokoff with Hollister House.

- Right.

- This is high and mighty stuff here, tell me more.

- It is.

The garden is actually very famous and this episode is unique, in that we're going to obviously visit George now and we always come back four weeks later.

And this time he's invited us to come back to his California garden.

- Oh, how cool.

Where in California?

- In Santa Barbara.

- Santa Barbara.

Wow.

- Aha.

- Well, that's right on the Pacific.

- It is.

And his house and his garden is on this bluff overlooking the Pacific.

And I understand it's just magnificent.

So what is so exciting is there's such a contrast between his east coast garden and is west coast garden.

- Yeah.

- So this garden's lush and the west coast garden is dry, and Hollister House is in a valley and of course the California garden is above the Pacific ocean.

So I kind of think it'll be really interesting to see the same person create two distinct different gardens.

But the other thing that I just wanted to say about George is he really has a special style.

George has been very influenced by English gardens, but of course he's interpreted them for his own garden.

He's got lots of rooms and all these paths go around corners.

And I think George loves, more than anything, walking around these paths and walking his garden every day.

- Well, you know what, if George loves walking through his garden, then we're gonna love walking through his garden with him.

- We are.

[soft beats] - This is gorgeous.

- [Madeline] It is.

- [Jeff] Look at all that [speaker drowned out] - [Madeline] Little place.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- So now you get to meet George.

- You know, I'm really excited to meet this guy.

He's another one of those people you talked about since I've known you.

- I think you'll really like him.

I know he'll like you.

- Oh, hey.

- And there's George.

- Hey, it's so good to see you.

- Great to see you.

George.

- George.

Jeff Hughes.

- Thank you.

- Nice to meet you, Jeff.

- George Schokoff.

- Welcome to the garden.

- Well, thank you.

- I'm so happy to be here.

I'm happy to be back.

Such a wonderful garden.

Maybe before we start to walk through it, you can tell us a little bit about what inspired you to do this garden.

- Well, I bought this old 1770 house over 40 years ago and about a year later, I went to England to see English gardens and I was blown away.

[Madeline laughing] The combination of the formal structure with the very loose style of planting, and I got back and I thought I wanna do that here.

The big problem was that this is a farmhouse, and what I wanted to do was a little more elaborate.

So I was worried that the garden might look a little pretentious.

And so we worked very hard on making the plan as elaborate as I wanted, but as intimate with this old, wonderful 18th century structure.

- [Madeline] What a great goal.

- Thank you.

I think we did it.

- Yeah, so maybe we should go take at it.

- Let's go have a look.

- Okay.

- Well that's gorgeous.

- This is, by the way, what we call here, the wow moment.

[Jeff laughing] - [Madeline] This is a wow moment.

- [Jeff] What a great name.

- Visitors come to see the garden and they walk across the lawn, which looks like anybody's front yard and they get here and suddenly the garden opens up and we hear that they say wow.

- [laughing] I'm sure.

- Yeah.

- Can we follow you in?

- Let's go down.

- Let's go see the gray garden.

Love these stones.

- Aren't they great?

They're natural stones from the area.

- They look great with the stone walls.

- George, this is-- - And this is the gray garden and it's an old fashioned parterre, boxwood geometric design.

Ours is a little different than the classic European version because we've grown plant inside the boxwood.

- [Madeline] I love it.

And the scale of it is quite nice.

- That's an intimate, nice little garden, isn't it?

- What was here before?

- When I got here over 40 years ago, there were no flat spaces.

There was a slope from the house-- - [Madeline] Really?

- Down to the pond beneath the garden and-- - That's amazing.

- Yeah.

- I don't mind walking down a slope from one area to the other, when I get there, I want it to be flat.

And so we got in the bulldozers [Jeff laughs] and we terraced the garden.

When the bulldozers leave, it looks like the planet marsh.

There's nothing left [Madeline laughing] that's alive.

We had to begin all over again.

Every plant you see, we had to plant again.

- Kind of a clean canvas.

- Clean slate.

The nice thing about terracing is it costs a lot of money to begin with, but once it's done, you have automatic drama.

- You know what adds character to this garden?

These bricks.

- [George] Yeah.

- They just give this age, this really character.

- Aren't they beautiful with the lichens?

- And even the color of them now kind of go with your colors of the different leaves, right?

- Color foliage is really important.

A flower, if you're lucky, stays in bloom for two weeks.

- [Madeline] Right.

- Color foliage, variegated, purple or silver, lasts for the whole season.

You can rely on the colored foliage, much more you than you can on the flowers.

- I love that out here.

- That's good stuff.

- And also, I mean, some of these variegated plants, like I've never seen that.

- Oh, that crazy bamboo, sometimes to be invaded by the right plant in a big garden is not a bad thing.

I tend to like plants that like me [Jeff laughing] - [laughing] Yes.

- and that one really likes me.

- So should we follow your paths?

- Let's go down this way.

We are overlooking here, what we call the wall garden.

- You know what, George, I've never seen the top of a hedge like that.

- [Madeline] It's gorgeous.

- It's a different view.

When you're in that garden, you see the hedge in a very different way.

One of the really nice things about a terrace garden is the way you experience parts of the gardens two different ways, one looking down, and one when you're actually in that area.

- Well, I noticed that you said the parterre is geometric.

- Right.

- And you don't get to see that unless-- - [Madeline] You're up there.

- [Jeff] We got to see it by standing up there.

- The best place to see a parterre is looking down on it.

You get the geometry the way the boxwood is laid out.

- You know what you're doing, don't you George?

- Yeah.

- Well, I do now.

[everyone laughing] This is the wall garden through this arch that we are entering into now.

- I love the archway.

- [George] Visitors often call that the secret garden moment.

- [Madeline] It is.

- And you'll notice that the path jogs here, I am very wary of a path continuing too long.

But to me, a path that goes on forever, is daunting.

It's boring.

So I create a change of pace by jogging the path.

And I think it also makes things more intimate.

- Every time we go around the corner, it's a surprise.

It's wonderful.

- Yeah.

- I like surprises.

I don't think that a garden should just show everything all at once.

Little by little so that you're intrigued and you wanna progress further.

- [Madeline] What is your favorite thing to do in this garden?

- I like to walk around all by myself, late romantic walks in the evening.

- [Madeline] Oh, how great.

- George, I have loved walking through your garden.

What I got from walking around with you, you like plants that can just kind of let go and they do a good job on their own.

- We like plants here that take care of themselves.

We have a lot of those.

- I was watching you walking around while I was listening to you, [George chuckles] and before I decide what I think's going on, I'd like you to tell me what kind of pain do you deal with on a daily basis, gardening, walking around the garden?

- Well, I have this knee that was replaced five and a half months ago.

It's a lot better than it was.

- Well, that's the idea of replacing.

- Yes [laughing] [Jeff laughing] It's better, but it's not that much better.

And my calves bother me, especially when I walk up and down stairs.

- Anything else?

- Back.

- [Jeff] Back?

- But I've always had back trouble.

- Well, you've always been a gardener.

That just makes sense [laughing] [George laughs] - That's part of it, I'm sure.

- [Jeff] Lower back, upper back?

- Lower back, mainly.

- Yeah, watching you walk around, I saw where you were having a lot of issues with your legs and your feet and the stepping up and down.

You have terrace garden where you have steps and you have to deal with those.

And something you said towards the end of our walk that struck me, you said you love walking around your garden.

- I do.

- I don't think your body is loving it as much as you are, especially your legs.

I don't think they're loving it.

- The pleasure is more mental than physical, you're quite right.

Yes.

Exactly.

- I would like to have your legs love it again.

- I would too.

- Okay.

All right.

Well, good.

[George laughing] [laughing] We're on the same team then.

So I'm gonna tell you what I think's going on.

Don't move, look down at your feet right now and take a look.

I'm gonna have you look at your left leg first.

You see how your foot and your knee are in alignment with each other?

- Yes.

- If you look down, your knee is aiming this way and your foot is aiming this way.

- Right.

- That's the way you walk, that's the way you stand.

When your foot turns out and they're not in agreement on direction, even though your ankle is flexible, the twist comes from your shin turning and your knee staying here.

By not being in agreement, you're making this hurt.

You mentioned that your calves are sore when you're walking.

A lot of times when people have a knee replacement, their knee hurt really bad before the replacement, and they stopped using it long ago.

So not only now does the knee hurt, but your muscles are weak because you stopped using them even before you had the replacement.

So you're dealing with very weak legs.

- Hmm.

- Watching you walk up and down steps, when you put your foot on the step, your heel drops and you're not using your ankle.

So your whole leg is kind of dead while you're walking, especially going up and down stairs.

- That's the worst, going up and down stairs.

- And so what makes the ankle work is your calf muscle mostly.

So what I'd like to do is I'd like to give you some calf exercises.

- Okay.

- So I think maybe we can use the steps back here.

- All right.

- If you don't mind, I'm gonna take a chair.

So the exercise I'm going to give you is very simple.

Calf raises.

You drop down in a hole here.

We need to get out of that hole to start with, right?

- Right.

- So you need strength to get from here to here.

So we're going to do an exercise.

I'm gonna have your exercise be where you come down here gently, push your way up and keep going until you're all the way up.

My ankles are really strong so it was easy for me to get up here.

It's not gonna be that easy for you, so you're gonna help yourself with a little bit of your body weight right here.

You're gonna help yourself get up.

Now you want to slowly take yourself down.

Incrementally take yourself down all the way here and then you're gonna come back up.

Hold that peak.

Know what that feels like.

If it knows what it feels like, it wants to go there.

So we're gonna do 10 of those.

Then we're gonna change the angle and you're gonna turn your toes in and your heels out.

And it just hits a different angle on your calf.

And the same thing, 10 up and down, always working the top, always going deep down and coming out.

And then the third angle is way out wide, all the way down and all the way up.

So I want you to give it a try.

- Okay.

Let me give it a try.

- I'm gonna turn this around so you have a little bit more to bear down on.

Go ahead and walk up and just put your whole foot on there first.

Get comfortable being up there.

All right.

And back out.

And now make sure your feet are straight.

- Straight.

- Good.

And very gently go all the way down without hanging dead.

Make sure you're in control of that down there.

And then slowly come up and use whatever weight bearing you need.

Get up, get to that peak, hold it for a second.

Hold there, process and hear what that feels like to be up there, and then very gently, quarter inch by quarter inch take yourself down and then all the way up.

Good.

Go ahead now, walk in all the way.

Give your ankles a break for a second.

Just give them a moment to [exhales] breathe.

They're not used to that much work.

They're not used to actually being used at all from everything I saw today, so you wanna guard against getting cramps from doing too much at one time.

Now try the other angle.

Let's go.

Which one you want do first?

- Let's do the easier one first.

- All right.

So take yourself all the way up.

Feel that lock in with your whole body.

Take it down.

- Quarter inch.

- And take it up one more time.

Process how that feels to be up there, locked in.

Your legs are engaged.

And then just walk forward and give that a break for a second.

Good.

Now go ahead and try the other angle.

Now this is a hard one.

Your feet are gonna sneak straight because this is a very weak spot, even on people that are strong.

It's very unmechanical what we're doing, but it strengthens muscle.

So take it up one more time.

Keep those heels pushed out.

So gently up and then walk forward.

Give it a break for a second.

- All right.

- Okay.

Now I want you to do this once a day, first week, twice a day, second week, three times a day, third week, four times a day, fourth week.

I'm gonna come back and see you.

- In California?

- In California.

- Yeah.

- I'm looking forward to that.

But first I have to ask you something.

I need a promise you're gonna do this.

- Okay.

I promise.

- Okay.

- I would like this to work.

- Let's go check in on Madeline.

- Let's go.

- [Jeff] Wow.

This looks like it's been here for 200 years.

- Oh, I love this.

It does.

- This is my real garden.

- This is wonderful.

What was your inspiration for this rill, George?

- There is a marvelous garden in Spain called the Generalife, it's part of the Alhambra.

And it has a very famous rill.

It's very beautiful.

This used to be a lawn and I thought it was sort of boring, so I thought, well, let's make a rill.

- Now a rill is that R-I... - R-I-L-L. A rill is defined as a narrow channel of water that's fed at one end and going out at the other.

And this is a small one.

- That's the important thing, that's not stagnant water, this moves, right.

Which is great.

- It's moving slowly, but it's moving.

The stones are, I think, what make it really work visually.

They're reclaimed building materials from probably a hundred years ago.

These stones are Victorian foundation stones.

- Wow.

- That I managed to get my hands on when we decided to do this.

And they actually had a very nice dressed, smooth side.

And I hated to, but I decided that the rough side that didn't show in the Victorian building would be nicer in this garden.

Just more appropriate for the rougher look.

- So the smooth side's underneath, the stone is up?

- Smooth side's hide and buried, the smooth side is underneath.

- [Madeline] This is George's style.

- Yeah, this looks like it's been here for hundreds of years.

- Yeah, I think it's absolutely fantastic.

I love the piece of this garden and the sound of the water.

- Yeah, water's so important in a garden.

There is magic about water.

You really want to see water moving if you possibly can.

- But the sound just kind of settles you too.

- Yeah.

- Well, We've seen your entire garden, so I guess all that's left is for us to come find you in Santa Barbara.

- We'll see you in Santa Barbara.

- George, thank you so much.

[all laughing] - I'm so glad that you came.

- Thank you.

- George.

- What a pleasure it is to meet you.

- It really has been.

- Well, we'll see you in a little while.

- See you.

- See you in California.

- Okay.

Bye.

- Wow.

You're right.

There's a George style to this.

- There is.

everything has his signature.

I thought it was wonderful that you gave George strengthening exercises for his ankles, so he could enjoy going up and down his stairs and walking around his garden.

- His big garden.

- Yes.

It's a large garden [laughs] - Yeah.

And once his ankles get a little stronger, he's gonna really enjoy walking around that.

- Most gardeners really do walk a lot a day, probably more than they think.

I know my garden's very spread out, but I could do two to three miles a day just maintaining my garden.

- Exactly.

And a lot of people don't understand how much ankle strength really comes into walking with ease and efficiency.

- That's kind of interesting, Jeff.

Can you tell me more about that?

- Yeah.

Well, you know what?

I'll show you.

Let me hold your balance.

Stick your leg out.

- Okay.

- Towards me.

Yeah.

And now I'm gonna be about four inches away.

Now.

I want you to stay right there, but touch me with your leg.

Ah, that's your foot.

- That's true.

That is my foot.

- But your foot is an extension of your leg.

That's why you did that.

- Hmm.

- So let me just explain.

Here.

Let's let's take a little walk.

Come right here.

So what I want you to do is keep your weight back on your foot, and I want you to do exactly what you just did.

Just extend your foot, your leg.

Good.

Now stay right there.

- That feels good.

Now roll back and extend it again.

What's happening when you extend it?

- My hips are coming forward.

- Right.

The other end of your leg, it just pushes your hips forward.

So if you just walk like that, you're just using your ankle the whole way.

Now we're gonna go back and do another little lesson.

Let's go to the grocery store.

- Okay.

- Let's get some shopping carts, okay?

- Good.

- And we're gonna put stuff in the shopping cart.

So I'm gonna load yours up, And I know exactly what you get-- - You do?

Yep.

Cases and cases of candy bars.

- [laughs] Yes.

Chocolate candy bars.

- Cases of chocolate candy bars, right?

And then we'll put a few tubs of ice cream in there.

So we've loaded it up.

It's really heavy now, right?

- Sounds perfect.

- So you really gotta push, but you can't use your hands.

You're gonna use your hips.

- Huh.

- So I want you to push that cart with your hips and see how your posture works.

There you go.

Now stop right there.

Lean over like you're gonna walk when you lean over, you can't push the cart, - Can't push.

- can you?

- Right.

No.

- 'Cause you can't get any weight on that foot and your hips aren't moving.

So take a couple of more steps right there.

Good.

Now turn around.

We're gonna go back the other way.

And this time I've got a broom stick.

- A broomstick.

- I'm gonna put it right at the level of your hair, right across there, all right?

Now just go ahead and just walk comfortably.

Yeah.

Now you see how you walk straight through, you never bumped your head once, but you felt your hair dragging along the stick the whole way.

- I did.

I could feel it.

- That's because you weren't going up and down, you were just gliding just like world class burners, you know when they-- - Just like that.

- Yeah, when you think about that, that's well, how they run.

Everybody says, wow, they look like they're gliding.

And they are to some extent because they're not spending all their time burning their knees, going up and down like this.

They're moving straight forward and that's really how you are.

- That's terrific I like the feeling of using your ankle.

- Yeah.

- That's good.

So why don't we go back and see George, this time in California Jeff, and walk all around.

- Santa Barbara.

Okay.

Let's go.

- Let's go.

[soft music] - [Madeline] Well now we're in Santa Barbara, California.

- Yeah.

- And everything looks different.

- I was just thinking he was really missing this bluff side view of the Pacific in Connecticut.

- [Madeline] He certainly was.

- [Jeff] This is very different.

[Madeline laughing] - We're gonna be George at his well garden.

Here he is.

- Oh.

- So nice to see you.

- How nice to see you.

- Jeff.

- George.

Come here.

It's good to see you.

You look great.

- Well, I feel great.

- We're so excited to be here.

- Oh, this is gorgeous, man.

I mean you're overlooking the Pacific [laughing] - The views are amazing.

A Little foggy today, unfortunately.

- It's gorgeous.

- It'll burn off later.

You'll see.

- So how long have you been here?

- A little bit more than 22 years, which is when we started the house.

- Yeah.

- That's amazing.

- Wait, when you started the house?

- Well, there was nothing here.

There wasn't a tree.

There wasn't a shrub.

- There wasn't a house?

- And there was no house.

We wanted an old house and nothing here is really that old.

So we built a 300 year old house.

- Amazing.

- With these old materials, like this nice old 18th century well from Italy.

- [Madeline] It's beautiful.

- And so all over the house in the garden, there are little bits and pieces of old stone and wood in the house.

- [Madeline] So how do you feel?

- Well, much better.

It's not all gone.

I still have a little pain walking down stairs.

I don't, walking up stairs.

- [Jeff] Good.

- [Madeline] That's good.

- And your exercises, I think did help.

- Good.

- Really quite a bit.

- I'm glad to hear that.

Your calves feeling a little bit stronger?

- Calves.

Yeah, very important, the calves.

And one really nice thing, I can do these at home.

- Yeah.

- Don't need a machine, I can do them anywhere.

- Isn't that great?

- Yeah, but that's the idea, to be able to do 'em wherever.

- Yeah, and I'm enjoying my garden walk.

- So can we walk around with you?

- Let's go see the rest of the garden.

- Let's see this place.

- We'll follow you.

- Yeah.

- [George] We are entering my wall garden.

- [Madeline] Oh, that sounds fun.

- [George] And it just so happens that we're passing by my favorite plant in the whole garden.

- [Madeline] Really?

- Which is this.

- That's a plumeria.

- Exactly, Jeff.

Good for you.

- Wow.

- It is however, a very rare species.

It's evergreen.

Most of them lose their leaves in the winter and this one doesn't.

It's very scented.

It's marvelous.

- It's what they make glaze from.

- Really?

But I've never been to Hawaii so I don't really know this plant.

Oh, it smells so nice.

- Yeah.

They're all over the place there.

- Can we walk into the parterre, - Let's see the-- take a better look.

- parterre.

- Well, this looks a lot like the one that you have at Hollister House.

The only difference is, that doesn't look like boxwood.

- It's not boxwood.

Boxwood doesn't really like Santa Barbara.

[Madeline laughing] [Jeff laughing] And this is a really nice substitute, this is Eugenia.

And it's a unusual form.

Usually the Eugenias are 15 feet tall.

Some very wise, talented plant breeder developed this little miniature version and it looks very like boxwood.

It's a very good substitute.

- Your walls are really interesting to look at.

This is kind of a checkerboard.

- Yes.

I love walls.

And the checkerboard design for a wall is actually a device that they used in Normandy, a lot of checkerboard walls.

And I thought, well, it's not really appropriate for a Mediterranean, but who cares?

[Jeff laughs] [Madeline laughs] It looks good.

And it's fun.

- George, the different colors here, of the plants, are fantastic.

- Isn't it great?

I got inspired by the wonderful foliage colors that you can have the silvers, the grays, the blues.

All these different colors, I can make a picture out of it.

- Yeah.

- I can paint my picture with almost no flowers.

- [Madeline] It's fabulous.

- It's more subtle than flowers, but it's-- - The shape of the leaves and everything.

Each plant is so distinct.

It's great.

- Yeah.

The shapes of the leaves, the texture, the size, it's all important when you paint a picture.

- So can we see a few more gardens?

- Let's go see the rill garden.

- Okay.

[water splashing] - So water for me in a garden is really magical.

You need it to give that extra dimension.

- I see that you've got your rill again, just like the one at Hollister.

- [George] I have another rill.

- [Madeline] You have another rill.

- This one looking a little more Mediterranean, at least I hope.

- Yeah.

- Most definitely.

Look at those.

- [George] Aren't they amazing?

- [Madeline] They're amazing, George.

What are they?

- [George] That's yucca filifera.

They're like exclamation points in a garden.

It's one of the really spectacular species in the genus.

- There's so tall.

How big were they when you put them in?

- Three feet tall.

[Madeline laughs] And now they're [laughs] what would you say?

25 feet?

- Yeah.

- I would say.

They're absolutely magnificent.

So what garden are we going to next?

- I am going to take you to see my husband Gerald's cactus garden.

- Oh, that's exciting.

A cactus garden.

- [George] It's very different than the rest of the place.

- [Madeline] I bet.

Oh my goodness, George.

- This is the cactus garden.

- Wow.

[Jeff laughing] This looks like a garden made by Dr. Seuss [laughs] - [George] Yes.

- And cute garden.

Completely different from anything I've ever seen him.

You ever seen it?

- No.

- A garden of cactus.

- Well, Gerald's an artist and he designed something sort of freeform, as opposed to my more architectural view of the world, all curves and surprises, and you don't know quite sure where you're going.

- And the shapes, I mean, these are all so architectural.

It's such a different... - Each one of them is like a piece of sculpture.

- [Madeline] How did Gerald go about choosing these cactuses?

- Well, some of them, he consciously went after, there were some rare ones, and some of them, he just thought were nice.

He cares primarily what something looks like [Madeline laughs] and not necessarily if it's famous or rare.

Gerald, like myself, all beginning gardeners seem to commit the same mistake, which is to plant things too closely together.

- Right.

- So a few years ago he did a radical reorganization and he moved things, dug them up, transplanted, cleared out and made it habitable again for humans.

I think all gardens really need a periodic housecleaning.

- Yeah.

Good editing.

- Good editing.

Yeah.

[all laughing] - Can we take a stroll through it?

- Let's go this way.

- They're all so different, George.

- There's so many types.

- I love the way they grow in colonies like this.

- Isn't that nice?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, Gerald likes things enough of something I think.

And these little skinny ones, the paddles being so elongated.

- They're really wonderful, George, such an spectacular variety.

They have such personality, I think, the cactuses.

- Yeah, they do.

Well, George.

- And now, wouldn't it be a good idea, we can all have a glass of wine on the terrace.

- Hey.

- Let's do that.

- That sounds like an idea.

- Let's do it.

- George, you have been so generous and let us really enjoy two of your gardens, your two beautiful gardens.

Thank you so much.

- Well, I had fun and I thank you.

This has been such a pleasure.

Thank you.

- I wanna thank you for I gave you some ideas to work on and you took them and you did them and they... - It worked and you taught me some tricks that I can keep on using.

- Isn't that good?

- So I thank you again.

- Here we go.

[glasses clanking] - Cheers.

- [Jeff] Cheers.

[upbeat music]