- 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.

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 continues] Taking care of your body while taking care of your garden, that's our mission.

[calm music] - [Jeff] Okay, Madeline, where are we going today?

- Actually, we're in Middleburg, Virginia.

- Yeah.

- Which is a beautiful part of this country.

It's the Piedmont of the blue mountain range.

- It is beautiful.

- It's horse country.

- And it looks like, you know [indistinct] and the rock walls, too.

- So we're visiting a friend of mine, Elaine Burton.

She is a woman that has more energy than anybody I've ever met.

- You haven't met Madeline Hooper yet.

- She has more energy than me, believe or not and think so.

- Okay.

- She is a sports woman.

She's really an excellent tennis player and I think she's a ranked golfer now.

- Oh good.

- So about 30 years ago, she decided to take up gardening.

She literally became totally engrossed in the garden world and ended up being the president of two different garden clubs for many, many years and she designed and developed this garden, Jeff, over that time, all by herself.

There's really a wonderful combination of a country garden and a formal garden.

I think you'll really enjoy her tour, taking you through her garden.

I can't wait to see how it's changed since I've been there.

- Yeah.

- And the thing about Elaine is that she loves color.

So she dresses very colorful, and her house is very colorful, and she decided to take the colors of her house and bring it out into the garden and find flowers that match.

- So it's just this total coordination of accessorizing, Elaine, house, and garden.

- Total.

- Beautiful.

- So I have something to show you.

- Of course you do, here comes the bag.

- My little bag.

Her husband, Charles, found some big fu dogs that she could put out in the garden.

I'll show you what they are.

- Are those Chinese?

- Yes, I believe they are.

- Yeah, Look at that.

- So that's a fu dog.

- Can I hold that.

- Of course you can and watch it, it's heavy.

- It is heavy.

- They're beautiful, little scary.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Big teeth.

Do you know how to tell the difference between a male and female fu dog?

Good thought.

- Nothing there.

- But no answers there.

- Nope.

- So what's under its foot.

- Under its foot.

Looks like a baby fu dog.

- Exactly.

So that's the female.

- Oh, okay.

And then under the, oh, like a little ball.

- like a little ball.

- Okay - Okay.

So when we get to the garden and find the big fu dogs.

- Huh, I'll know male and female.

- I think you will.

Although it's a little trickier than that, but we'll see so Elaine has black Angus cattle.

- Black Angus cattle.

- She loves them, they're quite beautiful.

- Yeah.

- And so-- - You have a black Angus steer in your bag.

- Actually I have many, so I'll pick, forgot about Jeff.

So this.

- That looks massively heavy.

- Sculpture, this I'm not kidding.

Weighs 40 pounds.

She found this sculpture in a gallery in Amsterdam, bought it and brought his heavy sculptor back home in her hand luggage.

That's really, that's a lane.

- Okay that, well, that tells me a lot about this lady.

- Yes, the nice thing now is she has black Angus cattle inside the house and outside the house.

- Oh, that said inside out thought.

Okay, all right.

- Exactly - Great.

- I'm very excited for you to meet her.

I think you'll really enjoy her company.

- I'm sure I will.

- And I know we'll love her garden.

[birds chirping] [soft music] Look how pretty this clever is, very welcoming.

- That's really nice it's pretty.

- Her whole garden will be like that.

- Hi, Madeline.

- Elaine, I'm so happy to see you.

- I'm so happy to see you too.

- Thank you.

- It's wonderful.

- Elaine.

- This is Jeff.

- Hi Jeff.

- Elaine Burgs.

- Hugs.

- Yeah, I got the memo, hugs.

- So nice to meet you.

- Yeah, I've told her a lot about you.

- Very nice to meet you finally yes.

I think she's told us a lot about each other.

- Good, well, I'm so hoping you can help this gardening body.

- Garden fit.

- Yes.

- Garden fit it is.

- Yes.

- So speaking of gardens.

- Yes.

- This is my herb garden.

So I'm now growing an Espalier apple and also a pear.

- Oh, how exciting.

- So, oh my gosh there's a pair already ready.

- Oh, how great.

- Yes.

- Voila.

- Oh, that's a perfect pair.

- So anyway, I'm excited about showing you my perennial garden.

It's been a while since you've been here, Madeline and things have gotten bigger.

- Oh wow, how wonderful to see this again.

- Wow.

- And I've been working on this for 30 years.

- Oh my goodness that's a minute.

- Yeah.

- It started off with just a three foot.

Wide border when we first moved here in 1975 and it was pretty and for the 10 years, I didn't really garden, I loved it.

But then when I learned some things, I said, well, I think I have to change this a little and so I made it into a 15 foot.

- That's a little-- - Wide.

- That's such a huge difference.

- I know but if you wanna grow more plants.

- Right.

- Then you need a bigger space I moved the fence down.

I took a tree down.

I didn't tell my husband until it was done.

- Good strategy.

- Yes.

What I've learned is that you need permanence in a border to give it bulk, to give it a presence, to give it form and shape and so that's why I put in shrubs.

And then you put in the perennials and you do the colors.

like this border, I started off with yellow blues and whites.

That was my theme.

This border i started off with purples, pinks and blues.

I tried to, you know, make the colors work together.

like that Lily has the same pink as that beautiful flops.

- And I think what's so nice about this and I'm sure Jeff noticed this too.

The colors here are like the colors in your house.

She just loves color.

- Yeah.

- And it really makes you happy to look at that.

- It's the colors I love and feel comfortable and feel pretty in.

- I love them.

- They match.

- Yes.

- They coordinate.

- I'm looking, at this.

- This is two dogs you were talking about.

- That's where they landed.

- Yeah.

- Can you now tell which one's the male and which one's the female.

- Oh yeah, oh yeah.

The male fu dog has good enough sense keeps the mouth shut, that one.

- Well done.

- Huh?

- And so they seem to be the start of this wonderful path that you've created.

And maybe you could tell us a little bit about these trees that are so pretty.

- So these are just a variegated privet.

You buy them very little skinny and they grow really fast.

And so these are variegated variety and I let them grow up and then I'd limb them up so that we could see through them into the field through that gate.

- That's what I think is so great about this.

- Yeah.

- I mean, this is a very common plant.

That's very, visible in most nurseries, but what a nice imaginative way to use it and prune them the way you have Elaine.

It's really wonderful.

- You see, you fill the air and you've got the, you've got your Archway, which is gorgeous.

- Yeah, it makes you wanna go there, but maybe we should first go see the rest of the garden.

- Yes, come with me.

- Okay.

[rock music] Ah, a holy garden.

- Yes.

- So this is her Porter garden.

- Yes.

- Something.

- One thing I wanna say, I just wanna share with Jeff how impressed I am that Elaine has actually designed the entire garden.

Haven't you?

- Yes and so when we came here in 75, this area was full of English Boxwood and an alley of beautiful crab apple trees.

Although everything was in decline, everything was dying.

We took out everything that was dying, everything that was dead.

- A clean slate.

- It was a clean slate.

And so I wanted geometric because the space is a geometric space.

I wanted quiet and I wanted green and so I said to my husband, I think, I think we'll just do a Boxwood parterre and keep it simple and so I took a string and I measured from one end to the other and-- - It that makes sense.

- I figured out how many boxwood I would need.

And one night having a little pillow talk with my husband.

I said, sweetie, I need 144 boxwood for my birthday.

Which was, is that.

- Not 143?

- I planted it, I pasted out at one foot centers.

- How clever?

- So I just basically walked to the line and figured out how many.

- Now that's how a real gardener actually plants the garden.

I'm so impressed-- - But you know what, Madeline, this space wasn't completely flat, but I'm not a professional.

I, you know, did the best I could, laid it out and I got what I wanted.

It's not perfect, but.

- But it's worth it.

- And it, nature is not perfect.

- Of course.

- So.

- You should give people permission to really put what they love and not worry about what's traditional were, right?

- That's correct.

- Just follow what your eye tells you to do.

- Yes.

- And this is amazing, these sweet peas growing on top of the box would've never seen that before.

- Well, I love sweet peas.

In fact, our first dog was called sweet pea.

So she's buried right under here with our other dogs, Lily, Rosie, Jasmine, Ivy, uranium, flora and then we have Briar and Magnolia.

I thought let's plant some sweet peas there and let them cascade over the boxwood and that would hold them up.

- [Magdalene] I think it's wonderful.

- So that kind of works instead of a trellis, right?

- Exactly, exactly.

- That's really cool I like that idea.

- The other thing that impresses me about this garden is the balance of all this geometry and that wonderful hedge that you have created there that has that undulation.

- Yeah.

- And then you see that undulating field and then an undulating rock wall.

That's very clever Elaine.

- Thank you well, this is a pivot, just like the barricaded pivot in the other.

- Actually showed us.

- And I thought, you know what?

Instead of a straight line, I thought it was really pretty to echo the shape of the stone wall in the field.

- [Jeff] You've just captured the curbs of that.

- And how do, how did they find all those stones?

- From the field maybe?

- Yeah, like in the early 1800s when they were clearing the land to build all the rocks that they took out, they stacked as walls and so they're all dry stacked walls.

- So that's where the idea of the stone walls came from just-- - Exactly.

- Cleaning up and-- - Is this more convenient to stack them than-- - Absolutely.

Absolutely.

- So now we're entering your formal garden.

Isn't that right?

- Yes.

- This is such a great space.

- Thank you.

- I love it.

And Jeff and I were saying that going through your garden is it's formal and informal at the same time.

- It's comfortable that way.

- Thank you.

- It's really wonderful.

- Well, I've used a lot of boxwood.

- You have, that seems to be the bones of your garden.

- Yes and it is the bones of many Virginia gardens.

I mean, it's a traditional Virginia garden with lots Boxwood.

- Do you know I think that makes it love.

- They're soft too the way you, the way they're rounded instead of squared off all the time.

- Well, this one is called Morris Midget and it stays that low.

- Small.

- And the thing I like about this garden is that it's a formal space, but yet it encompasses sort of like you're in a forest.

Because I've got the upper trees, the big story and then I've got the second story with the shrubs rod Endrin and then I've got the third story with the azaleas, - Right.

- And the fourth story with the edging Maor Boxwood and then I've got the ground cover of Pachysandra.

- It's just wonderful.

This is such a good strategy to really have plants that are such different heights, that they cascade.

It sort of really encloses you.

So I love the idea of having a round bird bath with round leaves underneath Elaine.

That is just really wonderful.

- Well I love that plant.

It's a European ginger and it just stays like that it's lovely and they, other thing, informal gardens is usually a narrow pathway that makes you walk through it and I love the fact that you have these alcoves that break it up and make you wanna almost go off the path.

It's really charming, Elaine.

- Thank you.

I considered different things for that space, but I kind of just like it plain and simple.

- It makes you really feel comfortable.

- It's cozy.

- Yeah, yeah.

- She's always cleaning.

Should we move on?

- Sure.

- It's okay.

[soft music] - Elaine, I have thoroughly enjoyed touring you're garden today and also getting to know you and your passion for colors and the scheme of things, your garden itself with the softness and the curve, the 144 Boxwoods, - Correct.

- It's your garden.

And it's very, if you don't mind me saying so very feminine garden, this Elaine garden.

You know, this is the fit part of the garden fit show and I was observing how, when we walked around, how you held your body, I listened to you.

You told me that you like to play golf and tennis, and I'd like to ask you, what are some of the issues you're having with your body?

Tune me in.

- Well, two years ago I had my left hip replaced and once I had that done, I had my range back after many weeks of PT.

Now I find my right hip.

It's stiff and I can sometimes feel the nerve pinch going down this leg every now and again, when I get up from weeding, I am stiff and also when I pick a golf ball up after I sink it, I'm stiff.

I don't pick it up like a professional.

- Yeah.

- Does.

- Everything you just told me, I kind of was hoping to hear, because I've kind of put the together a lot of the stuff you've mentioned and what I noticed was with tennis.

- Yes.

- You're right handed.

- Yes.

- And so you're always swinging, you know, there's a little bit of form, but you have to torque to your left.

- Yep.

- To do that.

And you're also torquing to your right to do the forehand.

And golf, you know, even though you do wind back, a lot of your torque goes right to left.

- Yes.

- And I noticed three times today where you would reach with your right hand and you would rotate and grab that leaf, over in the garden with that Magnolia leaf.

- Yes.

- It was right next to your left hand.

And you chose to use your right hand and rotate to get it instead of just grab it.

You're comfortable and strong going that way because that's your sport and it's actually imbalancing you a little bit and it is hard on your back.

- Okay.

- It's hard on your hips because you're always going this way, which there's nothing wrong with that.

But since you're aware of that now I'm gonna have you start reaching with your left and it will give you some stretches and reaches.

- Good.

- To do that.

And then in the garden, I'm gonna ask you to leave your right hand down and see if you can spend time cleaning things out with your left hand, with a rotation left to right.

If you just spend time, time spent doing this, that should help a little bit with the back.

- Good.

- All right.

And so now come on up for a second.

So come through with your swing and so you feel there's a stretch here.

There's not much of a stretch here.

Now, put your hands down here, come through with a drive.

And when you're in the finish, you get a nice stretch coming up this side.

It's not a stretch here.

- Right.

- So we can't, we're not gonna ask you to play tennis and play golf left handed.

- Okay.

- So you keep doing that.

But want to have some stretches to the other side.

So when you are in the middle of tennis, or when you're getting ready to play tennis, or after tennis, you can just take the racket or something.

Just reach around to the other side, just go this way.

- Okay.

- There's your stretch that way and you'll just feel that, that little stretch, it's just a gentle stretch.

- Yeah and I can feel my back too.

- Yeah.

- Which was tight and gets tight so that I can feel it stretching out that way.

- Yeah.

Now you have a little tightness in your hips, but you have a hard time getting your armpit, your hip and you need to line up.

So a really easy way.

That's called the the inguinal creases, the crease up here that's where the hinge is it's why the skin creases and there's a gluteal crease back here where your leg and your glute come together.

So just think of that crease back there and squeeze that crease and it'll start to open up this one.

- Yeah, and I can feel it going down my leg.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- Now that is gonna give you a better curve in your lumbar.

It's gonna open this up.

- Yeah, I feel myself going like that.

- Yeah, and you said you have a little bit of nerve discomfort in your leg.

We're not really sure what that is.

I'm not a surgeon or anything like that, but it could just be that you're just a little tight right here and you need to open that up.

- Okay - And you play into it, maybe with a sore hip, near the arthritis or something.

So that gluteal crease, you squeeze that, and that lines you up.

Now, I had a feeling that you were gonna have trouble weeding and getting your golf balls.

So, i brought little something with me.

- Oh.

- All right.

We're gonna give it a drop.

- Okay.

- And I'd like to just see how you-- - Would pick it up.

- Pick that up.

- Okay, I'd go like this.

- It's long ways down and it's not even whole there, yeah.

- It's a long ways down.

- Yeah so what I want to do is start off, will you just open your feet up a little bit, nice and wide right?

That automatically, makes you a little bit lower and it gives you a nice base and it makes it easy to get down.

It's less stress on your hips and I just call this the armchair.

Go around America, teach everybody the armchair.

It's just a nice base.

You're not stressing to hold yourself.

Like take your arms away and you'll feel how your body's holding in.

This makes it easier right?

Now, just to get down to the ground, the feet are wide.

You're gonna put your hands down and you're just gonna let your knees come down softly and you're on the ground, yeah.

And there you are.

So let's pretend that we forgot to set ourselves up.

So bring your feet in and we're picking weeds.

- Yeah, yeah - We're in here.

We're picking weeds and with your feet wide like that, you just gently push yourself back and you're not going up yet, you're going to the arm chair and then you can come up out of that.

And it's much easier on the back than everything else.

- True.

- So couple things I've taught you today.

- Yes.

- Number one, how to get up, how to get down, you want your feet wider than your knees and your hip is not that restricted, where that that wasn't a hindrance for you.

- No, it wasn't.

- Start trying to reach with your left, and rotate your body to your right and you can just do a simple stretch.

Just put your arm out, grab behind the elbow and just pull yourself around.

Yeah, and it's just a nice stretch.

- It is.

- All right, so now comes the hard part.

- Oh, oh - I'm coming back in four weeks.

- All right.

- And you have to promise me, you're gonna put this into action three or four times a day and make it work, we got a deal?

- It's a promise, yes.

- All right.

- I'm excited.

Thank you so much for helping me.

- We gotta hug on it.

- Yes, thank you.

- You're welcome very much.

- Thank you.

Now we're going to another beautiful Archway.

- Wow, this is gorgeous.

You could have weddings right here.

- Well, actually Jeff, Charlton and I were married right on this deck.

- Kidding?

- Yes, October 4th, 1975.

- Elaine.

This has been such a wonderful experience.

It's lovely to see you again.

Your garden is beautiful.

We enjoyed every minute with you.

- Thank you Madeline.

- Thank you so much.

- I loved having you.

- Take care.

- Yes.

- And we had promises to keep, right?

- Yes we do.

Thank you, Jeff.

- You're welcome, thank you.

- It was my pleasure.

- We'll be back real soon.

- Okay great.

- Take care.

[soft music] - So Elaine is a sports woman and a gardener, and she clearly was overusing her right side and of course you gave her the solution to that.

She was always going from right to left and you told her, why don't you just use your left hand and rotate to the right.

- Yep.

- And Elaine got that pretty fast Jeff 'cause I remember being so surprised with you.

- I know what you're getting at.

- When you put the golf ball down on the ground and she actually just went for it with her left hand.

- She's a smart cookie.

She got that right away, you know, and that's really the universal problem.

People just end up overusing their dominant side or their dominant arm.

When I was younger, I was a high school football coach.

I was assistant coach and I had the backs and the receivers.

So i spent my afternoon just throwing passes probably two or 300 passes every afternoon.

I would throw my right arm and twist my body and it would start to take its toll and I had to figure out how to fix that.

So I went to the gym.

I was thinking and I picked up a light dumbbell and I just started going through the football pass motion to the other side and pretty immediately my body just felt balanced out.

It felt good just like the fix I gave Elaine.

Now let's get into gardeners.

- Okay.

- All right.

Now, I'm thinking of a season.

Let's take fall, all right?

When things are falling, what does that bring to mind?

- Lots of leaves.

And I think most gardeners have to rake their leaves.

So if you're raking, it's an awful lot of repetitive of motion to one side.

And the simple solution is just to use the other side, put the rake in the other hand and just rake the other way.

- Exactly.

Now how about some more things that gardeners do that are one-sided?

- Well, I think most gardeners weed with the same hand, they dig with the same leg and they pull a cart with the say arm.

- And what's the fix for that?

- Just use the other side, the other hand.

- Exactly.

Now I can hear the phone's ring.

People are gonna be saying, I can't get much done that way, it's not very efficient and they're right.

You know what, when you just start using the other side, it's gonna be a little difficult.

But what you wanna to do is on the days that you don't have a lot, you don't have an agenda, take a little time, teach the other side, how to become proficient at doing that and then once you've done that and you can go to either side, you'll be much more efficient.

- I've taken your suggestions to heart and I really have become more efficient on the other side and it's kind of fun to switch.

It's certainly, you know?

- Yeah.

- Great for my body so let's go see how Elaine's doing.

- All right.

[soft music] - It's nice to come back to see a border four weeks later.

- Here's my buddy.

Hang in there, man keep that mouth shut.

- And the flock is still blooming, which is nice.

- It's purple like a late summer thing.

- Actually it made summer thing.

That's a good observation Jeff.

Let's find the Elaine.

- All right.

- There she is.

- There she is, hey, - How are you, Jeff?

- Hi, I am great.

- Good.

- Hi Madeline.

- So good to see you.

- How are you Madeline?

- I'm great, how are you?

- I am fantastic.

- Oh yes.

- I feel really good.

Thanks to you Jeff.

Because of the things you noticed when we toured our garden the last time you were here.

I practiced all this past month.

- Good for her.

- Getting up, getting down, then picking up something with my left hand.

- Oh wow.

- And stretching out, having my left side more flexible.

And also the glute muscles.

- Gluteal.

- Gluteal, the glutes, when I'm walking it has worked out really well because it makes me stand up straighter and it makes me feel stronger and I think it makes me look really good.

- How's the back.

- The back's good.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, the back is great.

- You're cute.

- Thank you Jeff.

- You don't need to thank me.

You should thank yourself for doing that.

- Oh my goodness.

- You just took all of this and made it your lifestyle and that's the point.

- I feel really good.

- Good.

- And because you were so kind and you were so helpful to help me look and feel better, I can show you just the little chip shot.

- I've seen a set up here.

- I don't play golf.

- You know, I saw that coming in.

I thought, well, maybe she's just playing golf but.

- Yeah.

- There's three clubs.

- There are three clubs there.

- Shall we practice?

- Yes.

Let's step over to my.

- Thank you.

- My green here.

- You're green.

- So gosh, I just realized the last time you were here, I talked about a little nerve pain down my leg.

- Yeah.

I forgot about that.

- I forgot because I don't have it anymore.

- Oh wow.

- Thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

- So now I'll demonstrate just a little chip shot.

- Pay attention.

- I have it in the middle of my stands.

- I'm looking.

- 'Cause I want it to go a little high.

- That's right.

- Come on.

- That's great.

- There it is.

- Oh, there you go.

That was beautiful.

- So your turn.

- My turn.

- Your turn.

- Okay.

- Perfect.

- Oh nice.

- Wow That was really good.

- That was good.

- I picked up a little, okay your turn.

- Oh boy.

A lot of pressure.

- We can just practice - We'll stretch.

- We'll stretch.

- You know what?

That's best thing of all.

I feel like I've accomplished something.

Thank you.

So, you know, Elaine, this has been really fun.

- It has been such a good time with you - I'm really glad we come here to do this.

- Now we're talk.

- Oh.

- There we go.

- I'm amused you're good at everything.

- [Magdalene] He is.

- Good at everything.

- This has been terrific.

- This has been been with you.

- Thank you.

- This is so great.

- I loved having you here.

I learned so much and I appreciate everything you've done for me.

You know, I feel fantastic and I have you both to thank for that and yeah.

- You have yourself to thank for.

- Thank you.

- Welcome.

- We'll see you soon.

- Okay, sounds good.

- Thank you.

[rock music]