Poetry in the wood

Virginia Smith

Thursday, August 07, 2014

Hughes is that rare soul who prizes what other designers and gardeners despise - more so if it's scarred by deer browsing, insect damage or disease.

That's because, in addition to designing ecologically responsible landscapes, Hughes, 46, is a skilled woodworker who makes rustic furniture from garden "debris," a kind of plant-world Dumpster diver.

"It's a nice marriage, landscaping and woodworking," says Hughes, whose five-year-old business is called Weatherwood Design. It comprises about 70 percent landscaping and 30 percent woodworking.

Storm-felled trees and gnarly vines make good raw materials. So do pruned branches, old barn boards, and stuff plucked from the side of the road.

An arborist friend scouts out intriguing branches and discarded trunks. Hughes helps the Natural Lands Trust and local preserves thin out invasives or dead trees. And every July 4, again with permission, he rescues unwanted driftwood from death by bonfire at a public beach on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

The wood might sit for years on the 0.4-hectare property he shares with his widowed dad, Merritt Hughes, a retired English teacher. Logs, planks, oddball sticks and scraps are stacked along the driveway, in the yard, and in and around Hughes' densely packed, unheated 50-square-foot workshop.

"It's hard to throw anything out," he says of the jars of nails, screws and bolts, the bits of this or that, and the saws, planes and other tools of his trade.

Drying wood outside is challenging. But if rain and snow are his nemeses, water is also a friend. "My best ideas come in the shower," he says.

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Poetry in the wood