Turf War

A landscape alumnus and current student team up in a two-day backyard makeover. 
Written By Katy Molaskey, Third-Year Landscape Architecture Student. Photos by Lindsey Blah.

This summer my dad, an architect, introduced me to Mary Dewese, the landscape architect he was working with on one of his projects.  As a third-year landscape architecture student here at K-State, he thought it would be beneficial to my future career to meet professionals in the design disciplines.  I met Mary for the first time at her in-home office in suburban St. Louis.  Like all St. Louis residents, the first thing we asked each other was where we went to high school, and it turned out that we were both former Parkway South Patriots. I knew we were going to get along. 

During our meeting she told me about her blog, sprawlstainable.org, in which she is documenting her experiences with making her home a more energy and resource sufficient place.  This spring her and her husband had a geothermal heating and cooling system installed, and in the backyard Mary is growing her own produce.  She showed me around the garden, and it was impossible to believe that she had no formal training in growing produce.  She had red and green tomatoes, green beans, broccoli, basil, plus much more in a relatively small garden plot.  We then sat and talked for a while about being in the profession and choosing to work in a situation that made you happy.  It sounded cliché, but when Mary told me that she graduated with the grades to work at any firm and decided to open her own because it was what she wanted to do, I took the advice to heart.  Our conversation ended with Mary asking if I wanted to help with her most current project. 

The project was a backyard in O’Fallon, Missouri, for which she is lead designer.  She then added that it was actually for a TV show on the DIY Network called Turf War, and she wanted someone to be her “righthand girl” to help her keep organized and stay calm during the installation.  I had never heard of the show, but she told me that it was a two-day competition between two neighbors to see who, with the help of landscape professionals, could create the best backyard.  I said that I would absolutely love to help her!  I grew up watching Trading Spaces, an interior version of Turf War, and dreamed about doing something like this.

A week before the taping, we met with the contractor and a couple of Mary’s friends who were going to help with the plantings and sewing.  Mary went over the schedule of what needed to get done when so we would be able to assign tasks to the volunteers and get the project finished on time.

At 7 a.m. on Friday, we met at the Turf War house and after taping some of the opening lines, we were off.  Although it was early, it was already shaping up to be one of the hottest and most humid weekends of the year, but we had a deadline.  The first order of business was marking off key design elements and then stripping the sod and busting up the existing concrete slab patio.  The whole day I tried to get my nose into everything from heavy lifting to making design decisions to keeping Mary from getting too stressed out.  Most of the first day was getting rid of the old and getting ready for the new.  The patio was being repaved, the grass was being replaced by new sod, and a whole new planting plan was being installed.  By the end of the day, almost all the major projects had been started and were about half done, so we knew that the next day was going to intense. 

As I was driving back out to O’Fallon at 7 a.m. on Saturday, I was preparing myself for some hard work, but as I rounded the corner of the house I was not prepared for what I saw.  It had rained Friday night, and remember how I mentioned that the sod was all removed? Well, the backyard was now a huge mud hole.  People were falling over, losing shoes, and the bobcat machines were getting stuck.  It was almost funny, but the situation put even more stress on Mary.  The morning was pretty miserable because it was impossible to get around, but by mid afternoon the mud had dried up in the heat.  I have never been so dirty or sweaty in my life, but somehow I became so focused that I barely noticed.  Luckily we were given another hour at the end of the day because the producers believed that we deserved it, plus neither team was finished.  We managed to rally at the end and got everything thing in its place and the finishing touches in position.  I was completely covered in sweat and mud, but I had the time of my life. 

This whole experience taught me three main things.  I learned more about how the elements of a design are constructed than I could have ever learned sitting in a classroom.  I learned about how much physical labor I could personally do. And I learned about the behind the scenes action that goes into making a TV show work.  The latter was one that I have always taken for granted when watching Trading Spaces.  The Turf War crew ran like an oiled machine, from the camera crew to the amazing catering they had.  There were a variety of snacks available all day, great meals, and coolers stocked with water, juice and gatorade.  Because of the heat, the crew was adamant about drinking enough water which is how we managed to go through an entire pallet of bottled water in one day. 

I met some amazing people during this experience and am glad I got to share those two days with them.  I want to thank Mary for this opportunity and can’t wait to see how the show turned out! 

Watch us
Tuesday October 26, 2010
On the DIY Network
At 7pm

Click here to see a Youtube Video Teaser for the episode.