- [Madeline] I'm Madeline Hooper.

I've been gardening for decades and living with aches and pains, so I finally decided that maybe I should find a fitness trainer to see if I could fix my problems.

And after learning better ways to use my body in the garden, 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.

In season one, for all our guest gardeners, gardening was their life.

For season two, we're going to visit artists who are also passionate gardeners, and for this lucky group, I'm so thrilled and excited to welcome this season's Garden Fitness professional, Adam Schersten.

Taking care of your body while taking care of your garden.

That's our mission.

- [Narrator] Garden Fit is made possible in part by Monrovia.

[bright music] [no audio] [gentle music] - Adam, I am so excited we're gonna go visit Paula Hayes.

She is such a famous illustrative artist, and I kind of have read about her in the "New York Times" many times.

She's been reviewed in all the garden books, and she's actually been shown in museums all over the country, even the Museum of Modern Art.

And she's known for these glass terrariums that she puts plants inside.

- Believe it or not, I have actually seen some of these.

I've got- - Really?

- Multiple clients down in the city that collect her work and they are stunning.

- Oh, that is fabulous.

So we're gonna get to actually see them in person.

I love the fact that she has them in such a variety of sizes.

And she told me that she works with these glassblowers, these artisans who literally help her.

They blow the glass, and then she has some way of molding it into different shapes.

And so I know this sounds a little silly, but I just wanted to share, I am very excited.

I have this container.

It's not quite a terrarium, but I love putting plants together and creating a relationship between them.

You know, different sizes and leaf shapes and colors, and... - Yeah, well, you've done a beautiful job 'cause this is...

I mean, I would call it a centerpiece, but here it takes up a little corner of your beautiful gardens.

- Thank you.

Her garden, it's not large.

She keeps saying that it's such a small environment, but the relationship of how she's planted things is probably just like what she puts in her art.

So I think the whole experience will be phenomenal.

She calls it her Lilliputian world.

- Oh.

- But I think it's a world with really big ideas.

- I'm so looking forward to meeting her in person.

[smooth music] - [Madeline] Now we actually get to meet Paula in person.

- Hey!

Hi!

- There she is!

- Oh, my gosh, it's so nice to meet you.

- Paula!

It's so nice to meet you.

Paula, Adam.

- Hey.

- [Adam] Hi.

- Paula Hayes, Adam Schersten.

- It's so nice to meet you.

- Yeah, likewise.

- Yes.

- We're here!

- Hey, you made it.

- I'm so happy to be here.

- We could easily tell whose house it was.

- Oh, thank you.

- [Madeline] The flowers is so pretty here.

- Oh, thank you.

Yes, well, it's been a really great year for the flowers.

- What are these?

What are these little guys?

- These are echinacea, cone flower.

- They're beautiful.

- Yeah.

- You know, maybe before we even get to your garden, perhaps you could tell us.

When did nature influence you, and when did you start gardening?

- Well, childhood, you know?

- Really?

- I mean, it goes back to the beginning for me.

I mean, I grew up on a farm in upstate New York, and so it's in my bones.

So it's, you know, gardens and making gardens have pretty much everything that the art process has for me.

And so I just combined them.

- [Madeline] Wow.

- [Paula] And I made that my art practice.

- Isn't that exciting?

- Yeah.

- It just happened, right?

It just was- - You know, it evolved over time, but it's been since childhood.

- Isn't that nice?

It's so wonderful.

It is caring.

Gardening is caring, for sure.

So you could have it in every part of your life is wonderful.

- And paying attention.

- Yeah.

Yes, like just looking at this and the color makes it alive, right?

- Well, you know- - It's just moving.

- You know, I can show you this.

That those colors appearing in this ninebark in front of my house.

- Let's go see.

- [Paula] Yeah.

- So, Paula, this is an amazing plant, and just this little bit looks like a garden unto itself, doesn't it?

It's just so beautiful.

- Oh, I love that observation.

I know I love ninebark, and I guess it's one of my favorite plants 'cause I have a lot of it in my garden.

But, you know, it's the coloring.

Like it really, it invites you to really peer into its magical world.

- [Adam] There's so many colors in here.

- I know!

- It's not just red.

- These are like a color palette that I love.

And it it shows, it reappears in my garden a lot.

I want to show you that.

- So beautiful, yes.

- Can't wait!

- [Paula] Garden, yeah!

So over here.

Down this path.

Well, welcome to my world.

- How nice.

- Wow!

- Look at this, Adam.

- Ah!

- Wow!

- So beautiful.

- Oh, it's beautiful.

- Thank you!

So- - [Madeline] Huh, what are these?

- [Paula] Oh, well, these are my hexagonal planters.

- Oh my goodness.

- For rooftops.

But they can be anywhere that you want a little moveable garden.

- [Madeline] They're modular.

- They're modular, yeah.

Thanks for bringing up that word, because the movable aspect is what is so great.

I think they really create like a little forest.

- [Adam] Yeah, like a little mini world.

- Yeah, I know!

Paula, how do you maintain your garden?

Like, how do you maintain these little guys?

- Oh, you know, I garden with scissors.

- Really?

Oh my goodness.

- I know!

This is actually, these scissors are actually probably one of my main tools right now this time of year because- - [Adam] A lot of attention to detail.

- Yeah, it is about the details right now.

Because since I am allowing so many plants that are volunteer plants, I do have to, you know, cut around because getting to know what just grows here naturally, I'm spotting plants when they're very, very small.

So I really have to be kind of detailed on the level of scissors more than something larger tool, so.

- I love that idea.

I mean, it's a lovely way of caring for things.

It's so delicate!

- Yeah.

And the tools are any gardener will say, I think, that a tool becomes an extension of a person, and also, you know, it's a tactile friend.

- You like it.

- Yeah.

There's an aesthetic response to a tool.

So I just really love these scissors in particular.

- I think that's great.

I love the idea of scissors.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

These were in another location, but then I wanted more space because it was, you know, a table and more chairs.

And so they gravitated, you know, they migrated a little bit over here and I was like, you know, that's kinda nice.

And it actually gave me the idea for the garden to spill.

- [Madeline] Oh, yeah, look at!

- [Paula] Further, like all green.

- The variation of heights is great, and I feel like it's beckoning us to come in there.

- Oh yeah.

- Is that the intention?

- Yeah, so let's go into the central part and I can show you, a couple of other- - Let's go!

- [Adam] Great.

[gentle music] - [Madeline] Now that we're in the heart of your garden, Paula.

- Yes.

- Maybe tell us how you decide on what plants go with what plants?

The relationship of the plants.

- The relationship is also at the heart of my work as an artist.

And the combination of plants, I, you know, it has to build over time.

And as I get to know the place, the environment, the soil and clearly the light, we have a lot of light.

- You do.

- Not that that's going to stay that way for very long because I tend to over plant, obviously.

So addicted to plants.

But the relationship can be, for me, in this garden, I'm choosing plants that are harmonious, that they... And when I say that, I say that in regard to color, you can see in this beautiful echinacea pallida that this is very sensitive pink with the brown center and the yarrow, and finding these delicate, delicate, and delicate pale green.

And it's showing up in the seeds of the grasses.

And then the brilliance of the rose.

And these are heart colors.

- Oh, I love that.

- And, you know, heart colors are obviously a blood, but not in a scary way, [chuckles] but in a- - [Adam] Like loving or caring.

- Loving and warm.

I'm noticing probably things about what I'm feeling inside in plants.

So I'm relating to the plants and the plants are relating to me.

So, yeah.

So I'm probably seeing this in my interior world.

- I must say, I visit, you know, so many gardens, and I think now, I couldn't see a garden like a Paula garden.

This is so you, it's become your character.

And again, just everything in your art, everything in your home.

It just seems like it's all growing from you.

- I think our nature is to relate, and our nature is to connect.

And as much as we can be in that, the better gardeners we are.

- And also the trial and error.

Like you wake up every day and find something new, right?

Something else has blossomed and all of a sudden the scene changes.

- Yeah, and it's hard to detach from it, you know?

Every day, I come out with my scissors, you know, in this time of year, and I need to connect with it.

- [Madeline] It's so you.

- Yeah.

- It is so, you know, it just looks like you!

- Oh, well, you know, the thing about gardens that I've found as well is however much you put in, it gives back so much more.

I get goosebumps, and then I know.

I know I'm in the vicinity of telling the truth.

It's, you know, the plants are teaching me.

And then I get to be sort of an ambassador for them.

- So I think you have this feeling of caring in you and loving to care for things, and certainly your garden.

And it cares for you.

- Yes.

- Yeah, and caring for your body is so important too.

And I mean, that's really what my role is here and kind of shedding some light or sharing this kind of, you know, caring attitude or action with your own body as you're using it.

- Yeah, I've always said that gardening is gardening your body and your plants, right?

It's one action.

- Well, I must say we're here for a particularly beautiful season of this garden.

- Yeah.

Well, let me show you more.

- Oh, good!

Let's see some more, yeah!

[bright music] Oh!

- Wow.

- [Madeline] Paula, the color palette has grown up.

- Oh yeah!

- Yeah.

- Arborvitae and sand cherry.

- I know, I love this arborvitae.

- Are so beautiful today.

- Yeah, there it is!

Like in the ninebark.

You know, the chartreuse and the red.

I just love that.

- Back again.

- Yeah!

- And these containers.

- Oh.

- So I know you've had these all over your garden in quite a variety of sizes, but that little guy is so interesting.

What material is he made out of?

- Oh, this is silicone.

Silicone is like skin, like human skin.

That softness that I was talking about.

It's so relatable.

And, you know, this size, you can hold it in your hand.

And, you know, I sculpted it originally in clay and then in plaster.

And so mold is made of these.

And so I started making these as my sculpture, containers, vessels or, you know.

- Homes for plants?

- Homes for plants.

- I think the shape is absolutely beautiful and organic.

I feel like that's one of your worlds.

- Yeah, organic is pretty much a great way to describe everything I do.

- [Madeline] I think so too.

- You know, finding the plant that will, you know, have some kind of relationship to the forms of the folding, draping.

- It's like another leaf.

- Yes.

- Yeah, and the purple inside.

Feel this, it's so light, like- - Oh.

- Oh my goodness!

- Yeah.

- This hardly weighs a thing!

- Well, yeah, light.

But speaking of weight, I was going to ask you, Adam, I lifted something a little too heavy gardening this year.

I think it's soil, and I really, I think I hurt my wrists because it's even up into my elbow.

- Oh, gotta fix that.

- Okay.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

If you'd help me with that, that would be brilliant.

- All right, absolutely.

- Okay!

[gentle music] - Okay, so tell me a little more.

What happened with your wrists?

- Oh, yeah, my wrists.

So the spring, you know, adding amendments, additional soil to getting the big bags.

- [Madeline] Right, the 25 pounders.

- It's more economical.

It makes sense.

- Yeah, it is.

And I was really good about protecting my back, so using my legs.

But I was not mindful of wrists, so I'd be in like this position picking up and more like this I would say.

- Yeah.

- So I'm pretty sure that's, and the accumulation of a lot of this action.

- Yeah.

And so your pain was here in the wrist?

- Yeah, and this I took care of, and, you know, through stretching and being really mindful of it.

But I noticed that the pain kind of migrated, traveled, radiated up toward my elbow.

- Yeah, and that can- - It's still there.

- Absolutely happen when you're...

So you're talking about you had that pain and you were working through it through the stretching, which is great.

But what happened probably is you start to move a little different, you kinda shield yourself from that pain.

- Yeah.

- And then everything starts moving a little different.

And then all of a sudden muscles that don't usually work are now working extra.

And all of these muscles that control your hand live here in the forearm.

So as you move your hands, it's mostly tendons and stuff through here.

But then the belly of the muscle or the contractile tissue is all up here.

- Oh.

- And so one of the things that I'm gonna show you to do to alleviate some of that pain beyond the stretching that you were doing is just a little self-massage.

So just coming down here, maybe not right on the bone itself, come off of that attachment point and just start to move through some of those areas of tenderness.

- Adam, how do you know where the right spot is to massage?

- Well, it's a great question 'cause I really believe that everybody kind of has that answer inside of them.

And so just as you feel around, like you're feeling for not the pain that you're trying to alleviate, but something else.

- [Paula] You mean like hurts so good?

- Happy pain?

Yeah, exactly.

- Oh yeah.

- Yeah, and so- - Yeah.

- Finding that spot and then massaging it out.

- Ah.

- Right?

Because no one really knows your injury as well as you do.

You can go see a doctor, a physical therapist, but you're the one that experienced the trauma.

You're the one that's carrying it with you.

And there's a lot of answers that you have that other people will not.

- Yeah.

- And so once you found a good spot, another great method is now just to hold that tension or pressure and then move the joint and move that contractile tissue around.

- Ooh, I feel a little knot.

- Yeah, you can really feel that muscle.

- Yeah!

- I want to keep doing it.

- It feels good, right?

And so that knot is really probably what you're trying to loosen up, get that thing to disappear.

- Right.

- Good?

- Yeah.

- And so once we've kinda used this method of kinda loosening up that muscle, loosening up those knots, we can now start to strengthen that muscle, okay?

So I've got these two little rocks that you guys can each hold on to.

- Oh, okay.

- Thank you.

- And we just are looking for something that weighs one, two, three pounds.

And you can support your arm with your other hand.

And what we're trying to do is just move that wrist through its flexion and extension.

- So you want to go all the way down?

- Yeah, you can bring it all the way down, all the way up.

If you're doing this and feeling that pain, the bad pain, maybe cut down on the range of motion or even just work on an isometric contraction where you just hold it in place.

- Oh wow.

- Hold it in that neutral wrist position.

- Yeah, right?

- I like that.

- Yeah, that feels strengthening.

- Yeah, exactly.

Because when we pick something up, the natural position for the body is to really kind of like extend those wrists and hang the weight into the wrist, so that the bicep does everything.

And we want to, you know, the body loves that free energy.

And if we can neutralize that wrist, you get a little bit more activity out of the forearm.

But it's really gonna protect all these delicate little bones and joints, which are so important in your daily practice.

- Mm-hmm.

- I love that idea.

Never really thought much about the awareness of where my, the positioning of my wrists.

- I know!

- Yeah.

No, it's definitely not- - Yeah.

- Yeah, people don't talk about it very often.

- Right.

- Right.

- And another way to strengthen those muscles is with, you know, a shovel, [Madeline laughs] and by holding it, kind of making the same position, we can now work those pronators, these other, there are other muscles that are coming in and attaching at that same point where you're feeling that pain.

And similarly we don't want a lot of weight.

We want to feel, you know, just two or three pounds.

And then if you want to make it a little harder, you could move your placement of the hand on the shovel or whatever it is that you're using.

You could use a dowel, you could use a rake.

And yeah, go ahead and give that a try.

Maybe start here.

- Oh yeah.

- Yeah, and you can brace your hand.

Brace it so you really don't have to work all of this too.

- Oh yeah.

- Yeah, exactly.

And see if you can.

There you go.

- Wow.

- Ooh, wow, okay!

- That's impressive!

- That's really good, so- - Were you a twirler?

- No.

- It looks like you were.

- Yeah, you can work that.

All right, that's enough.

You're making me look bad.

[women laughing] But those are kind of the things that you want to do to really strengthen that area so that the wrists- - Yeah.

- Aren't gonna buckle as readily.

You know how to protect your back, now you know how to protect the wrists.

It's just gonna be a little something to think about extra for a little while until it becomes second nature.

But you've strengthened these forearms to really help protect those delicate- - And remember.

- Yeah.

- What it feels like.

- Yeah.

- Well, thank you.

- You're so welcome.

- Yeah.

I mean, thank you for bringing awareness to that in my gardening movements.

It's really powerful for longevity in gardening.

- Yeah, which is so important.

- Yeah.

'Cause it's part of the happiness of gardening.

- Totally.

- It also reminds me of how I use tools in my terrarium making.

Would you like to see it?

- Oh, I'd love to see it.

- Oh yes, yes!

- [Paula] It's in here, it's inside.

[gentle music] The opening on the side was the thing that I brought to the terrarium.

The history of the terrarium is so interesting to me.

It starts in the Victorian Era.

The Wardian case, which is part of the history of gardens, too.

In the '60s and '70s, the more do-it-yourself, you know, mason jar version.

- [Madeline] Right.

- [Paula] That is the opening is on the top.

- [Madeline] Right.

- I thought, wow, it would be so beautiful to have a hand-blown glass vessel and that the opening is open and that you enter it like a womb.

It's not sealed off, and it's not for use like the way a Wardian case is, and that you're interacting with it.

So I'm so excited to teach you how I make my terrariums.

- I can't wait.

- I mean- - These things are so amazing.

- Oh, they're hand-blown glass that I do with a couple of different amazing crafts people that I have worked with.

- How long does it take them to blow this?

- Well, you know, I'd schedule a couple of sessions, coming away with 10 to 12 finished vessels.

- I love the colors of the stones.

- [Paula] Yeah, these little- - [Adam] And you're just going for like one layer, or you're gonna put two?

- Yeah.

Just need to have a little layer on the bottom of the little river.

So then I would switch to a very dry, I'm gonna start with a dry, very clean potting mixture.

Okay?

Add then, as you can see, there's vermiculite.

- [Madeline] Oh yeah.

- [Paula] The whole process is one of patience.

- Once this is all set, do you ever have to put more soil in?

- You know, I do, and sometimes I wonder why.

[laughs] - You know, where'd it go?

- What happened?

- Because it's not as if it's running out at the bottom.

- Right.

- But I do.

So I get it to a certain point, and then I have these really sweet little prayer plants.

- [Madeline] Oh, I love those plants.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- And I am going to take them out of their little pot and place them in before I get all of the soil in.

- Oh, right, yeah.

So just lightly.

Yeah, it doesn't seem like you're compressing the soil.

- No.

- Yeah.

- [Paula] I don't.

- [Madeline] You could spend hours doing this, I think.

- Yeah.

- Seriously.

- It is nice to add a few crystals, quartz.

Something that is not going to dissolve or be impacted by water.

So I use a plastic turkey baster.

It's never been used.

- Oh, not the metal ones?

- Yes, and not metal because the plastic is softer on glass.

And I go right into the, like the plant system there.

So because- - [Adam] Plus, you really just water the plant, huh?

- Just the plant.

- Not the whole?

- Yeah, and I don't get it on the leaves.

- [Madeline] So this seems to be enough water for one week.

- Yes, it should be, but you know, just have to check it.

But once it gets established, it could be a little less.

And depending on the time of year, but generally aiming for once a week, room temperature water, and just that kind of specific delivery.

- So is there a method to your madness?

- Keep it simple.

Start more sparse and see how it goes.

There could be failure of a plant or more, [chuckles] but to keep going.

- Could we see the one that's old?

- Yes, and I'm practicing with my engaged wrists.

- It is, it's really great.

- Thank you so much.

- Oh my goodness.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, so this one which is mostly the creeping fig and there's a fern in here as well.

But creeping fig.

And you see the opening of this is smaller.

So creeping fig does like the moist environment.

You see it, you know, in a tropical setting, but it does have the rabbit's foot.

- [Adam] Rabbit's fern, yeah.

- Fern, yeah.

But you can see and I use this part of the dowel, I just kind of tap it down, and kind of, to see what's going on in here.

This has gone through changes, you know, it's been in an exhibition or two.

They come back and I rejuvenate them just by giving them love and light.

- What kind of pushed you to glass?

- Well, you know, I was really searching for a way, basically to both carry the planting and almost something that was there and not there, because it's not about the object so much.

It's about the caring.

It's about the maintenance.

So it's a little portal to a world.

- [Madeline] Well, we are so grateful to have been welcomed into your world, your little world, Paula, with such big ideas.

- Oh, thank you.

- We really have had quite an experience with you.

It's just been a treat.

- [Paula] Thank you so much, thank you.

It means so much to me.

Thank you.

[gentle music] - [Narrator] Get Garden Fit with us.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music] [upbeat music fades] [gentle music] Garden Fit is made possible in part by Monrovia.

[bright music] [upbeat music]