This Hollister couple built their home and garden for five
children. Now they’re enjoying the simple life in a space filled
with flowers and personality.
Larry King never liked much noise, and he certainly wasn’t one for crowded city life. Even 32 years ago, San Jose made him claustrophobic, so he moved with his wife Barbara to Hollister.
Getting started wasn’t easy. The couple purchased a former plum orchard and pulled the trees out with the help of a friend. They built a house large enough for the family, which would eventually include five children, and settled down. More than three decades later, they’re still in love with the park-like setting they created.
“It’s so nice and peaceful and quiet out here,” said Larry, 70. “It’s just paradise, another beautiful day in paradise.”
While the Kings were building their home, they consulted a couple of landscape architects, but most were intimidated by the size of the property they wanted landscaped. Still, one gave them a good idea: a deck. Larry built it like an outdoor living space – 2,000 square feet wrapped like an amphitheater around an octaglonal patio below, perfect for taking in views of the entire garden and, with a little bit of grass, the project felt complete.
Today, Larry spends most of his waking hours in the back yard, said Barbara, 66, either building things in his shop or puttering around in his vegetable or seedling gardens. She tends the plants that are already established.
Instead of shopping at the nursery, the couple grows almost everything they need to sustain the half-acre garden one year to the next from cuttings or seeds produced by their own plants.
Guests can enjoy a cool afternoon, even on the hottest of days, thanks to the damp, moist earth beneath large ash and willow trees, and the cool expanse of a wisteria-covered arbor. There are also ponds, art pieces and play areas scattered around the yard, projects that Larry took up at one point or another to ease boredom.
The garden’s southeast side is devoted to Asian art, and a bright red welcome arch is its centerpiece, honoring the ancestry of one of his granddaughters who is part Chinese-Hawaiian. In the northwest corner, brightly painted statues of the seven dwarves mark a play area for the couple’s 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Here, there are places for their imaginations to unfold, enjoying the sandbox, a smiling fire hydrant and a drinking fountain covered in hand painted comic book characters from Dick Tracey and Superman to Tigger and Calvin and Hobbes.
As long as they’ve been here, the Kings have been known for hosting pig roasts, and they have a pit into which an electric spit can be fitted. Their family loves the tradition, but as the couple has gotten older, the roasts aren’t as frequent, Barbara said.
“It used to be every year, then every couple of years, and now it’s about once every five years,” said Barbara.
Still, pigs play an important role in the garden’s décor. Flying pigs dot the interior of a gazebo and peek out from bushes.
Other whimsical touches dot the couple’s garden, too. There are hearts floating in some trees, others have faces – three if you can find them all – and still others have water spigots seemingly growing from their trunks. It was a clever piece of handiwork that Larry thought of, routing a groove in the tree and allowing the trunk to swallow the water pipe, leaving only the spigot.
“I tell kids that they’re water trees,” said Larry. “They don’t believe me, so I say, ‘Go test it out.’ Now they’re real concerned because they can’t tell if grandpa’s lying. They go up and turn the spigot thinking nothing’s going to happen, but then water comes out!”
Around every corner, it seems, something awaits a visitor. That’s exactly the feeling Larry wanted to create – just like a Japanese garden, where a new sight waits around each bend in the path.
“I think the nicest compliment I’ve ever gotten was from this little girl,” said Larry. “We had a party earlier this year, and she came with her mom from San Francisco. She said, ‘Mom, can we come back to this park when there aren’t so many people here?'”
It’s here, in the park of their own creation, that the Kings see living out the rest of their days.
“They’ll have to carry me out feet first,” said Larry.
