Porch Talk with Brad Hart
by Doug Pulling, Staff Writer
Ludlow Point Villages recently celebrated a farewell to Brad and Polly Hart, recognizing the immeasurable contributions they have made to the neighborhood since arriving twenty years ago. There was hardly anyone in attendance who had not been touched by their generosity, resilience, and kindness during their years in Port Ludlow. Both Brad and Polly are talented and creative people who have built an adorable home in our community. This article focuses on one aspect of their sundry occupations: the art of Brad’s bonsai.
When they were young, in their 20s, Brad and Polly were window shopping at Christmas time. They saw a display featuring a bonsai where a little fir was shaped to a point, reminding Brad of a tiny Christmas tree. He wondered how it was done, that a tree could be miniaturized. “I’d like to make some of these,” he thought, with a confidence to fabricate that has marked his artistry in years since, in woodworking, metal working, and gardening. “I went out and bought some trees, four or five of them, and cut them here, cut them there, and they all died.” Not watered enough, or too much, wrong soil, poor drainage. “It was hard to get the gist of it,” he says, “because there is a lot to know.”
Challenged by the process of this living art, Brad found a school for bonsai artists an hour away from his Simi Valley, CA, home. He began to study with Roy Nagatosi, an internationally recognized Bonsai Master, at the Fuji Bonsai Nursery in Sylmar, California. With help from his educators, he designed a space in his back yard where the developing plants would have a chance to thrive. He began his own bonsai garden at home, and using the techniques he’d learned, soon had specimens thriving.
After 10 years at his hobby, Brad had filled all the spaces in his garden where he could safely keep his delicate plants. He had to give some away to make room for the new plants he was starting. Then he decided to sell some of them. Soon he had a booth at a farmers’ market in Ventura, and every Saturday morning was selling a few plants. When the Ventura market was closed one Saturday, Brad got a tip from the market manager that, “Santa Barbara would love to see your product.”
On his first trip to Santa Barbara, Brad discovered there was a booming market for bonsai there and soon was selling plants to Julia Child, David Carradine, and other notables in the area. With Polly’s encouragement, Brad continued his dedication to bonsai cultivation, marketing in Santa Barbara what he was able to create outside his daily work schedule.
When he was able, Brad scoured the countryside from Morro Bay to Thousand Oaks for diverse trees to use for his art. He would carefully dig up the young plant, bring it home to his nursery, and do the pruning and shaping necessary to set it on its journey towards being a unique artistic creation of nature. Once he traveled into the desert near Palmdale, and on a hike into the arid landscape, discovered a California juniper, an evergreen noted for its twisted growth, and interesting bark and cones. Brad brought this home to Simi Valley and nursed it into a distinctive specimen, among the pride of his collection.
In 2005, after Brad retired from his job as a sheet metal technician, he and Polly decided to move to Port Ludlow. Polly’s father lived here, and his reports of the mild climate were sufficient to convince them to escape the heat of the Simi Valley.
So it began, the migration of 25 years of bonsai art, and the establishment of the lovely new home the Harts created on Camber Lane, in Ludlow Point Villages. Polly took an evening job at the Port Ludlow Inn, and for years was the cheerful evening face of that desk. Brad could be seen for a part of nearly every day in his garage, carving wooden ornaments, making cabinets and tables, forging knives, and finishing projects for neighbors. He was never alone there as his blond retriever, Callie, stayed by his side until she sauntered down the driveway to greet a visitor. When he wasn’t in the garage, Brad was in the nursery forming his latest bonsai creation, many taken from their Pacific Northwest environment.
That juniper he brought in from the desert? It flourished in Simi Valley for ten years. Brad was proud of it. After arriving in Port Ludlow, he shared his development of this tree with another bonsai artist, Dan Robinson of the Elandan Gardens in Bremerton. On hearing this, Robinson remarked, “Don’t be disappointed. It’s not going to make it up here.”
“And he was right,” Brad says. “In two years, that tree died. Some do, no matter the care.”
The Harts have decided to return to California to be closer to their daughter. Yard work and home maintenance here in Port Ludlow have become increasingly difficult for Brad. “So now, it’s time for me to change, and go back where I came from and have our daughter come first. Same with Polly.” Another move for the Hart bonsai collection is underway. Some of the specimens are forty and fifty years old. “I’m not sure how my trees are gonna do that (survive the move), because I’m taking trees that were more for this area on the road to Ventura. A cool breeze from the ocean there might be OK. But I’m a little nervous about it!”
Looking back on his time in Port Ludlow, Brad reflects, “It is a dream of a place. I’ll never forget it. People welcome you here. If somebody says hello to you, they mean it, you know?”
Postscript: With elaborate crating designed by their neighbor, Randy Triplett, to protect each plant’s place in a U-Haul, the Harts successfully transported the entire bonsai collection to their new home in Camarillo, California. The last obstacle to the move, the Agricultural Inspection Station at the Oregon-California border, was traversed uneventfully. The station was vacant of personnel.
Comments