La Costa jungle garden helps Vietnam vet make peace with his past

By KATHY DAY - For the North County Times | Thursday, June 26, 2008 11:02 PM PDT ∞

LA COSTA ---- Lloyd and Debbie Trimble turned an onion patch in their back yard into a jungle oasis where they can take a break from everyday life.

It’s also a place where Lloyd can reflect on the jungles that he saw in Vietnam when he served in the Army in 1969-70. He says that time dragged him down for many years, but now has brought him a new calm and set him on a mission to help Westerners learn about traveling in Vietnam and the people he’s met there.

It seems that creating the “jungle” in a small section of their large pie-shaped lot has helped him along that road.

He recently talked about his Vietnam experiences on a Cox 4SD television segment in which he told of watching a friend be killed by a land mine and coming upon the scene of a battle where he had to bury 36 bodies.

“It was harder coming back than going there,” he said of his service in Vietnam with the First Cav, Fifth Battalion, 7th Cavalry, Company E (Recon).

It took him years to get over it, he said, and along the way he turned to marijuana, thinking that would solve his problems.

When he sought help, he was diagnosed and treated for post-traumatic stress disorder. He still has insomnia and high blood pressure attributed to his service days and exposure to Agent Orange, he said.

But now he can find tranquility in his own jungle, he said this week.

The Trimbles bought their home on a quiet La Costa cul-de-sac 30 years ago, Debbie Trimble said.

One of the first things they decided to do was tear out the onion patch ---- which was filled with several varieties of the plant that seemed to pop up year-round, she said.

“We’d had a pond at our house in San Marcos, so I was going to dig a little hole,” she laughed. “Lloyd said, ‘Go big.’ ”

That’s pretty much how things started ---- that and a few plants they gathered from places like a terrarium he got on the first anniversary of the opening of his hair salon, Lloyd Trimble Salon in Del Mar.

The philodendron had outgrown its container, so they brought it home and stuck it in the ground. Now it’s wrapped itself around a Washingtonian palm that grows alongside an array of other palms and a large banana tree.

“We randomly throw things out here,” Lloyd said, pointing out coleus and an array of shade plants and “critters,” such as a stone crocodile or a troll poking out here and there.

There’s a stately shefflera that they salvaged from a neighbor’s trash, spider plants that have sent up volunteers all around and Canary Island palms, queen and king palms, Cynthia and ponytail palms, and date palms.

One of them started in a pot on the porch of his salon. When it outgrew that spot, it moved to the yard.

They’ve also picked up a few additions from their son-in-law, a landscaper.

“I found three things in here today that I didn’t know I had,” Lloyd said while wandering through the yard earlier this week.

The back edge of the “jungle” and the space fronting their deck are lined with reeds that add to the tropical feeling.

And tucked behind that border are pots filled with agave and dragon tree seedlings that they are growing to add to their garden and perhaps sell.

Life in the jungle is always interesting, Debbie said, noting that “It’s always changing �- dragonflies sometimes, all kinds of animals like raccoons (which ate the koi they used to have in the pond) and opossums.”

“The plan is to grow up a canopy so we can cut down on water use,” Lloyd Trimble said.

The palms and larger trees are on a drip system, and the other areas get watered a short seven to 10 minutes a day, Debbie Trimble noted.

“Anything you don’t have to water is good,” her husband added.

That’s one reason they’re shifting gears on the opposite side of the yard and starting to put in a desert oasis. Outside the “jungle,” the yard is rimmed by citrus trees that give them a variety or oranges year-round. Just for fun, each is named for a special person in their lives, said the parents of two daughters, now 29 and 30.

There’s also a palapa, which at the moment is missing its cover that blew off during the October Santa Anas. But that’s soon to be fixed because the palms will be trimmed and the fronds removed will be recycled into the cover, Debbie said.

On the bank to the rear of the yard, they’re planning to build a replica of a war-time “shore watcher’s shack” for their granddaughter who is on the way ---- “not a playhouse,” Lloyd said.

While the jungle brings them calm, excitement comes from the centerpiece of the yard ---- the “parent” dragon tree. It’s giving them seeds to grow more of the Canary Island native which produces a blood-colored sap that is used to stain Stradivarius violins, Debbie said.

The massive, multi-trunk tree is one that rarely puts out seeds that will grow in this area, Lloyd added. “We think it’s about 40 years old.”

Learning about their plants and trees is part of the fun of their yard, Debbie said, noting that they visit Quail Gardens often to see what they can find to add to their collection.

Already they’ve started planning what succulents to add as they move to the west side.

As their garden grows, so does Lloyd Trimble’s passion for a country which has brought him physical and emotional pain. (He still has a bullet in his side from being wounded and has two Purple Hearts.)

In 1993, he made his first trip back to Vietnam. He explains why on his Web site, www.vietnamagain.com.

“When I was there, I was rarely exposed to civilians. I never got to know the people and see how they live,” he wrote.

“It seems I've always been obsessed with Vietnam. At first it was bad dreams, no sleep and ugly thoughts but after some time (25 years) I began to come around. I met a girl named Angie Tran and we became friends. Knowing her started me thinking about Vietnam again and everything I missed seeing when I was there the first time. I wanted to see Vietnam and meet the people.”

Now he has befriended and pays for schooling for two young Vietnamese girls and another college-age student. He also offers advice to others interested in helping people in the country and travel tips on getting around and dealing with the locals while in Vietnam.

His experiences, he said, have given him for a love of the country and its people and a desire to know them even better.

And, it’s given him a different perspective on the jungles where he once saw things he never wants to see again.

Now his own private jungle is a place of peace and reflection, sometimes even at night when he can’t sleep because of the other jungles.