Our Garden

When I retired in 1997 I searched for an engrossing project, and settled on making a largish flower garden.  My husband was agreeable to the idea that we buy a small house down in a seaside Massachusetts town where once before I had spent time, provided that the property had considerable space for a garden.  The place we found was perfect; we took possession in January and began working the outdoors in May.  The previous inhabitants had enjoyed the large outdoor space of maybe 150' square as a play space for their children.  Their only embellishment was large 20' square sand box substantially made with railroad ties behind the house in which they had set play equipment.  In the months of their absence this had become a giant kitty litter box for the area's cats of which there were many, especially feral ones, often quite beautiful which shyly moved in the shadows and had the devastating habit of killing all the song birds.  Richard is a great and enthusiastic builder, and perhaps he cares little for gardening, but he can help establish the architecture of a grand garden.  His first project was to make four large raised beds 6'x12' which are too wide for doing anything easily in the center but we only realized that after the fact.  These were set two by two six feet apart forming a giant square with grass space intervening.  Somewhat later we laid down stone slabs as pavement, and then he ran wire underground to come up in the center where we erected a large fountain which continually spills recycled water down from several successive basins.  It is some kind of phoney cheap substance molded and vaguely suggesting Italy and the Renaissance to us.  In the heat of August he set to work on paving over the sand box area filling in with foundation stones and paving with fake brick, working ever so slowly and carefully so that ten years later the surface has never sagged nor tilted.  Over this he erected a pergola on which we at once planted wisteria which now blooms in great profusion of white, pale lavender, dark blue around the middle of May and once these blooms have died and fallen to the ground the area beneath becomes the shadiest coolest spot around in summer's hot days.  The property was surrounded by a hideous metal fence waist high inside of which we planted a succession of japanese lilac, forsythia, lilac, buddleia, arborvitae, and privet, and a relatively long fence covered with climbing hydrangea.  This provides blossoms in the spring in succession in some places, and dense privacy in others.  In one bed we worked to make the yellow spring daffodils, jonquils and yellow tulips predominate among which later spring up hibiscus, purple aster, and a marvelous plant the foliage of which is gorgeous, but which I cannot name; in an another box we have a giant Lilian Austen rose bush and in front a yellow Julia Child, the rest of the box is filled with white and purple iris, a giant sage bush that blossoms purple right now, farther from the house we have boxes with the taller things, one with six foot tall yellow Cone flowers, a sturdy prairie flower that stands together with white Phlox David, both of them with strong enough roots to hold their own with the other, in front of them are the most beautiful white poppies with black centers, ravishing!  At some point I got carried away and added long narrow formal strips filled with peonies, pink poppies, more roses and more sage, and then in yet another flurry I made a square area for nine rose bushes some of which have died and been replaced with boxwoods, which are the solution for the aging gardener, as they require little care and are always beautiful, alone or in groups.  The arrival of coyotes meant the end of feral cats and the renewed sound of song birds.  Early in the morning I take my coffee out to a bench near the fountain and sit listening to the plash of the water, and the early morning bird calls, take in the various perfumes emanating from all around me, contemplate the nature of growing things, and the beauty of the flowers making their appearance from May to October.  It is an agreeable retirement project.