Our Garden

The first thing I noticed getting out of the car at home after my month in the hospital was how great the back yard looked. Everything appeared to be in bloom including the Cecil Brunner Roses above our arbor. This arbor is the human social center of our garden. The roses start giving shade in the mid to late afternoon, depending on the time of year. We have a wrought iron table and chairs from Restoration Hardware, plus two odd metal chairs from the late lamented Smith & Hawken outlet (a recliner is in the works).

One of joys of seeing the roses is knowing how hard Terry (with occasional aid from yours truly) has had to work with them. Their origin is at the bottom of the stone wall that divides us from our downhill neighbors (on their side). Jasmine, ivy and native morning glory have all tried and continue to try to strangle the rose branches. One doesn’t have to prune that often, but the pruning is not easy and Terry has to wear protection gloves, spend much time on the ladder, and lean perilously into our neighbor’s garden. This is the only real garden work Terry got in before the medical tsunami hit so she is especially thrilled by the glory of the rose bloom.

Our other plants are doing well, especially our lime tree, jasmine (on the back low fence), rosemary, yellow flowered potentilla, Australian tea tree, Japanese maple and the marguerite and strawberry tree in the picture. Fauna usually seen include squirrels, ravens, humming birds, scrub jays, various ground feeders (safer now with Judy into middle age) and butterflies. Our neighborhood deer dine in the front yard usually, but they’ll hop the back fence too.