I love gardens. I have been very fortunate to visit quite a few in my, hmm, shall we say thirty something odd years. I have gotten to see gardens in England, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hawaii, and across the southern US. I have gotten to experience fantastic gardens from the imaginations of kings to humble little kitchen gardens that grow to feed a family. I never thought that I would own my own garden though. I always wished that I could have a garden, similar to the ones in Charleston, SC. I wanted a fountain and brick walkways with a moss patina covering them. I wanted trees and shrubs to bloom year round. I wanted the privacy of aged plants sealing off my little home from the rest of the town. I wanted Camellias, tea olives, hydrangeas, gardenias, and azaleas to surround my home. As luck would have it we were able to find and purchase a 1950's home with just such a garden. Yoyu can read about that is some of my earlier blog posts. This is the type of garden I was so fortunate to enjoy for three years. It needed a lot of love and care. All of the beds were overgrown with English ivy and weeds. The bricks had about 12-14 inches of grass on the top that you had to dig out by hand. The azaleas were old growth and needed a desperate trim, the type of trim that you cringe on doing but know in about a year they would be beautiful again.
Oh I have to mention the fragrance in the air! At night in the spring, summer and fall you could stand outside and smell the tea olive in the air. During spring a hint of Carolina Jessamine would be added to make the smell totally divine! It is one of those fragrances that I will always have fond memories of our house in Orangeburg.
Above is the one of the hydrangea bushes in the yard. I think there were about 10 total. The next picture shows some of the different varieties of hydrangea that I had. I loved the big, puffy purple ones. Some even had a slight fragrance to them. I also had about 5 gigantic gardenia trees. Yes, I will call them trees. They stood at least 8 feet tall and some were over 10 feet. They usually bloomed May and June. I took cuttings from them and made the whole house smell heavenly.
Now my musing brings me to my new and current home. Yes, that is the plain back yard, with the plain concrete patio. We have grass with weeds in it. There is one lovely crepe myrtle behind me as I take the picture, with a smaller tree near the patio. We just finished the black chain link fence around the yard for the dogs. Other than that there is nothing. Here is another picture from the side of the house. Nothing. Maybe I should look on the good side and say, there is some much potential for the yard. Everyone would like to start with nothing. Sigh... I just don't know where to start!
I did decide to try planting some hydrangeas and verbena. I found an old stack of brick left over from building the house and I might try edging the beds with it. I have a few test pieces in place. The new bed is right under our bedroom window so we could see the blooms during the summer. So far everything has survived. I also planted some flowers around the patio. They did make the place feel a little more like home. Maybe this fall and winter I can come up with a plan. Have any suggestions?
