An Ode to My Back Yard

The backyard at Sassafras House is lush and green, overgrown, really, but I rather like it that way.  Though I have lived away from California for years, that state and my hometown in the arid Central Valley is my default setting of what a landscape should look like.  A yard like this feels exotic and wonderful to me.

There is a garden behind the garage.  These days, it’s a small patch with tomatoes, basil, and zinnias, looking quite hazy in this morning’s fog.

The plot back there is capable of being quite large.  This spring, I lacked the time to properly set up the whole patch because I was busy getting ready for T to move in.  But underneath the overgrown ivy are roses and hostas (always the hostas with me) and this Fall, with T moved in, I really hope there will be time to clean out the whole patch, add some Spring-blooming bulbs, fertilize it in the Winter, and plant a huge garden come the Spring.  Until then, I’m pleased with what I have.  There are some canna bulbs getting after a showy display, my turtle garden marker, the sprinkler ready for action as the heat builds.  I visit the patch daily, to check on the progress of my growing plants.

Though my apple and pear trees invariably surrender their harvest to the squirrels, the peach tree alongside the fairy garden may bring me a crop this year.  I very much hope so because I can nearly taste the peach ice cream this fruit might could flavor in a few weeks.  I’m excited about the potential but, like any sensible gardener, resigned to an outcome that is less than ideal.

I like a garden and yard that are works in progress, as this one always is.  For all its imperfections, it’s a lovely corner of my world.  Between the red oak and the dogwood, there are branches soaring high in the blue sky.

We sit on the back deck under the shade of these trees and enjoy the chitter of the squirrels as they try to help themselves to the bird feeder and peaches and then sleep off their food coma in the dogwood tree.  I welcome the cardinals, goldfinches, and robins that visit here.  Come the evening, I glory in the lightening bugs that light up the dark corners.

The backyard feels like home and that’s very happy.