Way back in the early 2010s, and after much thought and debate, we resolved that Cam ought to request early retirement. His pension had fully vested and, prior to Cam, the Perrault men had all died around age 70 due to one form or another of heart disease. We wanted more than five years together. Decision made, we began looking for a home outside Toronto — Cam’s a farm boy and detested city life — me too, ‘though not the farm bit. We decided east would be our best move because most of both families and most of our friends lived in that direction. After much exploration, we chose Cobourg, but the home we ended up buying was in Baltimore, an even smaller town.
We purchased a lovely, sprawling, stone bungalow on a huge lot that backed on a ravine. After moving in, we put a pool in the back garden (we’d had one in our past two homes and were missing it). Afterwards, we chose a landscape designer to help us repair the back yard and beautify it for us. Chuck became a good friend to us and his design and his team’s work were all superb.
Later, for health reasons, we moved to Cobourg proper and chose another lovely bungalow. We thought it was quite the most handsome home on Frei Street. Only one teeny-tiny problem. It was a corner lot so, nice and big for a town lot, but no privacy whatsoever in the back garden. There were glass doors from the kitchen to a huge deck. The deck was lovely, yes the dimensions but more, because it was low it required no railings so the view was unimpeded. We knew we’d spend hours and hours out there, if only there was some privacy. Enter the wonderful Chuck who recommended the old double border design. Um…. He lost us there!
The idea was to create two border beds, one flush against the fence and the other surrounding the deck, with an expanse of lawn between the two. The plan was that both beds would feature a pleasing mixture of shrubs and perennials that together the plantings would provide a pretty garden and a verdant “screen” giving us a comfortable degree of privacy for deck life. And so it was. At the edge of the deck, and blatantly copying my friend Theresa, I had Cam build us a pergola-style trellis to support some, at that point undetermined, vines.
After a visit to the local nursery, and picking the brain of the lovely woman who helped us, we returned with two young Wisteria vines. Also with a warning that the mature vines were very heavy and to be sure our structure would hold them. You’d have to know Cam, but that was never an issue.
The result of everyone’s efforts was that we had a spectacularly beautiful garden and lots of privacy. The last touch was a bird feeder, which I hung in the centre of the trellis. It was pure pleasure sitting on the deck, enjoying the myriad blossoms and the incredibly diverse bird population.
This week, for some reason, I am missing that deck, that garden and esplecially, that bird feeder.
Winsome Wisteria
Bare winter vines, wound tight and gray,
Reach out to catch the warming day,
Until the sudden hand of spring
Awakes a lavender, looping string.
A violet canopy suspended high,
Like clouds dropped from a softer sky,
The sweet wisteria blooms unfold
To share the secrets winter told.
’Til next time, y’all…
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