A View to Garden Romance

If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance

~Bern Williams

When Chuck and Sandra Price lean over the wrought iron fence, this is what they see. The stained glass rooster watching over the little rows of vegetables. Joining it are a trio of tuteurs (3 -dimensional trellises) holding up tomatoes ripening on the vine now that the roots are mature enough for adult-onset hormonal changes which allow fruit to set.

Beyond, blooming scented plants surrounding the ultimate romantic accessory: the lawn. Green year-round here, mine may be the last lawn left without a golf course or cemetery attached. 

Don't all romantics love lawns? I love the birds picking worms to take their children, the bunnies sunbathing mid-day.  The freedom and coolness of a lawn simply cannot be replicated by outdoor carpet. No matter how lovely it looks in the showroom, no matter how hard the retailers centers and water conservation hawks try to make it, it does not hit the same note in the garden.    

Albizia julibrissin adds an oriental grace

One of my favorite features of the garden is the well shaped and trimmed Albizia. Not just for the romantic lacy shade it creates, it represents a bit of my heritage. My mother didn't care much for housework- but she loved to garden.  So much so that in 1960 they chose to live in Whittier rather than Downey because she thought the neighbors in Whittier were less likely to look down upon her doing her own garden chores. 

Roughly 4 decades later, it was not much more than a whip of a tree. My parents had raised it in a black plastic nursery container and delivered it my mom's Ford Focus.   Now its majestic trunk is large enough to carry carved initials.  

The canyon- the blooming mass of Matalija Poppy mark the property boundaries

Their view of the canyon- in the culvert you can see where my husband went a little overboard when I asked him for a bridge to cross over to the hinterlands safely when   Agriculture Department okay ed nursery-ing bare root roses from Peter Beales in the UK- IF they were kept in pots away from the landscape.  

Spa areas should be private

The spa we installed at our first home was at the back of the lot,  under the open stars. Romantic, yes. However, this little spot, offers more privacy. In inclement weather, it is more usable.  The garden side planter is under-planted in strawberries. 

Picking ripe strawberries from the spa is romance that you will not find on travel. If your home is not the romantic place you've ever been- make it your goal.