Spent last Saturday forcing my friend Jann to toil in my garden — he probably regrets telling me, back when I made an offer on this house, that he would do my gardening and landscaping if I bought it.
All along the west side of my yard was a huge honeysuckle vine. It covered the fence and grew like kudzu, I was constantly cutting it back. This winter’s cold spell gave me just the excuse I needed: the vine died for the most part, and I finally got out the saw and went nuts. In two weekends, it was completely gone except for a small stump, exposing the fence and making my backyard seem twice as big. But what to put in its place, the one side of my yard that gets sun all day?
I know nothing about gardening, plants, flowers — none of it. But I know that I like flowers and I especially like the smell of a nice garden. I’ve previously planted an orange tree, and there is nothing like a spring morning when I throw open the doors to my office and inhale the scent of orange blossoms. Along the side of the house I have trellises in front of each window (a great boon to privacy, since on that side of my house my neighbor is only 7 feet away). I’ve placed star jasmine on each trellis, and this year they bloomed like crazy and smell amazing. Between the trellises are planters holding gardenia, another scent that wafts in my windows in the summer.
So, since I seem to be going for a scratch-and-sniff motif, the new additions are roses (he kept picking roses that didn’t have enough scent for me, I vetted them with my nose) and lavender.
There’s something to this aroma therapy thing after all.
