Confessions Of A Pre-School Teacher

I have this amazing little oasis in my backyard – my property backs onto railroad tracks which are hidden by trees – leaving me with this wonderful “forest” at the end of my regular domestic backyard.So when you are in my backyard it literally feels as though you are in the country – not 10 minutes away from the centre of a metropolis.

When I moved into my 80 year old home, the backyard had been rather neglected for quite a few years; the grass was pathetic and there were no flowers or plants to speak of., except for the lovely lilac tree which the previous owners cut down to the ground (seriously – the shoots were about 6 inches tall – at best!). Now, I am not a gardener but I do have some artistic flair and I thought I’d attempt to create two areas for flowers. I knew I didn’t want everything squared and straight, the way I do most of the time in my life (I am a very symmetrical person!), I wanted something that would flow with the somewhat wild nature that is in my backyard. Cash was tight  so I decided on some basic gray bricks and  they turned out great, resembling stones.  The garden bed now looks like a soft backwards “S” shape and I filled it to the brim with Impatiens because that part of the backyard is shady due to the “forest”.  As I said, I’m not a gardener…so inches apart/sminches apart -  I ignored the planting rules and I put them really close together and the result was a blanket of colored flowers….Beautiful! The other thing you have to know about me is that I am not much of a “pastel” gal, like my mom – whose favorite colors are cream, off-white, beige – and if she’s feeling particularly adventurous, taupe. I love the bold colors but I am a stickler for color-coordination. So one year I might make  the flowers in the garden all red but the flowers in my  two big (2 ft. diameter) aluminum pots, which we found  in the basement, yellow. This year I did bright purple mini Pansies but didn’t buy quite enough – and by the way, you can never really match these things, so I planted white Impatiens around the trees and the end sections of the garden – it gives it a great sense of  light. My planters haven’t been done yet – am thinking either orange or red (yellow would be just a tad too Easter-Bunnyish for me).

Although we have wonderful neighbours – we wanted more privacy than the chain link fences offered….actually on one side it was an old – and I do mean old fence, that had put up some 50 years ago using old pipes (the previous owner had been a plumber) and what appeared to be chicken wire. My husband took it upon himself to read up on building fences and he built a lovely wooden fence on either side of the yard – the result left everyone happy.  I then had him put up two simple shelves, one on each fence, so that I could have flowers in a pot or candles etc. I thought it would cozy up the area and you know what?  It made a huge difference, transforming that area into a real little living space. He removed the chain link fence from the back of yard which separated the flower beds from the forest and now there’s just a nice natural flow of nature. We have our little wooden park bench out there and we are working on replacing the plastic chairs and also need to change the the stone “patio.” We accidentally used slate tiles which look romantic and natural but they crumble and chip too much – so he is thinking of of a low wooden deck with wide planks or better stones, meant for a patio… however, we’ll wait until the bonus checks arrive!  Until then, every evening from April to October, we’re  out there, sitting  in our cozy little corner of paradise – a candle lit here and there, sharing a glass of wine and enjoying the sunset while we dream on

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