Electric blue bench matches the oblelisk. Panels in background will help hide Veronica’s secret garden.
Pink hydrangea beneath one of the giant obelisks Walter made for the garden.
when he sees one,” says Veronica. For two years, the pond was well populated but this past summer it was sadly silent. Veronica wanted the garden to have
a sense of discovery so pathways are an essential design element. Screened rock keeps the garden natural. At the back of the garden there is a tool shed which is heated and serviced with electricity, but the construction that delights Veronica most is the German-created greenhouse that she and Walter put together from a kit that cost under $3,000 at Costco. It allows her to get a head start on spring and provides a place to store her pots in winter. It’s been furnished with a bistro table and two chairs. She and Walter
12 WINTER 2013
‘Cinco de Mayo’ a glowing florabunda shrub rose with a sweetish scent gets a little love from a honey bee.
can escape the house after a long winter and enjoy the feeling of being outdoors before it’s warm enough to sit in the open. “I’m beginning more and more to real-
ize that structure is almost more impor- tant than the plants,” remarks Veronica. This would account for the raised four- foot by 12-foot vegetable bed and the two tall obelisks that have been painted Mediterranean blue, the colour that also decorates the pergola they painted after they bought the house. A twin blue obelisk at the bottom of the garden is in a shady location, covered with wiste- ria. “The wisteria will probably never bloom,” says Veronica wistfully, “but I
like it anyway.” Nearby a brilliant blue bench carries on the colour theme. She does love the plants in spite of her
protests about structure, and she loves roses, only not the kind that need a lot of fussing. A number of beautiful hardy roses, all black-spot-resistant, fill the garden with scent and colour. Veronica claims to be fickle when
it comes to plants, but that’s just a measure of her curiosity about all the new ones she encounters. She is very loyal to her lilies though, which she adores. She thanks Walter for waging a summer long battle with the red lily leaf beetle each year. “He’s not a gardener,” Continued on page 29.
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