Favorite Spot Took 20 Years To Get Right

Some of our favorite garden spots are the products of a bit of planning, a few mistakes and time. One such cozy spot in my garden has taken nearly 20 years to develop.

It really wasn’t a planned area. It was kind of an off-shoot of the original excavation of the back yard.

Our home was constructed on a fairly steep slope. With a husband and four boys who loved sports, naturally it was imperative we have plenty of space for football, baseball and other equally important back-yard activities. Home plate remains in the lawn.

However, you don’t simply carve a 50-foot-wide flat area out of a hillside without creating quite a bank of soil. The dilemma: How to hold the soil embankment in place? Obviously a retaining wall of some sort was in order. But what? Keystone blocks weren’t available at that time. The bank was too high for a do-it-yourself rock wall. We resorted to railroad ties. They were sturdy and since they were old, they were inexpensive (free, if we would haul them ourselves).

The height of the embankment ranged from five or six feet to about three feet. My harebrained idea was to set the ties in vertically and eventually to cut them off with a saw to the varied height of the embankment.

Challenge 1: Actually the first challenge was getting them home, but that’s another story. The ties were 10 feet long and very old but they showed no signs of rot. (That should have been my first clue that my project might not develop smoothly.) A trench had to be dug to handle a big share of each tie below ground. This proved to be a very difficult task. Because of the excavation, we were dealing with subsoil and rock.

However, the timing was perfect. A backhoe was doing a bit of work next door. I approached the operator and asked if he would dig me out a four-foot-deep trench in the form of a gentle S curve. I quickly realized backhoes don’t do anything gently, let alone curvy. I was left with a gaping L instead of a gentle S and a trench that went to China.

Jim and I manhandled the ties into the trench, leaned them against the embankment and covered the bases with the mounds of excavated soil. We stood back to survey our bank. It was a monstrosity.

Challenge 2: Cut each tie to match the level of the soil. Two chain saws and one giant blade of a circular saw later, only four ties had been sheared to their proper height. Obviously we had to forget that idea and move on to camouflage.

Challenge 3: Camouflage. We planted sprigs of ivy at the base of each tie with the hope that someday the wall would be blanketed in green. A large spruce and weeping willow were planted behind the wall and a maple in the corner of the L in front of the wall.

It took a number of years, but finally the wall was covered with ivy and the trees grew large enough to cast a shadow. But something wasn’t right. It was the straight line of the design and the abrupt height of the wall that created a stiffness about the area. It needed to be softened.

To break the height of the wall and to soften the area, I built a two-foot rock wall two feet out from the original wall, and curved it, gently. I added fresh soil behind the rock wall and planted petunias, geraniums, creeping phlox and a host of other short-lived plants. Of course, to accomplish this task, I had to cut into a bit of the football field - a compromise not at all appreciated by the players.

As the years went by, the players aged, grass began to cover home plate, the tree canopies created the feeling of a rain forest, and the ivy roots took over the rich planting soil behind the rock wall. Under the maple, moss and algae flourished amid the grass. It was time the corner of the L took on a whole new look.

Out came the garden hose to outline the new border. Only this time a small cobblestone patio was to be installed under the maple tree. Shade plants of astilbe, hosta, ferns and impatiens filled in behind the patio. Instead of dealing with the ivy-covered rock wall, a few wood planters filled with geraniums, impatiens and pansies sit atop the ivy. Their fluorescent colors shine against the dark green.

To cap this romantic little cove, there is a bench and an old-fashioned pump complete with wooden bucket. This charming and romantic area of the garden is filled with memories and a few mistakes. This is its final face-lift. It will never get any larger, because home plate will never be moved.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Phyllis Stephens The Spokesman-Review