The yard was a sprawling train wreck of abandoned landscaping, dead shrubs, and weeds that were now trees. But none of that mattered; all I could see was endless potential for this rare acre, nestled in the hills of a desirable lake community.
Many thousands of dollars in tree removal later, the yard was taking shape. One of my greatest challenges was cutting back the enormous hedge of Japanese Jasmine which bordered one side of the swimming pool.
The beautiful cascades of green whips with bright yellow flowers were so neglected that it had become a tangled mess of live and dead branches. So abundant was the overgrowth that the diving board and surrounding fence were nearly hidden. The cutting back was a challenge but I wasn’t prepared for the cleanup which took months of weekends. Eventually we were back to a fresh start.
It took years of watering, careful trimming, and fighting off the yard crew, who struggled to understand the concept of a seamless cascade, but eventually my vision was realized. I now had an eight-foot wall of green that would light up with small yellow flowers for most of the season. It was glorious.
About year nine, a winter storm hit our city so violently that we dubbed it “snowpocalypse.” My jasmine was a casualty of this attack. Killed back to the ground, I mourned the loss daily and anxiously awaited the summer season where death might give way to new life.
Alas, my precious was stunted, and two years later it remained a shadow of its former self. We sold the house last year and I feel honest in saying we’d probably still live there if my wall-o-jasime remained.
