JURI’S PARKING STRIP

CATEGORY: JURI
PHOTOS: 1) THE PLUMB TREE
2) DRAINAGE DITCH
3) JURI, PARKING AREA, ROCKERY, FENCE
4) PLANTINGS IN MAY
5) & 6) PLANTINGS IN SUMMER
7) PLANTINGS IN FALL
8) POST CAPS
9) INSIDE OF FENCE

I loved working with Juri on his house.  We worked so well together.  As a break from doing the house, in the summer time we worked on his yard.  The first summer we built a deck along the bedroom wing of his house.  The party room opened onto it at one end and at the other end was a widened area next to the breakfast nook.  Its entire edge had steps to the lawn so that it could be used for seating in case of possible future lawn-dancing parties.  It was built around a wide spreading plum tree that was to have a brick patio beneath it tying it into a wishing well he had built. That never got done during the years Juri and I were together. It was probably just as well because the tree was a prolific bearer and dropped it’s plums so indiscriminately that it would have stained the brick.

THE PLUM TREE WITH NEW DECK IN BACKGROUND

Next Juri dug out the drainage ditch beside the street in front of his house and put in five foot culvert sections all the way from his driveway to the corner of the side street.  Then he put in a rockery and a graveled parking strip along the street.

JURI WITH BROKEN DRAIN PIPE



ROCKERY AND PLANTING BED

Part of the stuff that he had scrounged was enough cedar to build a five foot high fence clear across the front of his property and down the side street, it being a corner lot.  There were already high fences dividing him from his side and back neighbors.  Juri asked me to design his new fence, but he specified that each vertical slat was to have edges, so he painstakingly sided each 1 x 4 with one inch strips, thus making quarter inch side reveals.  It not only strengthened the 1 x 4’s, it was good looking.  In plan, the fence I designed had random 45° angled in-and-out sections which made pockets for plantings plus, like the slat-edges, added to its looks and its strength.  I also chose the plantings.  The street side of the front fence faced west so I chose low growing pines for the back planting, and creeping phlox, candy tuft and lavender for the front apron.  Trailing nasturtiums filled in until the other plants grew.  They seeded themselves every year so contributed to midsummer color.

PARKING STRIP IN MAY
PARKING STRIP IN SUMMER


MORE SUMMER COLOR


PARKING STRIP AFTER BLOOM

 The side of the fence facing the house was shady: a good place for rhododendrons, azaleas and sarcococca.  Juri made the post caps.  Each one had a different animal on top.

ANIMAL POST CAPS AT GATE

THE SHADY SIDE OF THE FENCE