A Garden Gate...

The backyard has evolved in the past 30 years from a bare yard to one with many functions. Years ago I planted a row of honeysuckle plants to created some privacy from the road. The neighbor lady, who passed away years ago, asked why I was doing such an unusual thing. My vision was a hedge and not eight small eleven inch tall plants in a row. They grew inspite of the shade of two large silver maple trees. When our two boys were younger, we put in a large concrete slab for a basketball court. I can remember being in such bad shape that helping put that court in about destroyed my life. As the boys grew older and graduated from college, the basket was given away to a young boy who lives in Lamoni, Iowa. The pole is standing bare waiting for me to build the bird house to put on it. That will be another story. It really makes a great patio. When we acquired a six week old puppy, our neighbors at the time had a large dog, chained, a big heavy chain, to their front porch stairs. We felt our little puppy would not live long if that dog ever got loose, so we added a children's wire fence around the back yard. Little did we know years later when we acquired a rescued dog, a border collie, that the fence would prove necessary to keep our dog in the yard. As the honeysuckle hedge matured, our oldest son found used wooden fencing for me. We added it to the west end of the yard. It joined an already installed grape arbor. Did I say the fence sections, eight of them were all free and were weathered from age, so they look rustic? Also one can also find a fish pond and large old mock orange bush that smells wonderful in spring at the west end.
So I have always admired Japanese gates, and I have studied the need for grand entrances to your garden space, and I finally had to build one. I tried to use as much old lumber that I had around in the garden shed and old shingles for the roof left over from shingling of the house. Through spontaneous design and two different years of work, the gate is now complete. The winter has made the gate impassible as the snow and ice froze at the base of the gate keeping the gate locked up by natural causes of an ice jam. I know now that I will have to raise the gate a few inches higher and this spring the gate gets a coat of paint. Just the gate not the rest of the structure. I am thinking green paint to match the shutters of the house, or a blue that matches the color values of the house. I really like the gate and have been caught under there with the dog during a rain storm. I like that I recycled a lot of material, and I like that through patience and perseverance the gate has become a part of the honeysuckle hedge on one side and a very large forsythia bush on the other side. The old sidewalk has been there for many years maybe poured during the 3o's as that was when the WPA put in the street sidewalks of the town.
I have rambled, but I like the way a garden can evolve and grow, and instant building really isn't as satisfying as the gradual designing and construction. I look forward to someday adding a wooden fence in front of the honeysuckle hedge and to tie it in to the Japanese gate. Thanks for reading.
An added footnote. People who have had two or three cups of coffee from Panera Bread, shouldn't be allowed loose on a blog site. Too much material!!!!!! Sorry!