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yard, part 6:
decorating the patio
making our house a vacation destination
When we first saw the
house for the first time, the people looking at the house just before us
remarked on coming out that the house had no backyard. All they saw was
its dark and overgrown backyard, with a slope that didn't leave any space
for sitting outside anywhere.
That's not what I saw. I
was struck by a vision of the old European courtyard gardens I'd seen
traveling in Italy and France and England. Time and time again, I
encountered these lovely little outdoor spaces tucked into some of the
most unlikely places, spaces that were barely big enough to hold a tiny
table and two chairs; a space that others might've used for storing trash
cans was transformed with nothing more than a few pots of bright flowers,
some lights, a quaint patio set, and maybe a small sculpture or wrought
iron architectural piece hung on the wall. And I knew instantly that we
could use that same kind of inspirational ingenuity to turn the house's
challenging backyard into our very own outdoor getaway.
It'll take some time to
finish transforming it into that initial vision -- eventually, those
slopes above the retaining wall will be filled in with native ferns and
ground covers and flowering shrubs -- but now that the structural changes
are finally done, the preliminary version of our European courtyard
finally appeared late this summer. (I say "late this summer" thanks to
Target.com (which I won't be linking here because HATE!), and you can read
about that over in Peeve's section of the site,
although I'll warn you right now that it's the only profanity-filled page
on this site. With good reason, however.)
So here's how we started:
Pretty plain so far, but a
blank canvas for all kinds of possibilities. And once it was all dressed
up and pulled together:
We used old terracotta
pots we'd accumulated over the years and just filled them with annuals we
got on sale. We didn't have to spend very much money and they gave us an
instant impact without a lot of effort. We had a small table and chair
that were freebies from the bakery where Sal used to work --the table is
missing a slat on the top (we'll fix that eventually) and one of the
chairs was stolen, so the bakery owner was going to pitch it. Sal brought
it home instead and we use it for extra serving space. The wine barrels
were also free from a local winery; they were glad to have us take them
off their hands. We were planning to use them for rainwater collection --
and probably still will -- but for the time being, they're another serving
surface and provide instant character.
I had a few outdoor
decorations that I've bought at seasonal clearance sales over the years or
been given as gifts -- a couple of stone angels, a coy fish that Sal is
particularly fond of, three architectural stars to hang on the back fence,
and a decorative stepping stone with a sun and moon pattern that I also
hung on the back fence.
For nighttime lighting, we
strung some white lights through the trees that overhang the patio (which
unfortunately doesn't photograph well). The retaining wall provides a nice
ledge for candles, as well, and it was a good way to use odd, half-used
candles we've accumulated. Thanks to the gravel, our patio was also quite
forgiving and versatile for the various parties we threw this summer. A quick
once-over with the blower or a good raking and the patio is as good as
new.
But to truly appreciate
the awesomeness of our backyard, you really have to read about those
parties. The tease: we took our patio for every day to a small outdoor
restaurant in Rome to a marketplace in Instanbul in the course of ten
days. See it to believe it, people...we throw some pretty kick-ass
parties::
-
roman holiday -- save yourself
the plane ticket and join us on our secluded and oh-so-special patio for an
evening and a meal reminiscent of a magical night in Italy
-
turkish bazaar -- and just when
you thought we couldn't possibly top Paris and Rome, we pulled out all the stops
and threw a party they'll be talking about for years
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