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Back
Fred was a Wisteria which I bought and planted 17 years ago when my mother
passed away. When I bought it, I
expected beautiful purple blooms as the one my mother had in our side yard. Mine, however didn’t ever bloom. It didn’t fail to grow, it was quite good at
that and I planted it in what I came to realize was an ill-advised spot as it
got quite large and top heavy. I had my
husband put a trellis behind it and we tied both to the deck so that strong
winds wouldn’t pull it over. Over time I kept it trimmed back from the deck
landing and the walkway into the back yard as well as I could. It grew exponentially when we had lots of
rain, and if we went away for a few days in the summer it began covering the
deck requiring a severe cutting back. Still,
I enjoyed it and hoped every year for flowers on it; until we realized that it
was leaning to one side so much that it was pulling the deck apart. Even so, we kept it there and enjoyed the bit
of shade it gave to the back yard and the bit of privacy to anyone sitting on the
deck.
We spoke
about moving Back Fred or cutting it down every year for the past few, but
somehow just never got around to doing it.
We kind of liked his spirit and willingness to just keep growing no
matter how much we cut back. Winters
full of ice and snow and strong winds out of the north did nothing to hurt it,
even if the frozen stuff was so heavy that he bent almost to the ground he’d
stand up again as soon as the sun did its job and melted the ice off the
branches. Yes, Back Fred was hardy, as wisteria
tends to be. We named it Back Fred
because we already had a Front Fred which was old forsythia which predated our
homeownership and we just didn’t have the heart to get rid of. He was in the middle
of the front lawn and for a time we (well, my husband) kept it trimmed into the
shape of some type of umbrella tree.
Eventually Front Fred became too tall and top heavy and didn’t fare as
well in winter as Back Fred. After one especially
icy winter Front Fred no longer stood up once the ice melted and became an
obstacle to efficient lawn mowing so a couple of years ago we had landscapers come and remove and trim some trees
and put poor Front Fred out of his misery.
It was
this past Saturday that we came home from a run to the market to get some things
for a cookout we were having on Sunday to see that Back Fred was falling
over. Despite a valiant effort by my
husband to trim enough off to stand him back up, the trellis had been pulled
out of the ground and rusted and would need to be cut out of the plant. We decided that it was best for poor Back
Fred to be put out of his misery as well as save the deck from being pulled
completely apart. So now there is an
empty space where there was lush greenery, but it does kind of give a more open
feel to the patio and deck and back yard.
We also have lots of wood to burn in the chimenea if we ever get days
that are cool enough without being frigid to enjoy a fire on the patio. I know they’ll come but it feels as if the
summer will never end this year as it’s been especially hot and dry. It might be that the ground was too dry and
helped Back Fred’s ultimate demise as he was too top heavy for the dry soil to
hold the trellis in place any longer.
So we had
a fun time the next day with our gathering which began with my daughter’s
boyfriend helping remove Back Fred’s remains.
We had a Yahtzee tournament, (I won!), good food, lots of laughs, and
nice sunny weather. We did miss Back
Fred’s shade but we compensated by using various umbrellas as parasols. We’re well versed in making do with what we
have and moving on and umbrellas were the most obvious solution to our lack of
shade for a little while until the sun was a little lower and the house cast
enough shade for us to be comfortable once again.
I will
miss seeing Back Fred, but I won’t miss the work of keeping him trimmed and
once the deck is repaired he will just be a fond memory.
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