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WARRIOR RUN —When you walk through Geraldine Wegrzynowicz’s backyard garden, where do you look first?
A heavenly scent may attract your gaze upward to the grapes growing along an arbor. “Don’t they smell wonderful?” Wegrzynowicz said. “It smells like a glass of wine.”
The glint of sunlight on glass may pull you toward the many bottles — blue ones, yellow ones, even fish-shaped bottles — that decorate the leaf-less branches of an old tree, giving it a Seussian appearance.
The tiny statuette of a fairy will invite you to marvel at the “fairy garden” Wegrzynowicz created by planting succulents in an old wheelbarrow. “The ‘forest’ got ahead of me,” she said. “I like the jungle look. It’s so pretty, I didn’t want to cut it back.”
From a magnolia, hydrangea and fruit-bearing fig tree to Shasta daisies, impatiens and elephant ears, plenty of trees and flowers grow in the garden Wegrzynowicz describes as “small but interesting.”
Around two ponds and a waterfall, along the steps, and near the cozy spot where Wegrzynowicz likes to read, you’ll find statues of rabbits, angels and turtles. There are so many, her relatives have told her, “If you get one more thing, you’ll need a bigger yard.”
Speaking of family, each of Wegrzynowicz’s five children has contributed to the garden.
Son Christopher built the first pond some 20 years ago when he was in high school. Later, daughter Sharon helped rebuild and refine it. When Wegrzynowicz decided to get rid of an old garage, Sharon and another daughter, Linda, dug out layers of culm from that part of the yard to prepare the way for a patio.
Daughter Valerie has added greatly to her mom’s collection of bunny statues, Wegrzynowicz said, and son David found a discarded lobster trap on a rocky New England beach that, once repaired, serves as both a table and a conversation piece in his mother’s yard.
As for the hand-crafted and stenciled porch swing, Sharon recycled the headboard of a bed to be the swing’s back rest and cut the bed’s old footboard in half to become the two sides of the swing.
The garden is a great place for relaxing, entertaining visitors and watching her little dog, Daisy, run around, said Wegrzynowicz, who retired from a customer service position at Nabisco several years ago. The plants need to be watered, but the gardener hardly ever has to weed.
“I have so many things growing so close together,” she said, “the weeds don’t have a chance.”
