local roots: Immersed in a backyard transformation

Nancy Draper / guest columnist

When Maryann Hymer tells her husband Jack that she is headed out to her garden “for about an hour,” he laughs, knowing she’ll be much longer.

“I get lost as far as the time goes — I can spend hours tending to my garden. I just love being out here,” Maryann said.

From what was once a rental house with an overgrown yard, Maryann has created a beautiful property with varied garden spaces, thriving under her care.

The bungalow, originally owned by a Puyallup church, had no landscaping other than a single rhododendron and a dead clump of heather. Immediately after Maryann and her husband, Jack, bought the house, she began tackling the yard. She first dug out much of the grass by hand, turning it over to create flowerbeds.

She knew she wanted to build a brick patio and walkway, like those she had seen while traveling through England. A friend was remodeling a home nearby, and when he told her he was tearing off the chimney, Maryann asked if she could have the used bricks.

“He gave me nearly 900 bricks, and I immediately bought a small cement mixer and lots of cement. On a 94 degree day, I put down all of these bricks by myself.”

Maryann and Jack then had a trellis built and added a grape vine, which now covers much of the trellis in the summer months. The Hymers intentionally leave the Rainier variety of grapes on the vine until frost because the flavor of the grapes is so concentrated after a freeze. They also share some of the grapes with a friend who makes wine. Little white lights adorn the trellis and the branches of a Corkscrew Willow, located in a pot next to the trellis, creating a cozy lit space on warm summer nights.

She has created a white garden located in a shady part of the backyard, by using plants such as geraniums, Solomon’s seal, impatiens, bacopa, astilbe and phlox. A small rose garden and herb garden fill another section of this garden space. Maryann is very creative in re-purposing antique and collectible items — often planting perennials or annuals in them to incorporate them into the garden.

When Jack and Maryann visited the Cornwall area of England, they purchased a Piskie, which is a painted stone figure believed to bring good luck to the garden. It has been hanging on their garden fence for nearly 10 years. Combined with Maryann’s great enthusiasm for tending to her garden, it is clear the Piskie has served the Hymers well.

Nancy Draper can be reached by e-mail at nancydgardens@yahoo.com.