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I have seen some of the most ingenious yards and gardens where people are willing to let their imagination go free to create. Some yards or gardens that would be otherwise barren or difficult to shape can turn into the same one that draws people to your neighborhood just to see it.

My husband and I once purchased a small acreage with the remnants of what was once a showplace of a gardener's care. The couple responsible for its care retired and sold it. The next owner's bought it intending to move back from the west coast and rented it to a niece while they waited for their opportunity to return. They loved their niece, but were unprepared for the lifestyle she'd fallen into after a bad divorce. She'd allowed drunken parties and unsupervised run of the property by her friends. Needless to say, the damage to the gardens was extensive by the time the new owners returned and ask their niece to leave.

Unfortunately, they had only returned at the request of the neighbors who were tired of the goings on. They never did move back from California and a year later put the acreage on the market. We are rebuilders. We were able to purchase the place for a very reasonable price. In the year it had set empty the wild had taken over. We had a lot of work to do just to clean out the weeds and overgrowth. Once that was finally done we began to see the bits and pieces of the once glorious gardens. We repaired picket fencing that bordered flower beds and cleared the weeds around the plants. It was not an easy task considering much of the weed cover had overgrown the good flowers and shrubs underneath.

Eventually we restored and repaired a stand of naked ladies, a rose garden, and started repair on a large brick wishing well planter that had been nearly demolished. The real treat was when we found the roof of the wishing well in tact under a large stand of cedars that bordered the property. Then I started to see where we could put our own touches. We made a rock garden under a half circle of lilac bushes. Within it we carefully placed antique and worn gardening tools arranged as if left there by the gardener. An old wheelbarrow was turned on its side; a hand tiller stood against a tree, a potato fork with a broken handle was jabbed into the ground. The work was rewarding and a great way for our family to work and play together.

We no longer live there, but the family who bought it from us continued where we left off. It's a joy to drive past it today and see the next new part of the

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