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woke the family, saying, "Come look!" They had now learned to feign excitement.

The tulips came and the iris. I was so happy, but it needed more green, I decided. "I think I'll put in some ivy," I said. "Won't that be nice? It will grow on the fences and add a nice green background to highlight the colors."

I planted some ivy, and waited for it to spread. I planted more roses. I waited some more. Months later, the ivy hadn't covered the fence, and I was back to standing with my hands on my hips, scowling at the ivy. I planted peonies and purple sage and butterfly bush and still the ivy hadn't covered the fence; it wasn't anywhere close to covering the fence. So, I planted Virginia creeper.

If you're not familiar with Virginia creeper, it's quite prolific and will cover anything near it in a couple of years. A friend was at my house and asked what he might plant that would cover his fence and I suggested Virginia creeper. "It will cover the entire fence in a couple of years," I said.

"I don't want to wait that long," he responded. And I thought I was short on patience!

Within three years, almost all my fences, the arbor, the house, the yard, the rose beds, the fruit trees were all covered with Virginia creeper. I pruned it back constantly and watched out for the creeping into the fruit trees. I cut it out of the eaves of the house and let it cover the bay window on one side. In the summer, it looks like green stained glass as the sun shines through the leaves into the den.

I had found my plant; Virginia creeper was for impatient gardeners, like me. It now frames the waterfall painting behind the hot tub, it covers the arbor and I even found a shoot that had managed to sneak around the corner into the utility room and up the wall.

I mentioned that it covered almost all the fence. Underneath the shade of the patio area, where the waterfall and pond are, there isn't enough sunshine for Virginia creeper. So, it looked bare. Twelve years later, the ivy that I planted there has covered the area around the waterfall and pond, the bare bed where there is little sunshine, and the rest of the fence. I even found a vine trying to sneak up into my hammock this week.

It just took twelve years. "What's the rush?" the ivy asked.

Patience, lots and lots of patience; that's what gardening is teaching me, gradually, but not nearly fast enough to suit me.

Learn more about this author, Will Kester.
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