The Brick Wall

The Brick Wall

There was a brick wall at the back of our new yard. I hadn’t even noticed in all the rigamarole of buying the house, beyond it was a woods, and the mowed yard ended in tall weeds well before the wall.

Exploring the yard, after we settled into the house, I trudged through the weeds to check out the woods, and almost fell over the wall. It isn’t very tall, but was in very good shape, about a foot and a half tall and a foot wide. Try as I may, I couldn’t think of a reason for it. It wasn’t the end of the property, nor did it seem to have anything to do with the backyard landscaping.

There was a vine growing on some of it, not much of a gardener myself, I had no idea what it was. It was green and actually somewhat attractive, some of it had a small flower like bud, greenish white with an orange middle. Very tiny, nothing you could put in a vase. I thought I might pick some and look them up in the house, but I had no cutters and trying to pinch off a sprig with my finger and thumb nails, just gave me wet, green nails. I wiped them off on my arm, planning to come back with cutters.

Some of you may have guessed the results already, poison ivy! I was soon covered with it! I learned everything I didn’t know about poison ivy over a very uncomfortable ten days in our new house. We had the poison ivy removed professionally, and I started reading up on plants and gardens that itchy first day. Forty six years later I have a lovely yard.

People often ask what the wall is for, I tell them, good luck!