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A couple of years ago, we tore down our dilapidated, old, well house and surrounded the well with vinyl picket fence. We covered the enclosure by resting a plastic, picnic table top on the upper, horizontal members that support the pickets. We used white, vinyl, corrugated roofing backed up by Styrofoam sheets to line the structure. With a halogen light for heat, it works nicely to keep the pipes and pressure tank from freezing in the winter. Unfortunately, the surround, being about 3 x 6 to accommodate the picnic table dimensions makes it appear that we created a family plot as the focal point of our front yard. Our son who is a big fan of Halloween, came up with some ghoulish ideas for how to decorate it during October. I, on the other hand, anguished over how to camouflage it year round.

Early this spring, I made up my mind that this would be the last year of living with a 'crypt' in my front yard. In late March, I designed and built a vinyl arbor to place over the well enclosure. Then I put our old, billiard table (sans legs) in front of it as a deck. I dug a hole to fit a hard plastic pond liner. A half whiskey barrel was placed on flagstones above the pond at one end to allow water being recirculated through a decorative, red, hand pump on the deck to overflow the barrel back into the pond. I leveled the billiard table and integrated it with the pond and yard using flagstones and sandstone rocks unearthed during the pond excavation.

Once I had all the hardscape in place, I proceeded to landscape all around with hanging pots, containers, and in ground plantings. I used artemisia, dwarf nandina, native blue spiderwort, pink oxalis, pink polka dot plants, pink butterfly penta, dusty helichrysum foliage, dwarf pink zinnias, red and dk. purple salvia, bronzed pink begonias, autumn joy sedum, sunproof liriope, silver and gold mum, white caladiums, elephant ears, a majestic palm, red verbena, blue plumbago, lilac scabiosa, blue evolvulus, white petunia, rosy red purslane, pink doubled portulaca, red nasturtium, blue edging lobelia, blue cupflower, pink and white periwinkle, purple sweet potato vine, red impatience, dusty miller, and native sandwort. In the pond, I planted pickerel, purple iris, water lilies, and cardinal flower. I also planted several packets of seeds surrounding the pond and arbor. Most didnt germinate, but I got three, pink impatience, some nice stands of coleus, perennial purple verbena, and pink evening primrose, plus some profusely blooming moonflowers and Heavenly Blue morning glories.

Notice that there was no yellow in my palette at all, but mother nature took care of this oversight by planting a wild yellow daisy right smack in front of my creation. While I would not have chosen to plant it there, I do appreciate wildfowers and had to admit that the yellow looked pretty good among my carpet of purple verbena. So, I left it alone, and it has been growing and flowering profusely all summer and into the fall. The bush grew to 4'x4'. It has nearly blocked the view of my arbor from the road, and mother nature has managed to humble all my efforts with one single seed, but the butterflies and bees adore it.