photography: Minh + Wass
Their garden, once neglected and filled with debris, is now a hub of activity. Tomio brought in salvaged flagstones for the center walkway and handmade bricks for the side paths. |
Mary and Tomio's potager, or vegetable garden, is symmetrical and utilitarian. In the beginning, breaking ground was really like breaking concrete. Underneath a jungle of johnsongrass were six driveways left from the cottage's previous lives. Two may have appeared 50 or 60 years after the house was built, when it was divided into a duplex. In addition, the owners removed 40 years of garbage, mostly oyster shells and broken bricks, in 5-gallon buckets. Because the growing season in Louisiana is unending, the little backyard was quickly up and greening. Nasturtiums spill out of the beds and onto paths of handmade brick and salvaged stone, and fill vases throughout the house. Scarlet runner beans bloom red and then set beans. Artichokes grow into giant silvery orbs that yield delicious flowers. Herbs for the kitchen, fragrant cuttings for the linen closet, and sugarcane all share the soil in this young but productive garden.
photography: Minh + Wass
The upstairs bath, a 1960s addition, features a 4-foot tub, weatherboard walls, and a cypress cabinet. |
In years to come the beds will bear citrus, some yielding lemons for Mary's limoncello. As the pace of renovation slows, she'll have more time for her business caning chairs and to step up her burgeoning career as a color consultant, helping others negotiate the maze of choices at the paint store. Tomio will apply his recently acquired passion for carpentry. He dreams of hosting a home renovation program called "What Were They Thinking?" Considering their house today, Tomio should be careful what he asks for. Someday, he may be on-screen, holding a megaphone and shouting instructions to carpenters.
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I'm sick to death of pastels 
