Arbor Ideas and Tips to Make Your Garden Awesome

It is a great time of year to start on that backyard bower. This video gave me a few ideas.

Word of the Day : March 25, 2019

bower

noun BOW-er

Definition :

1 : an attractive dwelling or retreat.

2 : a lady's private apartment in a medieval hall or castle.

3 : a shelter (as in a garden) made with tree boughs or vines twined together : arbor.

Did You Know ?

Bower derives from Old English būr, meaning "dwelling,"and was originally used of attractive homes or retreats, especially rustic cottages. In the Middle Ages, bower came to refer to a lady's personal hideaway within a medieval castle or hall—that is, her private apartment. The more familiar "arbor" sense combines the pastoral beauty of a rustic retreat with the privacy of a personal apartment. Although its tranquil modern meaning belies it, bower is distantly related to the far more roughshod bowery, which has historically been used as the name of a sleazy district in New York City. The Bowery got its name from a Dutch term for a dwelling or farm that shares a common ancestor with the terms that gave rise to "bower."

Examples :

The couple's rendezvous was a secluded bower in the garden.

"In retelling Shakespeare's story of mortal and immortal lovers lost in a bewitched Athenian wood, Ms. Taymor has sought to conjure the sort of Jungian visions that are bred in the fertile fields of sleep. … [S]he transforms bed and bedding into a sylvan, starry wonderland. An immense sheet rises, falls and twists itself to become a confining roof, a vast sky, a writhing forest floor and an amorous bower fit for a queen of the fairies." — Ben Brantley, The New York Times, 4 Nov. 2013.