It’s not always true. The rumors of incompatibility are greatly exaggerated.

Twenty years ago, maybe it was twenty five, the back yard called out for change. It was easy enough to decide from the window looking down, the one next to the pedestal sink where the morning gets into gear after coffee, that the change had to reflect the possibility of hope. This was far before it became a packaged phrase that inspired many and caused others to deride and mock the idea. Hope and change.

How would it appear in a landscape? It needed to be simple. It needed to be timeless in some way. From the window seat it was decided that the yard would have a center point, a focal landing that insisted on spreading itself out to the boundaries and hinted at something that was held to be true but could be disproven time and time again with careful cogitation.

The shape known to many as the symbol of the Tao was chosen. The one that looks like two paisley drops intertwined would fit the space and it looked nice. One arm was decided to be the lawn. Small, bright and green without need for constant attending, it interlocked with the other arm which was to be the planting bed. Fanning out to the boundaries were pathways and gardens, shrubbery and resting places.

The center of the symbol, where the two arms came together would have to be the place where the truth would be revealed. It would be the place where this rumor of incompatibility could be proven for all time to be wrong.  

It had to be proven once and for all that the compatibility of dogs and cats could no longer be questioned. The correct plants to use were without question. Finding them in perfect condition at a nursery would be the only challenge. The old truck fired up and I took off to get one of each plant I sought: Cornus nuttali , and a Cercidiphyllum japonicum.

 Pacific Dogwood and Katsura.

Their large trunks, cracked from summer suns, stand only feet from each other now after two decades. They haven’t fought. They haven’t moved. They speak to each other in whispers as the wind moves through them and their intertwined branches. The Dog with its opposite branching pattern and ovate leaves with  parallel veins awakens easily each morning to its compatriot, the Kat, with its alternating branches and soft cordate leaves.

They do not know conflict.