Category: a day in this life

I really love flowers. And I love planting things that come back the next year. It’s kind of a running joke how proud I am to come back from a trip to Lowe’s without bringing another plant with me.

A fond memory of my mother is a tiny garden she planted when I was little. I don’t even remember how old I was. There were marigolds and radishes in a little space beside the driveway. I remember trying to eat the radishes in salad and thinking they tasted like hot dirt. (I still don’t care for them.) And I remember her showing me how the marigolds had made seeds we could save to plant the next year. I’m not sure we actually saw them happen. We may have moved.

I reminded her of that recently and she didn’t remember the marigolds. She said she did remember the radishes and wasn’t sure why she planted them because she never liked the taste.

When I bought this house, I thought “there is no reason for me to have house plants or pots on the deck with this much yard.” Then, Chuck moved in with his small collection of apartment plants and it was Kitty-bar-the-door.

So, there is a yard of grass, all sorts of flowering things, fruit trees and berry bushes. And pots on nearly every flat surface in the house.

I have 4 colors of Xmas cactus! Who needs that? But, I can’t choose one to get rid of because I think they’re all lovely.

Once I started planting fruit trees, I learned that it only takes five to make an  orchard. I have 2 grafted Arkansas Black apple trees, 2 peaches I started from seeds, a “self pollinating” pear tree we have never gotten any fruit from and a plum and a sour cherry we think may be dead.  Also, we have hazelnuts and blueberries galore.

The blueberries were so prolific this year that Chuck put fresh ones in his morning shake all season, I made 3 pies and we have a gallon in the freezer to make a pie at the solstice.  (I made tomato pie for the last 3 years. But, our tomatoes weren’t as enthusiastic this year.  It amuses me to make a dish with summer produce at the solstice. My little “bring back the sun” effort.)

A lot of the flowers in my yard are reminders of particular people. 

My dad liked the Mexican evening primroses and the crepe myrtles I put in when I bought the house.  And he was a fan of bonsai. So, he is in my mind when I work on my trees. My mother’s favorite flower is  peonies. (She even had them in her wedding.) My maternal grandmother was fond of irises and always had hollyhocks growing by the pasture fence. My paternal grandmother always planted petunias and loved gardenias. 

Chuck asked for chrysanthemums, picked out particular trees and planted the hazelnuts.

My cousin, Missy, sent me a basket that had an African violet  in it after I had surgery. So,  they always make me think of her even though that one eventually died and I replaced it with a different color.

I got the bat flower because my kid thought I needed it.

A particular friend turned me on to the joys of zinnias. A friend gave me a bear’s breeches, some salvia and a mammoth calla lily. Another friend gave me a dogwood tree. I have a particular iris because I took a stained glass class with a friend and traded with a classmate. A couple of other irises were gifts from particular people and those friends always come to mind when the flowers bloom. Another friend grows tea. The yucca and 2 irises were gifts from a coworker. Lavender puts me in mind of an old boyfriend and a German woman I met online. The black elephant ear was a gift and reminds me of the road trip to her house and the people who were gathered there. Hellebores came in when a beekeeper was clearing out his paths from volunteers that were creeping out of the bed he has.

All that to say that it isn’t just a yard and stuff in pots. It’s memories.