The other day, my sister, who lives with her family in the house we all grew up in, sent out a text to let us know a crew was cutting down the maple tree in the front yard the next morning. Without hesitation, I changed all my plans for the day so I could be present for the last moments of this once grand and glorious tree that we grew up with. My Dad planted this tree, and many others, when we first moved there when I was a toddler. I assume I was there for the planting, perhaps … [Read more...] about Eulogy for a Tree
family
I Visited an Old Garden Today
I don't mind admitting that summertime is when books and papers and magazines and seed catalogs tend to pile up around the house. It starts at Eastertime when I clean the house before hosting the World's Greatest Family Easter Egg Hunt in my garden. I gather up books and magazines and anything else and throw them in the den or stack them neatly somewhere else in the house. All through spring and summer, I add to the piles with more books, more magazines, more catalogs. There is no end to them, … [Read more...] about I Visited an Old Garden Today
The Ritual of Shelling Peas
I've picked peas from my little pea patch twice this week. Then I sat down and shelled out the peas. I shelled out about three quarts of peas from the first picking and about two quarts of peas from the second picking. If you've ever grown shelling peas, or English peas as some call them, you know it takes a bit of time to shell out that many peas. And there is no way to hurry it up. Well, there is one way. Someone once told me they cooked their peas in the pods and then shelled them … [Read more...] about The Ritual of Shelling Peas
Lily of the Valley for Christmas
On the surface, the story appears to be that I happened to see some pre-cooled Lily of the Valley pips for sale and decided to order them and give them a try. But actually the story of how I came to this point of planting Lily of the Valley pips a few weeks before Christmas so they will bloom for the holidays starts way back many decades ago when I was a little girl. Every Sunday when I was growing up, we drove from our house in the suburbs to my grandma's house on the near East side of … [Read more...] about Lily of the Valley for Christmas
Playing dress up, our thoughts turn to gardening
My sister and I, the sister who does not garden but does a really super job of weeding if she takes a notion to do some weeding, spent some time this morning sorting through old family pictures. As usual, my thoughts turned to gardening, as they always do. I had forgotten, until I saw these pictures, that I was apparently not always content to dress up Barbie dolls and baby dolls. I had to dress up shrubs. In particular, I dressed up an Alberta spruce, Picea glauca 'Conica'. Of … [Read more...] about Playing dress up, our thoughts turn to gardening
I may garden by myself…
I may garden by myself, but I am never alone in my garden. When I am working in my vegetable garden, I can feel my Dad standing beside me, admiring the neatness of the raised beds. I'm sure, too, that he is pleased that I still stake my tomato plants, just like he used to. When I see the asters blooming in the fall, I think of my aunt, who gave me the asters many years ago. She would enjoy seeing all the other flowers in my garden, too. When I look at the snowball bush viburnum blooming … [Read more...] about I may garden by myself…
