Saturday, May 3, 2014

So how does Cookie's garden grow?


My great grandmother had been an avid flower gardener, but by the time she reached her mid ninety's things around her house began to revert to nature.  And my grandmother was more a practical gardener - flowers weren't her thing, but fruit trees were.  So we always had fresh pears and cherries.  My grandfather was a retired farmer and he refused to do much of anything, so the gardens fell into decline by the time we moved into the house.  So I taught myself about how things grew.

These tiny blue flowers are Brunella, or Brunelia, depending on who you ask.  They are among the earliest flowering plants in spring.  My great grandmother grew these in her garden, so they take me back to my childhood and how much I loved those simple days at the house in Marion, clambering through the ruins of the garden and finding all sorts of good things growing that needed a little love.

Naturally, when we moved to Maryland, these were among the first plants I sought out for our yard.  So its a bit of home, away from home.

We ventured to the nursery very early this morning and bought flowers for our containers.  Tomorrow, early, I'll head to Lowes for HOT red geraniums, which were my mother's favorites.  Why not buy them at the nursery, too?  At eight dollars a pot, my mother would have caterwauled over the price.  So in her honor, we buy the cheap stuff.

While we were at the nursery, we also bought a good sized purple flowering crepe myrtle for our front yard, and its so large, and expensive, that we paid even more money to have it professionally planted. When you plant it, you get a 30 day guarantee.  When THEY plant it your get a years guarantee. So it should go in in the next week or so.  My understanding of crepe myrtles, from reading and talking to people, is that they thrive in terrible soil and direct sun, so we have just the place for it.

Our last bit-o-spring work is the back yard.  I paid for a professionally designed plan for the garden in the backyard to give us a bit of success.  The shape of the yard, and the funky sun patterns call for it.

Hopefully tomorrow we can rip out the funky Doctor Suess shrubs in the front yard and get ready for new shrubs next week.

And next spring, I am having that horrible holly tree removed from our side front.  I know the birds love putting their nests in it, but I am tired of plants that hurt me when I walk through the yard, barefoot.

11 comments:

  1. you remind me of toledo...
    ....one of our abodes had holly,
    the first time i'd ever lived with it.

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    1. Nasty things. I keep forgetting that you were once a resident of Toledo, City of light and magic.

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  2. How does Cookie's garden grow? Beautifully, by the sound of it (and those Brunell/ia are very pretty).
    Castlette DeVice also has an unwanted holly tree that we've left it too late to get rid of due to birds nests. Blasted thing has earned a reprieve until winter!

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    1. And that is my big conundrum. I hate that tree because it isn't attractive, those stingers hurt when you get pricked with one, and it produces now lovely berries (its a male), but the birds love it so.

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  3. I was thinking that if I ever decide to plant a garden again that it should be a memory garden. There are so many old fashioned plants that bring back comforting memories...

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    1. We are planting blueberry bushes this coming week. We had them in Shaker Heights. They'll never produce a lot of fruit, just the occasional walk by and pop in the mouth.

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  4. I'm a sentimental gardener too.

    Too bad nothing, and I mean nothing, has bloomed here yet.

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    1. We are a month behind, here. This has been more like a Cleveland spring than a Maryland one. Hope it comes soon and brings great beauty.

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  5. I have 3 peony bushes planted by my chimney. One from my grandparents farm and two I dug up after my mom died and my dad was selling the house. I have a bleeding heart that someone sent to the funeral home for my mom, I wanted that more then the dumb flowers. I have a rose bush my husband gave me on our first anniversary. I look at all of them and think of people I love.

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    1. When my brother in law died, the Husband's parents planted a field by their home with a 1,000 daffodils. Its a lovely reminder that life begins anew.

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