title explained

Onward and upward! something that you say in order to encourage someone to forget an unpleasant experience or failure and to think about the future instead and move forward.

My e-mail: jjmiller6213@comcast.net

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Gardens

Nice rain today--my gardens needed it.

Gardens in my life--

When I lived here:   July 1957
All I had were those two planter boxes my Mother made for me.


Then I moved here:     August 1959
and had this spindly one for the first couple of years. I was always pregnant (3 kids in 4 years) so there was little time for flower gardening.  Although I did have a big vegetable garden in back.


Then I moved here:    1967-1988
and put a perennial garden all along the frontage--to the right of the Tulip tree, and up the side toward the house.  A cottage garden up by the back porch, a spring bulb garden all along that side of the house and an enormous vegetable garden to the left of the driveway/lawn.

The perennials I got were from the gardens of my great grandma, grandma and mother.

Then, I moved here:  and took roots from my garden with me.                        1989













...and although I had my gardens started, I did not live here long enough to see them flouish.

Then, I moved here:  and took roots from the upper gardens with me.         1992-2003

I lived here for 12 years, so I had a lot of time to plant gardens and watch them grow into beautiful spaces.

Then, I moved here:     2003-present
As you can see, there wasn't a flower garden in sight.  I brought roots from my previous garden with me.

I have been here for 12 years and:
                                                  
2007






My "Momma" Iris, that my Mother planted in her garden in 1968, is in my front garden.






This Iris, at one time, bloomed in my grandmother's garden  back in the late 50's, is in my front garden.





A Lemon Lily my mother had in the early 50's.
This is the only perennial I had at my first house.
When I moved to my Grandma's farm, I took a clump of roots with me, and is in my front garden.



My little woodland garden to the side of my porch.
All plants came from the woods where I used to live.
From the same plants of the wildflowers I picked as a child.




All the perennials live on at my "now" home base. About all I do now is buy and plant annuals in my porch planters.                                             2014


What I have tried to portray in this post is.......I have to have my gardens, wherever I live.  I have to have my ancestor's plants in my gardens, to make wherever I have lived, feel like home.

I have had enormous gardens that took an hour or so out of each of my days to maintain.  I loved it.  I could relax and think while I gardened.

Now--I can do it no longer, but.........my plants are here, in a smaller format.

May 3, 2015

  


10 comments:

  1. Love your "momma" iris and the variegated one from your grandmother. You are so lucky to still have the photos of your old homes. We took photos but two decades worth are on slides. I have lily-of-the-valley from my mom's house and plants from Don's mother. It's nice to have heritage flowers in the yard.

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  2. Love your present garden
    we are alike in many ways
    with our flowers
    from generations before us..

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  3. Your gardens are beautiful. You have such a green thumb. It's nice seeing the timeline of them, and reading the history. I can understand why you feel connected to your history, and how those memories and renewing bonds make it feel more Home. I envy your ability to carry those flower bulbs and history forward. Are there any of your children or grandchildren who are interested in continuing with their own gardens of historic plants?

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  4. They are beautiful! I wish I had the desire to garden! I love to look at them but planting and maintaining is a whole 'nother thing! I don't find it relaxing at all. :( Although I did promise Rich that I would work on the back yard this Spring/Summer. It needs help desperately!

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  5. I love your gardens! And the stories with them. I miss my grandma's garden pieces I had to leave behind. It makes me so sad, but I know that salvaging my kids' lives was more important.

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  6. Wow, you had really transformed your homes. I love the saying "Flowers are God's laughter". Such a welcome matt for our homes.

    Have you thought of asking Jen if she'd like to take any of these heirloom flowers to New Jersey with her? It warms my heart to look at and eat the rhubarb I brought from my parent's home. I'm not crazy about my parents but I sure am crazy about their rhubarb LOL

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    1. Flo--all my daughter's and my son have the Peach Mama Iris. They also have some of my mother's Lemon Lily and Peonies that were mt great grandma. My sister lives on the farm where our great grandma lives, so has many of her flowers still there. GGrandma planted them in 1880!!! Probably Jen will not think to take any with her.

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  7. I LOVE this post! What a beautiful wonderful trip down memory lane, with lots of God's laughter! I don't have much of a gardening touch, but I am going to learn and do to keep up this Maui oasis. I may borrow your idea and show before and after on my blog!!

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  8. That purple and white iris is gorgeous and different. I wish I lived closer so I could steal a rhizome from you. I have some if my mother's white irises. I can either take a few with me when we move or get a few from my parents' house. My brother still owns the house. I also want to root a bit of her hydrangea. I'll just put a brick on a low limb and root it so I can move it in the fall. I like having flowers and shrubs from my relatives, too.

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  9. I just love all your flowers and think it's so neat that you have plants from way back when.

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