Random Acts of "Kindness"

Posts tagged ‘GARDEN’

SERENITY GARDEN REBORN

I found a copy of my thought ramble SERENITY GARDEN on my computer. I don’t know if I published it on my blog or included it in my book JOURNEY WITH ME. I found it interesting to read — the ramble reminded me of when the garden was created — my wilderness space removed and the serenity garden born with its bird bath, shepherd statue and 31 plants.

The tornado, fallen trees and equipment needed to clean up the mess took its toll on my garden. The seven sister rose survived, the sunrise sunset rose reduced to a few stems. A few green leaves showed were Hostas had been. Thankfully the bird bath, shepherd and angel boy holding the puppy survived. If I wrote that the garden was sad, I would be understating the fact. Too sad, I went shopping for plants and came back with a few annuals for color. Each trip ended with a few more plants for the garden, some annual, some perennial. .

Fast forward six weeks — imagine my surprise when I saw 6 roses in bloom. A couple of days later, I counted 14. Surprising me, more of the plants that I had purchased were in bloom — The shades of the garden was pink — the color of love. Most of the plants I had purchased had their price reduced, I thought their time to bloom was over. My original garden was planted for shade, because of the trees — the plants received less sun. Shade was not my concern when I searched for plants to fill up the empty space.

When we looked for a place to put the new plant, I hadn’t paid attention to what plants were annual and which would come back next year. The Hostas have regrown, and I will admit that I have added a few more. I didn’t pay attention to the space requirements of the plants — many will need to moved. Counting plants — I have 10 annuals — 10 spaces available for new plants next year or to give more room to those requiring space to grow. The Hostas have regrown, they will need more space too. We are planning to add a new, bigger deck. Some of the ground cover will need to be moved.

I will admit, if I see more plants at a reduced price, chances are they will come home with me. Fall is the time to plant — bulbs anyone?

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MUSCLES

I thought of Muscles this morning as I watered our African violet. I have to admit that I don’t remember to water it every week — hopefully at least once a month. Muscles gave the plant to me many years ago. He passed over many years ago, in 1990 at the age of 90. Muscles loved to garden — that is how we met him. He asked Terri, our youngest daughter at the time, if he could plant a garden in our yard. When my husband met him, Tom agreed.

I should mention that Muscles was a very dark African American — possibly the shade of dark mahogany. Although my children are a good mix of many countries, they look like typical Swedes — fair skinned, blonde hair. Our neighbors did a double take when they saw our children with Muscles. My husband is from the South — his family is still very prejudiced. The army whittled away at my husband’s prejudice and Muscles erased the rest. He adopted our family and we took him camping, fed him meals when he stopped by and invited him to stay overnight on many occasions. In fact, it was our house that he had a stroke that sent him to the VA.

Muscles came to mind when I was watering the plant. My grandmother loved African violets. She watered and fed them regularly. Before I received the plant from Muscles, I acquired a few plants myself. THEY NEVER SURVIVED. Here I have this plant that Muscles gave me, it blooms every year. The plant is over 25 years old. HE MUST BE TAKING CARE OF IT. If it depended on me — it would no longer be green.

I think he is taking care of the apple tree at the camper too. For many years it didn’t have any fruit. In 2012, it had ten apples. They were delicious. We DON’T SPRAY the tree. Last year, it had too many to count. This year — none. I’ve heard that the snowy, cold spring delayed many fruit trees from blooming. It was a very snowy winter, it has been a very rainy summer. The predictions for the coming winter are challenging.

I recently mailed birthday cards to our friends and family. Many are born in September and October — almost an even dozen. Muscles is part of that group — he was born on October 1st.

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MINT RESCUE

Since I started the Fast Metabolism diet I have been drinking Sassy water which was recommended in the Flat Belly Diet book. Besides water, it contains peeled cucumber, sliced lemon, grated ginger and fresh mint leaves. Returning from the camper, I needed to make a new batch. I picked some mint from the plants growing by our back gate — the plants were healthy, very abundant, getting ready to flower.

The next morning, taking out some recyclable material before the garbage men came, I noticed bare dirt were my mint had been. I was perplexed. Who pulled the mint? I found the remains in my neighbor’s garbage can. He pulled the weeds by his gate and our mint came along. My son told me our neighbor didn’t know it was mint, the plants looked like weeds. I rescued some plants, and dug a hole in a shady part of our yard far from my neighbor. Hopefully they will like their new home. Since I didn’t cut off the tops, the remaining leaves are even more dried out. I might try to salvage the dry leaves. Time will tell.

Time is telling another story. Many years ago when my children were in grammar school, our middle daughter came home with an adult man she knew from her friends on our block. My daughter is fair skinned, very blonde. The man was tall, muscular, the color of dark mahogany. The time was somewhere in the early 1970’s. Our neighbors were very concerned when they saw my children with him. My daughter asked if he could plant a garden in our back yard. My husband agreed. And so our family was adopted by Muscles. He loved to plant — our tomato plants were taller than our garage. Once I found a pumpkin vine growing near our fence. Muscles didn’t know how it got there. RIGHT! My dad and Muscles would sit together on the back porch and watch the garden grow. Muscles was born in 1900, my father in 1910. Muscles passed over before my father started losing his memory. Our new garage takes up most of our yard, we don’t have space for a garden anymore. I’m sure Muscles has a large garden in heaven.

This morning I noticed a pumpkin vine growing near the tree in our back yard. “Hello Muscles.”

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