I love to garden. Next to family, it is my favorite hobby. Give me a day where the weather is about 50-55 degrees, a little cloudy with a breeze, my hula hoe, 2 good rakes, a shovel and a pitchfork and color me the happiest of people. Our current rental has been a good but challenging place to garden. It is .67 of an acre and most of it is landscaped. So I take it in thirds. So mostly, 1/3 of the yard looks good all of the time!
Gardening is one place where the Lord teaches me lessons. Isn't it wonderful there is even God's truth in gardening! Like about weeds spreading, overtaking and even killing plants-a lesson in diligence. Like pruning..how it is necessary for the health of the plants to cut off branches that are interfering with the well being of the tree-a lesson in pruning your own and your children's lives. Like the trillium, that takes 7 years to bloom-a lesson in patience. And so on...
So I drove by our previous home the other day. Spring is a beautiful time at the garden in that yard. The roses bloom early because of the direct sun and higher altitude. The roses were all gifts to mark occasions; first (and many following) mothers day and birth of first and second child. One rose smelled like pixie stix, some like oranges, others like the standard "Rose" smell, but VERY fragrant. There were 3 lavender plants that started blooming in May. The blue star creeper starts popping up between the stepping stones about now. A curly willow started from the first Valentines day arrangement Ryan bought me after we'd moved in. Honeysuckle from Ryan that attracted these beautiful green metallic hummingbirds. And a HUGE host of "Friendship" plants. Those are plants that reproduce and your friends have to give them away or throw them in the compost pile. We had shasta daisy, chickweed, and wood violet from Ryan's childhood home. There was calla lilly, jasmine, and several climbing plants from our first home together. Crocosmea from a friend I'd worked with. Ground cover, rose of sharon and iris' from my parents house. I love friendship plants.
It seems the current owners have different taste in gardening. So they took out all the landscape that was put in over the last 5 years. I am hopeful the plants all went to loving homes. I wish I'd left my number and a note that said "Any plants you do not want, call me and I'll dig them up for you". Oh well.
