Summer is just around the corner and the corn field across the road has graduated from tiny little green curled up shoots to lush quickly growing baby plants. I have planted a vegetable garden quite unexpectedly; it was planted quite late, but it is growing!
I am so thankful for a yard that has the space for a garden. My yard has always been very unattended since I became the caretaker of it. I have had very few seasons of giving it the attention and time that it needs. The people that lived here before us, and were the only other owners, never had children and spent much of their time creating Eden out of this lot. I have ended up pulling out so much of their beautiful creations and it has been so hard to do. However the massive eight foot high grass that grew along the fence line each year was so intense to try to cut down in preparation for the winter. The rock hill with the huge trees ended up needing to be taken out for the 2020 Victory vegetable garden. The side garden where all the Spring blossoms grew ended up being pulled out by my husband for unknown purposes. I have had to say goodbye to Poppies, Lilies, Lavender, and it just goes on and on, but the yard was a beautiful walk way with gardens and flowers everywhere and for the children' sake they needed space to run and have a trampoline and swing set. The Walnut tree ended up going because a part of it was rotting and my anxiety was so high during the wind storms we get in the Autumn. Slowly but surely my garden of Eden yard is looking more patchy grass and holes dug for no reason and it is what it is. There are still lush green ferns and yellow Poppies, Grape Hyacinth, some red Tulips that miraculously survived the caul of the walnut tree, there are Roses and treasures tucked away that spring up out of nowhere like the Foxgloves this year.
I adore flowers and flower gardens. I also am not someone who prioritizes time or money for myself to have these. When I moved to this house I can't describe the joy and how miraculous it felt to have all these flowers and this beauty already here. I am surprised by new arrivals each year that somehow just arrive. It is the best gift. Sometimes that is how life goes when you are not looking for it but hoping. I wished for beauty and whimsy and a garden and this kind German plumber who owned the house before me planted it all through the years and it has blessed me more than he could ever know.
Every day the Pink Rose bush that looks through my window reminds me of my grandmother and the purple Lilacs that grow beside the driveway remind me of the Lilac bush that bloomed at the corner of the heritage house I grew up in, the Fox gloves remind me of my grandmother as well and the Clematis reminds me of the house I lived in across from the train tracks. The Snow drops remind me of my mother and her love for Spring. This yard has every flower I ever wished to have in a yard. Miracles happen all around and what we care about does matter. My yard teaches me that every day.
xo Tansy