By Rosie Preston
My dear maternal grandmother loved to plant all kind of bushes and flowers. I’d never noticed before, but when I was recently looking at my yard, I realized that I plant my bushes and flowers the same way she did. I wonder if this could be considered a legacy, she left to me. My grandmother’s love of nature led to me into being interested in it. From when I was very young, she would tell me about her flowers, and when I was older, I often would dig holes for her to plant.
My grandmother was brave enough to go to a stranger’s doors and ask for a cutting of a plant. I guess I inherited her green thumb, because my mother nor her sister cared one thing about inside or outside plants and flowers.
We’ve lived in for our present home for 20 years. It needed many repairs, and we would get them done as money allowed. My first assignment in making our house felt like a home was to plant trees and bushes. I intended on using nature to camouflage the outside of the house, as there was no paint on it. Neither was there a foundation. It took a while, but we used panels of concrete board around the house, which only needs a paint job now.
It took several years, but our yard is now much like my grandmother’s once was. She had patches of small gardens all over her yard, and It was a sight to behold. It was years before it occurred to me the I had turned into my grandmother in inheriting her love for beauty and peace and a feeling contentment. At night, we would sit on her front porch, drink small glass bottles of Coca Cola and share watermelon or cake. Her daughters, my mother Shirley and my aunt
Helen, never cared for flowers.
My dad cut down all the beautiful flowers and bushes when we moved into our home on Harts Avenue. Apparently, he did not share my love of what he was taking away, because when we bought the house, our home had won The Beautification Award for that year. It took about five years before the yard looked more like a field than the beautiful yard we had loved.
The other day I had my step-grandson and his friend come to my house to separate some lilies and plant them in different places around my yard. It felt great to get something accomplished!
The reason I haven’t been able to do my usual housework or work in my yard is because I’m due to have surgery on my right shoulder. I will be glad when it is over. I’ve been down before, but I’ve never had to make do without the use of my right shoulder like I have over the past few months. Even basic household chores are not do-able. Thankfully, I recently found a young girl who has helped me, and it was wonderful! She is going to help me on a regular basis. It may take a while, but we will slowly organize each room.
I’d like to share about the purple wildflowers that start blooming every spring. They stay dormant during the cold months, but it is delightful when they start to show themselves, because the purple blooms go down every night and bloom every morning. Here is the definition I recently found of those wildflowers:
“The Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia Ohiensis) is one of the few flowers that you can plant in full sun to partial shade, depending on what features you like the best. The plant grows best in light to moderate shade for dark green foliage or in full sun for more flowers. Tradescantia Ohiensis Spiderwort has small flowers in clusters atop a stem. The blooms are three petaled, either blue or violet, with six yellow tipped stamens.
“Tradescantia Spiderwort plant is a native wildflower occurring naturally in open woods, prairies and meadows east of the Rocky Mountains. The Ohio Spiderwort is not common in the western United States; however, it can be successfully established from flower seeds. The flowers open up during the morning and close by the afternoon in sunny weather.”
It is as if it is a reminder of a new day and a new night. I believe we take these facts for granted, because we often get in such a hurry. To love nature and to have so many ways it can comfort us is remarkable. If you look for peace and contentment you will always find it by looking at the trees, the sky, the sun and the moon.
But we have not done anything to compare with the beauty that was created by God!
Have a blessed day, Rosie Preston
Contact Rosie Preston at rosie.preston@yahoo.com.