Memories In The Garden...

I don't know about in your garden, but as I stroll around the yard, I see plants that have significance in my life. We have been in this house for over 30 years and there are still plants that the previous owners loving put into the soil, that come back year after year. It makes me wonder about that gardener from all those years ago.

There are also flowers, like the daisies below, that I planted the first summer we called this house home. They show up every year, have been divided many times and handed out to friends and family.

These ferns came from friends, Ann and Bob in Shunk, PA. Ann's family owns Baumunks's General Store and Lumber Yard in Shunk. We visited them one summer and stayed at the family's lake house. The woods were full of ferns and we brought home a shovel full with us and tucked them in the corner of the garden. They have flourished over the years and each spring, when the fern fronds start poking through the earth, I think of Ann and Bob and that weekend we stayed at the lake.

The pink dianthus started out a tiny plant, in a cute little pot that was a favor from the baby shower given for my niece Leslie when she was expecting her daughter, Calista. Cali came into the world two weeks before darlin' Dylan. Every time I look at these "pinks", the face of Dylan's little girl cousin pops into my brain.

When the primrose in my garden blooms in the spring, I remember my 50th surprise birthday party (and it was really a surprise as Lou and I came home from seeing a movie and 40+ people were here at the house yelling, "Surprise"). The primrose was in a planter filled with spring flowers and was a gift from friends Ann and David.

I'm sure that most gardeners share plants and have fond memories of the plants the have shared and the plants they have received. Isn't that what gardening is all about?