plants – Peaceful Reader

Growing memories

{Back door of my grandmother’s home : circa 1999}

I come from a long line of gardeners. My grandmother had an amazing green thumb and had a large square garden in her backyard and grew a variety of plants in and around the house. I remember clearly the Clematis that climbed a trellis right outside her backdoor so as you walked out you were greeted with an airy wall of delicate purple flowers and lovey green leaves. She had a huge hill of rhubarb growing that we would suck on after dipping the end in a cup of sugar she would provide. I remember eating garden produce like sugar snap peas and raspberries right out of our hands as we picked. She didn’t believe in spraying and loved that her garden was clean of chemicals. Oh and the ground cherries-so delicious to pop right out of their paper-like shells and eat immediately except if we were saving up for a pie. Rhubarb-ground cherry pie is still my favorite even though I haven’t had it for years.

{My new garden box with lettuce varieties}

My husband is blessed with a green thumb as well. I can grow things but he has like magical powers and we are amazed at his ability to resurrect plants that look like they are ready for the compost pile. Every year we plant a variety of flowers and vegetables around the house. We don’t have a set spot for either but intermix them together. This year we planted kale, sugar snap peas, cauliflower, broccoli, basil, cilantro, butternut squash, and cucumbers. Plus we watched a master gardener class with Ron Finley and we are rooting and will plant a sweet potato bc he made it look so easy. And then we have a whole variety of flower pots and window boxes that we filled in yesterday. My grandmother loved geraniums and this year I have two varieties planted in pots to remind me of her all summer long. I don’t have an actual photograph of her smiling while gardening but in my mind I have many snapshots.

With our extra amount of together we stumbled upon an Epic Gardening video with Kevin and we learned a lot about ginger and have a large root planted in a shallow pot. Both the sweet potato and ginger pot may need to live inside our house in order to stay warmer if we have an unusually chill fall season. Today we celebrate old memories and new ones we are making together. We will always look back on the 2020 spring/summer pandemic with interesting memories of gardening, good food, good books, extra streaming time, and planting some new adventures. Peace.

Signs of Spring

{new fountain addition}

It’s been a glorious weekend. We had exciting events to attend to and the weather stayed fairly nice all weekend. I have tulips popping up in my front garden that my mother and I planted late fall. I worried that the massive population of squirrels that reside in our front yard had dug up the bulbs but nope, there are 10 tulips plants springing up! Joy!

This afternoon my husband completed a fountain project that has been two summers in the making. Do-it-yourself projects often run long here but they always get finished. Tonight we dined outside and the fountain bubbled happily behind us. I love the sound of flowing water; it breaks up static energy or maybe provides good feng shui for my environment. We spend a lot of time outdoors in the spring and summer and I know this fountain will be a draw. We have a popular bird feeder that sits near the fountain and I think the birds will enjoy the fountain as much as we will. Our kitchen table sits facing a window that looks out on the back yard and the pond will be in our view. We need a few more rocks around the edge of the pond and Groovy Girl says we need more fairies. Naturally.

And then it's spring by Julie Fogliano and Erin E. Stead

I’m in the middle of a snowy land right now with more snow predicted over the weekend plus it is bitter cold today. On my drive to work I wanted to stop and take a photo of the trees on the banks of the river as the trees looked frostbitten with ice. They looked beautiful, all white, braced against the bright blue sky but I’m ready to see my trees with little green buds.

So perfect then was And then it’s spring sitting right on my desk with it’s gorgeous detailed cover illustration! It made me feel springy and hopeful! Right now I’m in the land of white but I can trace the book’s journey to springtime and imagine that it is right around the corner, humming.

“and the brown,

still brown,

has a greenish hum

that you can only hear

if you put your ear to the ground

and close your eyes”

I love this illustration and traced each little hole imagining the animals humming about spring. Kids will love tracing each burrow through the dirt. Julie Fogliano has written an imaginative story about the seasons easily giving us hope that spring will come and those little seedling will pop their heads out. Stead’s illustrations match and even make the visual in my head even better. Her little boy is adorable in his striped shirts and his little red wagon. I for one am ready with spade in hand to begin digging in my own garden and this book will make a wonderful read-aloud for springtime activities. Enjoy this matching video for the book.