I have
always had a garden. In the seventies, it was a carpet of fragrant flowers
that lined the six foot sidewalk going to my rather grim basement apartment.
After a half hour drive in rush hour traffic, I'd get out of the car, walk
across the blistering parking lot into my speck of paradise. Surrounded
by carnations, heliotrope, alyssum, New Dawn climbing roses, stocks, and
geraniums all stress disappeared. When I came home from work the children
in the neighborhood would follow me and ask for flowers. They called me
the flower lady. My little garden made life in that apartment bearable-even
enjoyable.
In the
eighties my garden was a twenty by thirty foot plot of ground behind our
rowhouse. The alley behind the rowhouses was full of weeds and trash. I
cleaned it up and planted low maintenance shrubs and flowers. At first
folks thought I was a bit nuts. "Who's that woman out there cleaning the
alley?" It wasn't long before neighbors came to help-the entire alley became
a garden.
Gardens can change your life-uplift
you, soothe you, give you something to look forward to. James Rouse, the
visionary developer who transformed Baltimore's waterfront and built Faneuil
Hall in Boston, understood that pleasant surroundings make people feel
special and important.
It doesn't
matter where you live, it's always possible to make it more pleasant. A
garden is the logical place to begin.
Speaking
of gardens, mother nature has outdone herself this week. The woods behind
our house is full of white serviceberry flowers, mahonia repens is in full
bloom, new leaves on quaking aspen are lime green, the forest floor is
covered with shooting stars and bright yellow daisies (Arnica). The woods
in north Idaho are lovely in all seasons. If you are fortunate enough to
acquire wooded property, try to preserve at least part of the native flora.
Happy gardening.
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