When I wrote my first post, I stated that because I weed and work in so many yards, I have more than one garden. I mentioned a friend of many years, a ninety two year old whose driveway borderers, backyard flower beds, and deck pots I weeded and maintained. That gardener, dear Jo Douglas, passed on two weeks ago. I had not expected her to last the winter but frail though she was, Jo still lived in her own home, welcomed visitors, prepared her meals, read, did crossword puzzles and played regular bridge games. This spring, fearing that she had little time left, I had put extra work into her deck. She spent most of her time in the room where she could see the containers on it. I planted the flower box on the deck railing that she could see best with pansies, hyacinths, primroses and strawberries early in March. I made sure there was a pot overflowing with large leaf basil and parsley just out her deck door. I put Early Girl in her tomato pot and added orange andyellow marigolds to it I made sure the Missouri sunflower, the yellow oenothera was planted so she could see it as she dressed. It was her fathers favorite flower. Each spring multiple bulbs boomed profusely along her drive and afterwards I planted the impatiens, and petunias she asked for. I added others of my choice and this year, I chose annual phlox and crystal palace lobelia. Jo had always taken pride in having the best blooming displays in her neighborhood and I made sure this was especially true this summer. I thought this would enough to keep her with us all season. Sadly she died two days before the first tomato ripened. It has been a cooler summer in southern Idaho than usual . Another year she would have had a tomato from that pot before she died.
I cannot have everything I want. I cannot be sure that everything I plant will grow as I want it. For instance I wish I had not put wave petunias along Jo's drive. There is just not quite enough sun for them to bloom as profusely as I wanted them. The single petunias, the the"daddy" strain on the other side of the drive, always bloomed better. Jo was happy with my planting but that happiness did give her any extra time with us. I need to be keep humble. I know that any of you reading this and others I will never know have gardeners you love and miss as much as I miss Jo. I wish I had been a perfect gardener,not just a good gardener for Jo.
If there is a lesson in this, it one that I and anyone reading this has heard in other forms. Seize the minute. Plant for now as much as for tomorrow. Put off somethings for the future but not people. See your friends. As gardeners, remember always how much joy annuals can bring as transitory as they are. I came late to gardening because it is transitory. I wanted everything to stay the same and season to season, year after year, gardens respond to weather, seasons and occasionally, what is in the nurseries. Life does not stay the same.
