Mom, Grandma Shirley

This is a picture of my petite mom, Shirley. She looks small and fragile, but she is not! I know Mother's Day was last Sunday, but I felt like writing today about my mom and her love of gardening. I went to visit her after church today. When I arrived, she was out front digging up a little spot of ground to plant some ornamental cabbage plants. Her front flower bed was a cheerful sight--solar lights, bright yellow and red tulips and her little wooden Dutch girl. For a Christmas present I gave her some HUGE stone pots for her front redwood porch. They were filled with flowers artfully arranged with tall green spiky plants and lower bright petunias. Also, she has three flats of jellybean petunia plants waiting to be planted in her big flower bed as soon as the nights warm up. As we wander around her yard, her eyes sparkle as she tells me of her summer planting plans---morning glory to be moved; perennial beds to be weeded, and bleeding hearts to be rearranged. Her mother's day green snail is now lord of her back rock garden--imagine huge river rocks cascading down with plants growing from the rocks. The pond (which she and my dad built) is uncovered and the fish are happily swimming. New lilies are starting to grow in the pond. Bright yellow and pick primroses (hardy survivors of freezing weather she tells me) surround her apple tree, whose buds are turning into leaves. While we sit and talk, finches come and eat sunflower seeds out of a bird feeder. The shells they drop are snatched up by a squirrel, who does an amazing balance beam act across her wooden fence. Her yard looks incredible already, and believe me most of May in Idaho has been windy, rainy, or even snowy. She tells me that a gentleman in a white truck stopped last week and told her that it brightened his day last summer to drive by her yard every day. He was happy to see it turning into a gardening wonderland again, but could not believe that such a little lady could have such an amazing yard. My words cannot do her yard justice. I'll let her get a little more planted and then post some pictures. I love mom for her nurturing nature, and nowhere is it better exemplified than her yard and gardens. We play Farm town on Facebook; she lives it!