Planning For A Safe Future In Our Gardens
What brings you delight? For me it’s photos like this one of my niece Chelsea. She’s a horticulturist at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. She loves her job and is perfectly suited for it. And no, this photo is not photoshopped! Niece Chelea has found her delight. Working at the Zoo with the plants and animals is what she was made for.
Delight can be found in memories of dear ones who have passed. My mother-in-law Claudia passed recently at the age of 95. Her memorial was yesterday. Rather than wear black I wore a bright yellow flowered dress. Why? Because she loved gardening and flowers and wearing black just didn’t seem right to me.
Claudia loved “playing in the dirt” more than anything except her family. It seemed the dirtier she got the happier she was. She mowed, trimmed, edged, weeded, raked, and fertilized all herself, never with the help of anyone else except maybe to dig holes for trees. All this well into her 80’s.
Her garden was the envy of the neighborhood bringing delight to everyone who passed by. She grew ranunculus, pansies, marigolds, begonias, impatiens, and daffodils, changing them out with the seasons. And tulips. Claudia shared with me that the first bouquet her soulmate Ed brought her were tulips and those became her favorite.
As her health declined, she moved into a board and care home. I would share with her all the wonderful things we do in our Club. The Trips & Tours, our Gate & Garden Tour photos. Our Green Thumb events. The rose garden and pollinator gardens we tend. I would read our Weeder’s Digest out loud and tell her all about the scholarships we awarded and the things I learned each month from our knowledgeable and impressive speakers. It was a way to bring
gardening into her limited world even though she could no longer play in the dirt.
I like to think her love of gardening and being connected to our earth contributed to her long, healthy life. I know it certainly brought her delight.
What brings you delight? Who inspired your love of gardening? What memories do you have of time spent in the garden with loved ones? There is so much to celebrate in this world! Please share your delights with me next time we meet.
– Jane Leary