Thursday, May 27, 2010

Granny's Flower Garden




Ok, so this block is officially called "Grandmothers Flower Garden" but My grandmother was called Granny, so I am taking creative license and calling the block I chose for her after her. As easy a choice as "Trip Around The World" was for me to choose For Gertrude, "Granny's Flower Garden" was even easier for me to choose for My Mom's mom Martha Bridget Rhody Bartley. Anybody who knew my Granny knew she could coax life out of the most barren places and restore vitality to almost any green thing. Her back yard was like a paradise when we were little, filled with roses and buttercups , hens and chicks and a lawn you could walk through barefoot. (anybody who has grown up in the southwest with goat heads and sand burrs knows what a feat that is!) There was also the giant pecan tree who's nuts gave Papa his pass to listen to baseball on the radio. We would sit on the back steps with Granny's own little golden hammer and use it to crack open the pecans that we had gathered from around the yard, and the concrete Donkey pulling his cart full of flowers that we loved to sit on until we got to be a little too big. Granny had such a green thumb that even now that she has been gone for over a decade there are still house plants that she nurtured and grew and cuttings from those plants being passed around Clovis like so much Amish Friendship bread. I am not surprised that she has left a horticultural legacy that still thrives today. I know when I go back I plan on getting my share of cuttings so I will have my own living reminder of my Granny and her flower garden.

4 comments:

  1. I remember the yard as you do . You know PaPa was in charge of the grass and the tree. Granny would have loved you as an adult for your common interests. My newest Granny plant is thriving on the baptismal font! I am glad to have it.
    Love, Omar

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  2. Ah the Granny plant! I too still have a cutting from the Granny Plant! I have given cutting's from the granny plant to many people, there is no telling how many are out there some where! The garden was exactly how you described! Oh what fun that yard was, it was a sad day when we out grew the donkey! But I remember the fun we had learning what manure was!Ha

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  3. Yea, Granny let us play on that pile of &%$# all day, we played king of the mountain, dug holes in it,made "mud" pies... I think we even burried each other in it, if not all the way, at least our legs...It was a while before we figured it out, she said it was manure, ok, so what is that? Fertilizer, Oh well then, thats ok...

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  4. Can't offer a reason for the permission on the manure pile but these many years later perhaps an idea for the outgrown donkey, which you could not have broken at any size. Perhaps in her mind you were so big you would disturb the plants growing near? Just trying in my old age to understand Granny a little bit Difficult!
    Love, Omar

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