Happy Mother's Day to all

My mom is a neverending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being. I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune.
- Graycie Harmon

Today, I will celebrate Mother's Day with my family - mainly outside - working on projects that need our attention. The sun is shining and I can already feel it will be a nice and productive day. My hubby and our teenager have a busy day a head of them with my to-do list.

I think one of the cutest Mother's Day traditions is the school projects kids make. Flowers seem to be the central theme which would make me smile anyway. My oldest daughter decorated a terracotta pot with translucent beads and sparkles and filled it with snapdragons and pansies. That's a keeper.

Mommy's little helper, a first-grader, could hardly contain her excitement when she handed me a large envelope. In it was a poem, her handprints and a packet of seeds. She told me her teacher gave her three flower choices. She chose cosmos, she said, because she remembered I liked them because we had planted some together at home. What a sweet Mother's Day memory. That encapsulated what Mother's Day and the love of gardening is all about for me.

It made me think of my own mother. I'm sure today she is busy tending to that big garden in the sky and how glorious that must be. I posted a photo of impatiens today - one of her favorite flowers - in memory of her.

I read this quote recently and I think it's quite fitting. Happy Mother's Day to all of you. Enjoy your day with your moms, your kids or in the great outdoors.

If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden.

- Claudia Ghandi

Memories of mom and fern peonies

My sister-in-law Peggy, a garden enthusiast in her own right, shared a special story with me recently. Many years ago, my mom had given her a fern leaf peony. This plant has followed my brother and his wife through a handful of moves over the years and it now thrives in their Minnesota garden. I was touched that one plant could mean so much to them and what a wonderful memory and tribute to my mom who died in 1992.

If you've been on this blog before, perhaps you've read some of my melancholy posts on my mom. I wish she could have seen and enjoyed this garden hobby with me. I was only 25 at the time of her death - still wallowing in apartment living - years away from cultivating any sort of green thumb at my own home. At that time, I probably couldn't have even told you what a peony looked like!

I now have the opportunity to cherish a piece of mom's garden history. Peggy asked if I wanted to share this fern peony (pictured above). She felt I should have have something of mom's - garden-related naturally. I am honored. Problem is, neither of us know how to split a fern peony. And because of the precious nature of this plant, neither one of us want to botch this job and leave us both plantless ....

Does anyone have any experience doing this and can offer us some advice?

Here's a few garden photos from Peggy ... Oh, there's one four-legged friend on here too.

Dwarf Garden Phlox "Pink Flame"

"Baby Sun" Coreopsis

Winston watching over the garden.

Thanks for sharing Peggy ... let's get this fern peony thing done!

Great Garden Quote ...

This sent to me by my wonderful sister ... thanks Barb!

When you see a beautiful flower garden, try to meet the owner. Beautiful gardens are often tended by the nicest and most interesting people.

- H. Jackson Browne, Life's Little Instruction Calendar

Tomorrow would have been my mother's 80th birthday. My mom took off for heaven 15 years ago after battling cancer. Not a day goes by when I don't think of her - whether in a funny or melancholy way. Anyway, I can't help but think that she would be proud of this new passion I have found in gardening.

We lived in a very modest house growing up and mom didn't have a lot of garden space. Our house faced north and I remember she had the most beautiful impatiens. She nurtured those plants all summer long and they were glorious in color - salmon, pinks and purples. I remember her going out in pouring rain to collect rain water from the spouts just so she could nourish her flowers with that precious water. Only now do I understand why she did what she did for her flowers.

So Mom, happy birthday. And if you're looking down on me and my garden today, I hope you give me a thumbs up for effort!

My "Maiden" voyage to grasses ...

Got a way from posting after the tragic Minneapolis bridge collapse. I live in North Dakota but the shock of this event reverberated so strong. EVERYONE here has a friend or relative in the Twin Cities and most of us were on the phone that Wednesday evening to check on their well-being. My thoughts are with those who have lost a loved one and are suffering as I write this ...

My bright spot this week is that my friend and garden guru Kathy came to look at my new garden and gave it a thumbs up. That meant a lot to me as Kathy is the one that nurtured this interest in me and showed me the ropes. I respect her opinion.

She has some good ideas, tips and a whole new design plan for my backyard. A plan that is pretty aggressive which I'm not sure my husband is all that crazy about it as of yet!

Kathy has always been an ornamental grass enthusiast. I think the Karl Forester is lovely as is Maiden Grass. But beyond that - I could take it or leave it. Anyway, Kathy wants to split up her overgrown grasses and has offered to design my backyard area into a grass oasis. Gone will be the daylilies, the salvia and the few scraps of monarda and geraniums I have now. It's kind of exciting thinking about a garden with a whole new look but it's kind of out of my comfort zone.

My husband isn't much for my garden but the only thing he DOES like is red in the garden - so this might be a tougher sell. I begged Kathy to keep the little rock garden - she relented but she's still trying to talk me out of red geraniums. She said it's something about red geraniums and cemeteries ...

I have to admit - that is my first early memory of flowers. As a little girl, my mom and grandma dutifully planted geraniums at graves where they produced endless displays of stinky flowers. And here I am, 40 years later, putting stinky red flowers into my garden.

More to follow ...