Vignettes…

When we first moved into our Iowa home two years ago, the back third of this 1.25 acre yard looked like a small forest with lots of tall trees…mostly skinny trees. At the base of the trees were ferns and weeds…so many tall weeds, a lot of them flowering! From a distance, it was rather pretty to me – kind of like a setting for a movie. However, you didn’t want to go back there because it was also home to mosquitos.

So my Master Gardener husband began the transformation by taking out weeds and dead, fallen trees. That let in sunlight and diminished a lot of the pesky mosquitos. Next, he decided to plant shade-loving plants around groupings of multiple trees to make what I called vignettes. The perennial plants include: Hostas, Coral Bells, Astilbe, Columbine, Coleus, Bleeding Heart and Brunnera. We began searching for and collecting items for the vignettes: an old hand plow and an antique water pump started the collection. At one of the art shows at the Des Moines Fairgrounds, we found tall handmade “wind spinners”. Eventually, the “vignettes” began to take shape. Unfortunately, these photos were taken after everything stopped blooming!

Somewhere along the process, Doug decided that he needed a tractor with a blade and other attachments. Once a farmboy, always a farmboy. He was so excited when he found his 1964 Ford tractor. He grew up on a farm with Ford tractors, so he feels right at home on this pretty blue one! Using his new farm equipment, he took out the weeds, leveled the ground and planted grass seed where weeds used to be. He also invested in a new shed (which, I think, would make a great art studio *wink*). Out voted on that idea but it’s a cute building. Now, he has to do some repair work on the old shed and paint it the same color as the new one. He loves his time outside working in the yard and I love the finished look!

Old shed on the left, new one on the right. See what I mean? It’s cute!

Doug searched through his old photos and found two priceless photos for me:

one of his dad on the family’s BLUE Ford tractor and one of Doug as an adorable towhead on an old tractor.

Timeless and priceless! As I said before, once a farmboy, always a farmboy. I love it!

If you could paint a picture of the perfect Summer day, today would have been it. 82 degrees. Blue skies – the absolutely perfect shade of blue. Snow white cotton clouds scattered here and about across the blue. Bright sunshine. Vivid green trees and grass. A constant breeze. It was going to be a fun day and I was up at 6:30 a.m. looking forward to it.

I met my daughter and her four children (ages 15 – 4) at the YMCA at 9:00 a.m. They had been there since before 7:00 a.m. for my grandchildren who swim competitively to practice for two hours. They do this each weekday morning. They all get up at the crack of dawn! I got into my daughter’s van and we headed to a small nearby town where she has “rented” a 40′ x 40′ garden space from a nursery there.

I know I have mentioned my daughter’s drive and energy in previous posts, but sometimes I am amazed. She takes care of their large (5 bedroom – 5 bathroom) home, does laundry for their family of six, cooks totally from scratch and mostly organic (think even grinding her own flour), homeschools my grandchildren (although they have taken a few classes at the local school), maintains large flower beds all around their home, puts up homemade jams, takes care of a garden in their backyard which includes vegetables, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries AND now has a large garden space she is renting out from a nursery! She hopes to “feed their family for a year” with all the produce. She has purchased organic beef and pork for their freezer as well. (I remember my Mama commenting on my energy when I was about my daughter’s age. I confess it isn’t there anymore!)

My daughter had spent a few days over the last couple of weeks getting the garden in shape and it looks great! Some of the surrounding plots belonging to others – not so much! Today, she harvested some tender ripe squash and fresh spinach to go along with their dinner tonight.

Roses in my daughter’s flower beds…

Flowers in the front yard…just barely past their prime.

Raspberries in the backyard…

Above and below: at the 40′ x 40′ garden plot.

All the plants were thriving and looked very healthy.

Part of it is that my daughter grew all of these plants from

HEIRLOOM seeds in the basement under grow lights!

Part of it is this rich Midwest soil.

Below: Come Autumn, there will be PUMPKINS!

Afterwards, we drove around the small town and dropped by a few garage sales. My 4 year old grandson scored his first bike – a bright blue and lime green bicycle that looked new for $10! Then we stopped by the local Fareway grocery where my daughter picked up her order of organic milk. She buys something like 18 half-gallons at the time and they give her a great price! They drink a lot of milk. We stopped by the YMCA for me to pick up my car and then I met them at their house for a pizza lunch.

Last stop before heading home – and by that time I was tired – was the library to pick up the books that I had on hold there. All in all, it was the perfect Summer morning…complete with blue skies.