An "Aunt Tilly" Garden
When we lived in Norfolk in the early 1960's, Aunt Tilly and Uncle Elmer lived across town in a white bungalow. Aunt Tilly was my Grandma Wegner's older sister--one of several, much older brothers and sisters. Grandma was the tag-along child in her family, the unexpected blessing that was so common, more than a century ago. Consequently, some of her sisters were grown and married before she was born.
Sometimes, Mom would just set aside a morning for us to visit her old aunts. We visited Aunt Tilly regularly, and Aunt Frieda, too, another one of Grandma's sisters who lived in another part of town. But it seems to me that we spent a little more time with Aunt Tilly and Uncle Elmer because, once in a while, they babysat for Danny and me at their house, even overnight once or twice.
If we happened to be there in the evening, we sat in their cozy front room so Uncle Elmer and Aunt Tilly could keep on watching their favorite wrestling program on the tiny black and white TV. Mom wouldn't let us watch wrestling at home, so it was a special treat for Danny, especially, who became as engrossed as Uncle Elmer was with the antics of those wrestlers. (I remember some lively conversations on the way home, when Mom insisted that the wrestlers were just pretending to fight, while Danny robustly defended his opinion that the wrestlers were really fighting. Over all, TV has changed a lot in the past fifty-some years, but televised wrestling, not so much.)
Whenever we dropped in on a warm summer morning, we always found Aunt Tilly outside, wearing a flowery house dress, and working in her flower beds. There were weeds to be pulled, and flowers to be watered with the big, old watering can. Nevertheless, Aunt Tilly welcomed us heartily, and stopped what she was doing to give us a grand tour of her pride and joy--her yard.
Aunt Tilly's flowerbeds encircled the house, hugging nearly every inch of the foundation. I remember following her around the house's perimeter, a step or two at a time, as we stopped to admire each different kind of blooming plant in her yard. She was careful to tell us the name of every single one. I suppose that I learned the names of some of the most common flowers then, in Aunt Tilly's yard.
She didn't bother arranging her flowering plants according to color. On the contrary, she seemed to plant them randomly, almost in a disorderly fashion, with gorgeous orange day lilies blooming next to purple columbine, and beautiful red roses sharing their flowerbed with some old fashioned bleeding hearts. Together, those dozens of flowers made a perfect, ever-changing rainbow of riotous color. Aunt Tilly's flowers were magnificent.
I was thinking about Aunt Tilly's garden a couple of days ago, as I planted several new perennials in the rock garden. Our new Hot Wings Maple tree has leafed out nicely, and is even blooming, so I'm hoping to see some amazing, red seed pods before too long. My tall, purple allium has taken over the north end of that flower bed, probably because the bulbs were divided and scattered when our huge old hackberry tree was removed more than a year ago. But the rest of the rock garden needed some TLC. The rocks were strewn about, willy-nilly, and a few random plants have resurfaced over the past year. There were several bare spots that definitely needed some color.
So, Bill took me out on Mother's Day to buy some new plants.
When we were picking out plants, I was most concerned about drought resistance, since the rock garden doesn't have underground sprinkling, and about height--we needed tall flowers to snug up next to the brick wall, and shorter ones in the front. And, I wanted some color. So we bought some tall orange flowering plants, and purple salvia, and some yellow daisies and petite pink-and-white daisies, too. When I was all finished planting them, and rearranging some rocks, I stood back to admire my work, and was suddenly reminded of Aunt Tilly's flowers.
Okay, to tell the truth, my garden can't begin to rival Aunt Tilly's yard. Few gardens do, these days, because most people just don't have enough time to work in the yard every day. So, we tend to plant some bushes and native grasses, and maybe a few rose bushes, and call it good.
But in the last couple of years, I've added some perennials to the south side of the house, and I've planted a few more tulip bulbs here and there. Our one, lonely lilac bush just finished blooming, and our peony bush is all budded out, ready to bloom next week. I've pruned the rose bushes, and I'll be watching with anticipation, waiting for some tiny red rosebuds to appear.
And then, there are those hardy hollyhocks, stretching all along the west fence, and continuing along the north fence, under the basketball hoop. When they finally bloom in July, Evie should be old enough to appreciate a pretty, pink hollyhock doll or two, hand crafted by Grandma. Realistically, we have enough hollyhocks to share some tiny dolls with a whole school-full of little girls.
And, I think that Tobin and Evelyn are finally old enough to follow me around the yard to look at my flowers. Like Aunt Tilly, I know most of them by name.
Sometimes, Mom would just set aside a morning for us to visit her old aunts. We visited Aunt Tilly regularly, and Aunt Frieda, too, another one of Grandma's sisters who lived in another part of town. But it seems to me that we spent a little more time with Aunt Tilly and Uncle Elmer because, once in a while, they babysat for Danny and me at their house, even overnight once or twice.
If we happened to be there in the evening, we sat in their cozy front room so Uncle Elmer and Aunt Tilly could keep on watching their favorite wrestling program on the tiny black and white TV. Mom wouldn't let us watch wrestling at home, so it was a special treat for Danny, especially, who became as engrossed as Uncle Elmer was with the antics of those wrestlers. (I remember some lively conversations on the way home, when Mom insisted that the wrestlers were just pretending to fight, while Danny robustly defended his opinion that the wrestlers were really fighting. Over all, TV has changed a lot in the past fifty-some years, but televised wrestling, not so much.)
Whenever we dropped in on a warm summer morning, we always found Aunt Tilly outside, wearing a flowery house dress, and working in her flower beds. There were weeds to be pulled, and flowers to be watered with the big, old watering can. Nevertheless, Aunt Tilly welcomed us heartily, and stopped what she was doing to give us a grand tour of her pride and joy--her yard.
Aunt Tilly's flowerbeds encircled the house, hugging nearly every inch of the foundation. I remember following her around the house's perimeter, a step or two at a time, as we stopped to admire each different kind of blooming plant in her yard. She was careful to tell us the name of every single one. I suppose that I learned the names of some of the most common flowers then, in Aunt Tilly's yard.
She didn't bother arranging her flowering plants according to color. On the contrary, she seemed to plant them randomly, almost in a disorderly fashion, with gorgeous orange day lilies blooming next to purple columbine, and beautiful red roses sharing their flowerbed with some old fashioned bleeding hearts. Together, those dozens of flowers made a perfect, ever-changing rainbow of riotous color. Aunt Tilly's flowers were magnificent.
I was thinking about Aunt Tilly's garden a couple of days ago, as I planted several new perennials in the rock garden. Our new Hot Wings Maple tree has leafed out nicely, and is even blooming, so I'm hoping to see some amazing, red seed pods before too long. My tall, purple allium has taken over the north end of that flower bed, probably because the bulbs were divided and scattered when our huge old hackberry tree was removed more than a year ago. But the rest of the rock garden needed some TLC. The rocks were strewn about, willy-nilly, and a few random plants have resurfaced over the past year. There were several bare spots that definitely needed some color.
So, Bill took me out on Mother's Day to buy some new plants.
When we were picking out plants, I was most concerned about drought resistance, since the rock garden doesn't have underground sprinkling, and about height--we needed tall flowers to snug up next to the brick wall, and shorter ones in the front. And, I wanted some color. So we bought some tall orange flowering plants, and purple salvia, and some yellow daisies and petite pink-and-white daisies, too. When I was all finished planting them, and rearranging some rocks, I stood back to admire my work, and was suddenly reminded of Aunt Tilly's flowers.
Okay, to tell the truth, my garden can't begin to rival Aunt Tilly's yard. Few gardens do, these days, because most people just don't have enough time to work in the yard every day. So, we tend to plant some bushes and native grasses, and maybe a few rose bushes, and call it good.
But in the last couple of years, I've added some perennials to the south side of the house, and I've planted a few more tulip bulbs here and there. Our one, lonely lilac bush just finished blooming, and our peony bush is all budded out, ready to bloom next week. I've pruned the rose bushes, and I'll be watching with anticipation, waiting for some tiny red rosebuds to appear.
And then, there are those hardy hollyhocks, stretching all along the west fence, and continuing along the north fence, under the basketball hoop. When they finally bloom in July, Evie should be old enough to appreciate a pretty, pink hollyhock doll or two, hand crafted by Grandma. Realistically, we have enough hollyhocks to share some tiny dolls with a whole school-full of little girls.
And, I think that Tobin and Evelyn are finally old enough to follow me around the yard to look at my flowers. Like Aunt Tilly, I know most of them by name.
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| Last year's lilies, in the front yard |
All I remember of visiting Aunt Tilly was the yard. In my memory, we spent all our time outside when we were there. Don't remember watching TV at all. But I can't forget the flowers!
ReplyDeleteThe TV was only on in the evenings. Wrestling was the only program they ever watched, and you watched, intently, right along with them. But we usually visited during the day, and spent most of our time in that beautiful yard!
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