We have lived in our house for less than a year. The previous residents lived here nearly 40 years. The man we purchased the house from was a botanist. That means he studied crazy plants for a living. We have a crazy overgrown garden. Those two last sentences are not necessarily related. But the crazy old man planted the crazy garden. I love it. And hence I love the crazy old man. He was a genius.
It has been lots of fun seeing what comes up out of the ground here. For example, we have a huge male ginkgo tree. Did you know that ginkgos come in male and female? I bet you did not, because ginkgo trees are not so common in these parts. But we have one. I'm prodigiously proud of our ginkgo tree. It's better than a pet because it pretty much takes care of itself.
And speaking of plants taking care of themselves, in early spring, we got daffodils. The whole back yard was lined with color in March and April. After the daffodils came the tulips. And bleeding heart. Then they all died off and started turning brown, but just as they were decaying into ugliness, the earth opened up and snap dragons sprang out to take their place. So now we have a back yard lined with pink and white and yellow and red.
And raspberries. About 40% of the yard is thorny raspberry bushes. Another 20% is overgrown rosebushes. Makes for a lot of thorns. But I respect that in a garden. Just another example of the plants taking care of themselves.
And finally, one of the very best things about buying a house from a botanist is that I never ever have to weed. Ever. Seriously. If I see a new plant start growing up unexpectedly, then I can be certain it is some sort of botanist surprise planted there on purpose to please the eye or provide for the body. We'd better let it grow and see what kind of crazy plant it turns out to be.
Sometimes we get flowers. Poppies and daisies and hyacinths and hollyhocks.
Sometimes we get fruit. Currants and figs and blackberries and strawberries.
But why, oh Reader, do you think the botanist was such a fan of thistles and morning glories?
2 comments:
ha! I have very fond memories of a childhood home that had raspberry and strawberry bushes in the backyard and the neighbors cherry tree hung over into our yard enough that my 9-year old rules deemed them ours as well. Sounds like an amazing yard.
You should provide some photographic evidence!! :) I haven't seen your yard since before you moved in to that house.
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