Aloha Everyone,
My Mother's home has a formal Japanese Garden in the front, wisteria vines and grape vines on one side of the house and vine tomatoes and papaya on the other side. In the backyard, she has lemon, orange, persimmon, guava and kumquat trees plus a shelves of Bonsai Plants. She has been an active member of the Bonsai Club for the past 14 years. Next week, her Bonsai group will be holding their monthly meeting at her home and will be working on her Bonsai plants. Thereafter, she will welcome me to feature her bonsais.
My Mother spends at least 1 to 2 hours a day working in her garden. She says that her gardener is good at cutting her trees and maintaining her lawns trimmed but the plants require her personal attention to grow and thrive. I recall that she always had green thumbs. If she plants an avocado seed in the ground, it will grown into a small avocado tree. She has buried sweet potato in the ground to "remove any chemical fertilizer" and the potato has sprouted and there are a couple of potato plants growing.
Today J.J. and I "hanged around" with my Mother. We went to Wal-Mart, Costco, Target and to a post office. However every time we came home, she is out in her yard watering or removing leaves and tending to her flowers and fruits.
So here are some photos in Mother's garden.
"Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul." - Luther Burbank
"To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour." - William Blake
"The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul." - Alfred Austin
"A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them." - Liberty Hyde Bailey
"A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust." - Gertrude Jekyll
"Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air." - Georges Bernanos
"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." - Khalil Gibran
"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." - A. A. Milne
Aloha -- Cathi