Yardful of Memories

On July 1, I wrote about the day we moved into this house 28 years ago. I mentioned that I wanted to stay here long enough for my grandkids to climb the trees. This is a dream that has come true. There are many memories in our yard.

The spring after we moved in, we began landscaping with a vengeance. We had contracted with a nursery in town to create a plan for our yard, and we in turn would buy a percentage of the trees and bushes from them. We ended up buying almost everything from them, if I remember correctly. DC was very busy that spring with his job, so it fell upon me (a totally indoors kind of person), to plant the trees and bushes. I had two small children, but I would faithfully get out there every morning, dig 5-6 holes, and run to the nursery to pick up that many bare root bushes. It was an extremely wet spring that year and every time we'd prepare for a big project, the rain would come and make muck out of our dirt, also filling up any holes we had dug or trenches that had been prepared for the sprinkling system. I remember the day that we finally put in grass seed, trying to beat the coming rainstorm, thinking it would be great to have God give the pre-lawn its first good watering. Well, He sent a gully-washer, and every newly purchased seed ended up against the patio or around the newly-planted trees. We had a great crop of grass in totally inappropriate places! We tried again.

I described the adventure of planting of a very tall sapling in the previously linked post. Needless to say, it became my favorite tree in the yard. Here is a picture of it - a Marshall Seedless Ash.

A few years later, DC's parents went back to Wisconsin to the old home place, in the woods up north. Unbelievably, they brought us home two trees for our growing yard. How those trees made the long trip without dying is a miracle in itself. One was a Blue Spruce, about 2 feet tall. It now stands at least 30 feet. What a great memory for my husband of his childhood at his grandma's place. The picture is on the left below. The other one they brought was a maple of some variety. It stands at the corner of the house and is pictured on the right below.

Amazingly, the next spring, wild flowers and wild raspberries began to sprout around that maple tree - they had come out here from Wisconsin in the ball of dirt that surrounded the roots. They made it through that 1200 mile trip, through replanting, through winter, and came back to life in the spring. God puts amazing spunk into his plants! DC transplanted some, and especially the raspberries thrived. Feisty is standing in front of the raspberry patch, some of which are surviving wild ones. The rest are domestic. Are they delicious!! Feisty is also standing beside a fledgling apple tree. Another great story to follow.

If you look very carefully, you will see, on Feisty's left, the apple tree. It's about 5 feet tall. Four years ago in July, Anakin was eating an apple. He was 4 at the time. After he finished, we had a great discussion on how apples come to be. He asked if we could plant the seeds from the middle of his apple. We threw them in the ground in the flower bed right beside the patio. Lo and behold, one week later, they both sprouted. They grew so much each summer that I finally talked DC into transplanting the stronger one so that it wouldn't get too big to move and destroy the flower bed. Anakin wonders when he will get to eat an apple from it - probably about the time he goes to college. The wonders of God's plan!