The Little Begonia With a Huge Job

  Occasionally, something happens that just brightens the day without even trying.  Since the redoing of Little Bayou House has taken up most of my time as of late, the gardens are in a disarray...big time.  In fact, there is a great lack in gardens for the first time in many, many years.  Things have been left to their own accord which usually means weeds overtaking the preferred plants.  While this is true in about half of the garden and even the potted plants, this morning, I found one plant that was doing perfectly fine by itself.  

  Several years ago, my oldest brother brought down a huge angel-wing begonia.  "Here, this was Mom's.  You take it."  So, I did!  Excitedly!  The thing had a rough go here as the raccoons decided to repot the begonia without the aid of a new pot.  It was pulled up by the roots and tossed the wayside.  Yes, I replanted.  Yes, the coons "unplanted".  Several times over again.  After the third time and since the plant was now pretty well mangled, I tried one last time and stuck the thing in the greenhouse.  There, it flourished!  Earlier this spring, every plant was hauled outside and forgotten until today.

  While out washing the old dog, I spied the begonia and found it was doing perfectly wonderful!  Although a lot smaller than when my brother brought it to me, it was full of blooms!  Mom would be so happy!  She loved this begonia.  As I looked at it, the plant brought back a flood of memories of Mom and Pop.  Although this was Mom's plant, Pop would secretly take care of it, as he did with all of her potted plants.  He would sneak fertilizer to them, prune them and water them....all on the sly so Mom did not know.  (Or perhaps she did and just never said anything to spoil his secret.)  

  Things like that have a way of bringing fond memories and lots of smiles of long gone days.  Sometimes, that is just what is needed to help us trudge through when we get bogged down in our daily chores.  With renewed energy, I vowed to beat the heat and find a little time each day to get the gardens back to their former beauty.  The begonia deserves a place to be in its full glory...as do the other plants that I, more or less, have neglected for the past few months.   I just need to find the time and energy.  If that little begonia can overcome all of its tribulations to bring me a bit of happiness, I surely can return the favor.

The Forgotten Garden

Sometimes no matter how far you take the farm girl off the farm, you can never get that farm out of her.  I am still in Georgia visiting my sweet granddaughter and have no place to dig in the dirt!  Not that I particularly need to be digging in the dirt but if I was back home, I know that I would be planting something!  This morning before daybreak, I made my self a cup of hot chocolate (yes, I know it is summer but I really wanted hot chocolate!) and headed out to back deck of my son and daughter-in-law's house.  It is lovely out there in the early morn.  Behind their house is a small pond and I can hear geese fly in to get their breakfast.  This brings to mind the Bayou and pier.  After a bit, I got up to wander about their back yard.  Since the neighboring yard is opened up into theirs, I was able to meander around that area as well.  This house is vacant at the moment so there was no one to fuss at me as I poked around trying to get a good view of the little pond.

In the back corner of the neighboring yard, I came across an abandoned garden.  At one time, this had evidently been someone's special place..perhaps a tiny place to meditate.  In one corner sat a small concrete bench covered with weeds and vines. A birdbath had been upended by the elements or some animal.  Potted plants were overgrown and poorly nourished.  Assorted pots and garden plaques were strewn around the site.  Oh, my heart ached to clean up the area and make the small garden back into the place of peace and beauty that it evidently once was.  It was all I could do to refrain from pulling weeds and righting the birdbath!  Instead, I just had to walk away from this corner of the yard.  I had no right to touch anything here even though my thoughts were only of improvement.  Until this house is either rented or sold, the yard will most likely stay in disarray.  I never knew it would bother me so much to leave a garden untended.

I headed back to the deck to watch for the geese. Perhaps if I took my mind off the forgotten garden, I would not feel so miserable..at least until tomorrow morning when I come out to watch the sunrise.  It is probably a good thing that we will be heading back to the Bayou in a couple of days.  Otherwise, I might just be caught trespassing, albeit, with the good intentions of beautifying an untended garden!