Photo Essay: My Mother’s Garden through 2020

Now that spring is here and many are working on our gardens, I wanted to share the pictures I took of my mother’s garden over the course of last year.  A good garden should try to create interest across the seasons.  As one plant recedes another blooms.  I was reviewing the snaps I took over last year and I took a fair amount of my mother’s garden.  I didn’t capture it all, but I did capture most across three seasons.  I missed winter. 

In the front of the house my mother has a Madonna statue where a number of flowering plants blossom throughout the season.  The most stunning is this Hibiscus planted to the left (in the picture) which blooms for a couple of weeks in May.

But if you step back you will see a gorgeous Lincoln rose growing behind. 

You’ll notice to the right (in the picture) and just behind is a black-eyed Susan and a day lily which have not bloom yet.  Here a close up of the rose.

Let’s move on to the summer time.  Here’s a picture of that same front, now with some zinnias (I think) in front of the Madonna.  You can start seeing the yellow day lilies in the back. 

On the side of the house she has an assortment of lilies.

Here is the entire side. 

Opposite the assorted lilies is a climbing pink rose.  But let me take you closer to the climbing rose.

When that climbing rose bursts out, it’s stunning.  Looking toward the back of the yard, you will see the grape arbor as a canopy.  Here is a picture of the grapes hanging down.

Unfortunately the last few years we’ve got some sort of grape disease that kills over three quarters of the grapes.  They grow beautifully but by August they blacken and shrivel up. 

The backyard opens up after the arbor. 

To the left is a fig tree and the tree toward the back on the right is a dwarf pear tree.  The pear tree is old and has now for a couple of years stopped producing.  You can see the various potted plants my mother still tends.  In her younger years this would be full of vegetables.  There she is.  She’s a lot thinner this year now.  She’s lost, not by choice, a lot of weight this year from last with her gastro problems.  But she’s been out there this spring already.

She had a magnificent potted petunia last year.  Back to the front of the house you can see the black-eyed Susan and day lilies in bloom.

 

Some more interest on the side of the house in the summer with tall flowers, potted plants, and more roses.

 

Let me finally show some fall photos, here from the backyard.  Here you see yellow chrysanthemums in bloom in front of the St. Francis statue.  The tree framing from above is a persimmons tree, with the most delicious persimmons I have ever tasted.  They were just about ready to get picked at the time of this picture.  The persimmons tree is just over from the grape arbor.

 

The weight of the ripened persimmons lowers the branches significantly.  Normally the branches are pointing upward.  Some more pictures from the fall. 

There was more.  I didn’t capture pictures of everything.  I missed the dwarf lilac in bloom, a hydrangea, begonias, and annuals.  I just didn’t take pictures of those last year. But not everything in 2020 was bad!