Larkspurs and hollyhocks, sweet peas and morning glories!

Not much. Never knew a grandmother, as a kid.

Zinnias -- always zinnias and sweet peas, morning glories,larkspur,hollyhocks, and almost anything that she could get seeds of that readily re-seeded. They were the most beautiful of beautiful gardens.

Grandma had a washtub full of asparagus fern. When my uncle was a baby he lost his eye. Over the years he would buy glass eyes from a catalog. Once he had some in his pocket.
He wanted the tub moved, but she told him it was too heavy. When he bent over to move it his glass eyes fell out of his pocket. Grandma said, "I told you it was too heavy".

natvtxn, I laughed out loud!

That sounds just like my mother!

Her brothers & her uncle were all mechanics, & all of them were "Chevy men".

When my father bought a Ford in 1963, she was *very* unhappy with him.

One morning, a drunk crossed the stripe & hit my father & me broadside.

When my mother got to the hospital, she said, "I told you not to buy that Ford."

snork!

& the washtub rings a bell:

people planted stuff in all kinds of worn-out containers.

I remember washtubs, foottubs, a huge iron kettle, a graniteware coffee pot, all kinds of cans & buckets, basins full of portulaca...
& my grandmother's Pride of Barbados lived in something that may have been the main body of a wringer-type washing machine.

...& my mother once turned a decrepit forge into a bird feeder!

I have had the privledge of knowing both of my grandmothers (they are still alive today). One's gardens was bachelor buttons, clover, cone flowers, iris' and many assorted cactus lined up along her front porch. My other grandmother was not the green thumb, but my grandfather was and he edge the entire corner lot they lived on BY HAND until he was well into his 70's. His garden contained HUGE lantanas (some 3-5 feet across), spider lilies (where I developed my love for them) iris, towering old crape myrtles and purple jew. He is gone now, but many of the flowers still remain there.

One grandfather was a traveling salesman so they were always on the road. The other grandma had a huge vegetable garden when my mom & her sisters were little but when I was a kid she just mowed the grass. No garden whatsoever.
The little old lady next to me as a kid grew all kinds of stuff. Lilacs, snowballs (no idea what they were, probably a hydrangea), iris, etc. So I think more of little old lady gardens than grandmas garden.
I'm the little old lady of my neighborhood!
Tally HO!

Before grandma moved to California, the year the chicken's were about belly-button high, I remember that garden. Her old house was at the foot of a mountain in eastern Oklahoma.
The mountain shadowed the house half the day, seemed like. There were pigs, and horses. The cherry tree leaned out over the pig pen, and it was many a warning we got for leaning out over the pigs to grab a cherry.

The garden was heart shaped, maybe 30 feet across. The cement edging laid by my granddad before the coalmine got him. I remember the red tulips marching along the heart shape. But most of all, I remember the poppies. They were face high at the time, and were and object of great interest.

Mmmmm, TGL: A Valentine Garden!

How cool!

I can just see it (& how on earth did you manage to measure the chickens?...)

Beautiful flowers of every kind she could get a hold of, lol

The thing I remember most in her gardens...horny toads
You couldn't hardly take a step without seeing one or more

My greatgrandfather & several Uncles worked the coal mines. Not many people think of coal mining when they thing of OK and Kansas(where I'm from). My Aunt gave me a great rock that her cousin loaded into her trunk this past spring, he brought it up from the coal mine one day after work. Dang thing must weigh 150 lbs. Don't ask me how he got it up. Took 3 people to get it out of her trunk and it is still in the spot it was unloaded.
Tally HO!

Texas Garden Lady, you musta been tiny to have chickens come up to your belly button. I love the way you measure things.

There was only one of my grandparents alive when I was born. We moved around a bit, but lived mostly in Colorado and Wyoming, while my Grandmother lived in Abilene. We visited her every once in a while, but I don't remember how often. Her garden was so different than I was used to. She had privet hedges that disected part of the back yard, making it into rooms. She had a glider, which we all loved. Best of all, she had a Mimosa tree, which is the all time bestest tree for climbing. She had St. Johns Wort, and Apricot tree that she made preserves from, irises and summer phlox. I still have some of her irises and phlox.

I have very fond memories of an old lady that lived behind us when we lived in Durango, Colorado. We lived on the foot of a mountain that was in the middle of town. She had an acre or two, I don't remember exactly how much land, but enough to grow fruit trees and raspberries. Every morning the elk would "migrate" one way across the mountain, and every evening they'd go back to wherever they started from. Of course, opportunistic elk and deer would find their way to her orchard, but she didn't care. She considered the fruit just as much theirs as hers. She would fix us kids bowls of fresh rasperries and cream. Mmm mmm mmm mmm mmmmmmm, it didn't get much better than that. Sadly, my Dad was transfered, and we had to move. I think she helped to shape my love for animals. I already loved animals very much, but her attitude of sharing with the wildlife really sunk into me.

Sally

I love Mimosa trees. I know they are messy - but love the smell, and shape of the trees. I never thought of growing an apricot tree. Do you think they would live here?

I remember being the tallest in a crowd of chickens. She had a kind that had a topknot of feathers. Don't know what kind, but they would run all around her when she came outside.

I don't know, Txgardenlady, if apricots would grow where you are. I'm thinking it wouldn't be cold enough for them for long enough of a period of time. I think, in Abilene, my Grandmother was at the southern edge of where they would actually produce fruit, and she was lucky to even get fruit, but I'm not an expert in fruit trees.

Sally

Ask about different kinds/types. My son had a house in La Porte (East of Houston) area that got fruit. But the squirrels got most of them.

My Dad's cousin in Fort Worth has an Apricot tree and it's fruit makes really great pies

I already have problems with squirrels, but this might be worth fighting for. I'll look into this.

Dad's mom loved her roses and crape myrtles, I remember beautiful roses lined the front of the house while the CM's lined the side of the house, then grandpa always had his pepper plants every year. Dad told me this year that Grandpa planted the GM in large washing machine tubs and the CM's stay about 4 foot tall. All of the roses and CM's are gone now and I sure miss them.
My son is now living in the house and he wants to garden the front and place passion vines along the side fence, he's asked me for starting from my gardens. I cannot tell you how good it feels to have the home come back to life and him wanting help from me to get the gardens going. He is the forth Gen. to live in the house and I'm sure his great grandparents are smiling down upon him. This would make them very happy knowing there home is still in the family and will be for a long time.
Behind my grandparents lived a dear sweet couple, the man loved gardening and I would go visit him and his wife weekly. I don't know for sure what all his plant were but it was a beautiful sight to see. I remember tall flowers that look like hollyhocks but the rest fails my memory. He did have a weeping willow tree and pussy willows I loves both of these.
My mom's mom was a manager for an adult apartment complex close to down town Denver she took care of the grounds because she loved gardening, I don't recall the names of plants or flowers she grew but Better homes and gardens placed a picture of the place on the cover of the magazine back in the 60's and the show route 66 did a show with the place in it.
Grandmother moved into a house later when she was no longer able to work, she had two small brick flower beds in front of the porch and she would plant snap dragons in them every year, this was her favorite plant.

My grandma (in MN) had huge snoball plants, I loved them. She wasn't a gardener,my great grandpa was. He had hollyhocks taller than I was and huge dinner plate delilas. His yard was like a kid size town. He built a whole village my size. Mostly with mortar & rock. It's still there today. The wooden structures went to a museum.....don't know what happened to them after that.

wonderful stories!

One springtime a couple of years ago, I sold a house for a single guy.

It was a cute 1950's brick bungalow:
3 bedrooms, 2 baths, hardwood floors, shady corner lot.

One morning as he & I stood outside chatting, I noticed the nandina & paperwhites.

I said, "Look at that. This house used to belong to somebody's grandmother."

Tears welled up in his eyes.

He said, "My grandparents built this house, & my grandmother planted all the flowerbeds."

SYLVIA, that is such a sweet, heart touching story

Yes, a heart touching story.

I wish I could buy my grandparents house, but it burned down about 15 years ago.

My Grandma (Dad's mom, only grandparent I knew) didn't have a garden. At least not one I can remember - maybe she had a few tomatoes. She had cherry trees. With cardinals in them all the time.

This was in Ohio, summers. Dad & Mom dropped me there for a week, a couple of times. That's where I learned to keep my room and clothes neat, make my bed - and enjoy homemade doughnuts, AFTER I made my room and clothes neat, etc.

When I was a little boy, gardens did not impress me. But trees did. (and still do) I enjoyed east Texas trees, and climbing them all the time. My favorite place in those times, next to under (or in) the Texas trees, was under (or in) Grandma's trees. Making bird calls. Watching those cardinals.

Until one day, I saw these big men wearing red helmets and cool uniforms with pictures of cardinals on them. I thought they looked more cool than firemen. After that, I generally stayed out of the trees and played baseball. Grandma didn't mind; Grandpa played the same game until she told him to stay home. I wish I knew if she taught him how to keep his clothes neat...

AW, Sylvia the poor guy must have hated giving up all his memories of his family home. I don't know what I'll do if I ever sell my grandparents and dads homes. My dad was 6 months old when they moved into their home and then when dad married my mom they built a house next door and it just happened that I was 6 months old when they moved into it. Dad has never lived away from his home and at 74 years old he can't make a move to a better neighborhood. He'd get lost trying to find his way around in a new area and such. So that is why I had my son move next door in our grandparents home to help look out after dad. When dad goes we'll have to see if my son still want's to live in the house or buy another one in a better area.
My son has done work on the house and I know he'll get attached to it.

Barb, you're so lucky to still have those houses in the family.

My Aunt Lillie's daughters decided to sell her house when she died (fortunately, one of the daughters bought it).

My aunt had lived in that house for over 70 years.

Her oldest daughter was in a baby carriage when they moved into it, & the second daughter was born there.

Aunt Lillie raised her children there, her husband's parents lived there when they could no longer live alone, the grandchildren & great-grandchildren were in & out of there like butterflies.

It was the place I always went, *my entire life*, when I needed...I don't know, when I needed whatever it was that Aunt Lillie did, or meant, or signified.

It was where I could always have ice cream with my "big girl" cousin when I was a little girl (she had penny loafers & bobby socks!), get a peanut butter & cracker sandwich, later it was where I could drop in & have coffee & chat with Aunt Lillie...

forgot to say that I think Aunt Lillie's house may have been where I got a great deal of my gardening obsession.

She grew irises in the bed around the front porch, Turk's Cap below the evaporative cooler/swamp cooler/water fan, althea beside the living room window.

She had an odd old metal table about 18" high that she kept under a shade tree.
This was where her houseplants spent their summers.

In the winter, they moved onto a regular greenhouse table her husband built & installed on their "back porch", a room on the back of the house that had windows all around.

In the late 60's, African Violets were a new rage, & she loved them.

"Everybody" said that African Violets were temperamental, & you had to have exactly the right conditions, & they'd die like vampires if the sun touched them.

She read up on them & got one little pot to try.

& the rest is history!
Her African Violets were so gorgeous that everybody always went "out on the porch" to see them when they visited.

She once gave me an angel wing begonia, & she called my mother to come see her night-blooming cereus one night around midnight.

"& bring Sylvia", she said.

My mother told her I was asleep, & I had to work the next day.

"Wake her up!", said Aunt Lillie.

& she did, & I went over there in my pajamas...
& I'm glad I did.

I have a cutting of that night blooming cereus sitting under a shade tree today.

& I have irises (everywhere, my dears, simply everywhere!),
Turk's Cap in the flower bed,
2 altheas by the fence,
& a ragtag assembly of "starts" in various plastic pots, yogurt containers, & coffee cans.

I haven't had an African Violet for many years, but I finally have *one window* in *one room* where the cats can't get in & dig things up.

Maybe it's time to try one of those temperamental little divas again.