my garden

[dianeseattle]

i made this garden out of an overgrown, dry as tinder, back yard. I used nothing but hand tools. I had been creating compost for a year before I did it, and improved the soil by adding this. By having this garden, I was able to eat vegetables while knowing they were pure and came from my backyard.

it took me two days to dig it up by hand but it was worth every blister.

 

[Brenda2010]

i made this garden out of an overgrown, dry as tinder, back yard. I used nothing but hand tools. I had been creating compost for a year before I did it, and improved the soil by adding this. By having this garden, I was able to eat vegetables while knowing they were pure and came from my backyard.

it took me two days to dig it up by hand but it was worth every blister.
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Very cool Diane. Maybe come spring, I'll ask you for some tips and start a tiny one on my balcony!

 

[dianeseattle]

yeah, and you know, these are all pieces of junk I found in the backyard of my landlady's house. The wilted looking plants along the brick are wild arugula. She had it growing like crazy in her back yard. I love arugula! I'm not sure how well it did. I have a feeling the landlady sold the house a few months later and I was in Crisis City with my brother and mother, making the trip all the time to go see them. I do remember getting some fabulous carrots. If anyone here has never pulled a carrot out of the ground, dusted it off and eaten it, you have not LIVED. I don't usually like carrots but homegrown are the grooviest.

 

[Bill S.]

That looks really nice Diane you must have a very big back yard . I only have limited space in our back yard because we have a pool but I do have a space where I grow strawberries and cucumbers but not much else cause it’s mostly cement. But you’re garden looks awesome

 

[dianeseattle]

thank you, bill. i don't live in a house anymore, so no garden. i've been trying to find a place in seattle where I can move, a house where I can garden. I was a landscaper for a while, as was my dad and his dad. My son works in the city parks department, so he's a 4th generation gardener.

Trivia: My grandfather approached George Dishmaker, gardener for the Great Northern Railway, to hire him to plant flowers and landscape train depots, then took Dishmaker died, Grandpa took his job, then apprenticed my father, and the train eventually merged with Burlington and the government created Amtrak for passenger travel. But before that, my dad landscaped every depot from Seattle to St. Paul. His greatest accomplishment was landscaping Glacier National Park in Montana, where he planted lush gardens around the depot. Later, he landscaped the Rocky Reach Dam in Washington, which is a major tourist attraction.

Here's the GN story: GN Greenhouse

And here's Rocky Reach: Tony De Rooy -- A legacy of flowers: He set the standard for floral displays with flowery flags and dinner-plate dahlias

I'm quoted in that second story.

You can find pix of the dam online everywhere, though not too many with his designs.

He made that petunia bed of the American flag by copying the design from those flag pins everyone wears. I designed some of the beds for him, too, because he couldn't draw very well.

The bench in the middle of the photo is one we had made in his honor, with his name and credit for his work beautifying these hydroelectric projects.

Anyway, I didn't have any other choice. This thing runs in my blood.

 

[Bill S.]

Well that’s pretty cool too! You have quite a bit of talent in your family.

 

[mmitti]

Wow. You sure are a landscaper. Sorry you aren't able to have a garden now. You inspire me to do a little gardening this year.

 

[dianeseattle]

Well that’s pretty cool too! You have quite a bit of talent in your family.

we scattered his ashes on the flag bed during winter (he died in November 2006), a year after. Then I took more of his ashes and spread them to every important place he'd been in the state.

Every time I feel like a failure, I think of my dad. He thought he was a failure and could never live up to his dad. Even when he was working at Rocky Reach, raising 8 kids, he was only paid $400 a month. He never had the self-esteem to ask for what he was worth. He bought these Seahawk medallions, thinking they'd be really expensive some day. Once when I was broke, he mailed them to me and told me not to tell the other kids. He thought I could sell them and be a little better off, but they're only worth a few bucks. I thought, when I was growing up, that he was cheap. But later I realized he was just bad at money management and didn't have any money to manage, anyway. He'd cut huge bouquets of glads and dahlias and take them around town, to restaurants he frequented, so they'd have flowers on the table. Never charged them a dime. I don't know how I could have survived my family without him. He was the only person who saw the talents and abilities in me.

Before WWII, we didn't have an air force, but we did have Army Air Corps, which he joined. He was a radio man and was stationed in India. But he wanted to be a pilot:

As they say, Aim High!

 

[Brenda2010]

we scattered his ashes on the flag bed during winter (he died in November 2006), a year after. Then I took more of his ashes and spread them to every important place he'd been in the state.

Every time I feel like a failure, I think of my dad. He thought he was a failure and could never live up to his dad. Even when he was working at Rocky Reach, raising 8 kids, he was only paid $400 a month. He never had the self-esteem to ask for what he was worth. He bought these Seahawk medallions, thinking they'd be really expensive some day. Once when I was broke, he mailed them to me and told me not to tell the other kids. He thought I could sell them and be a little better off, but they're only worth a few bucks. I thought, when I was growing up, that he was cheap. But later I realized he was just bad at money management and didn't have any money to manage, anyway. He'd cut huge bouquets of glads and dahlias and take them around town, to restaurants he frequented, so they'd have flowers on the table. Never charged them a dime. I don't know how I could have survived my family without him. He was the only person who saw the talents and abilities in me.

Before WWII, we didn't have an air force, but we did have Army Air Corps, which he joined. He was a radio man and was stationed in India. But he wanted to be a pilot:
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As they say, Aim High!

Sounds like a wonderful man Diane, you were lucky to have had him.