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Start a Memory Garden

© Eileen O'dea

There is a plot, in your garden, that needs some work. Or there is a cozy corner where a little garden would look just perfect. Remember the Victory Gardens? All turn my thoughts to a memory Garden.

I started a memory garden when I first bought my house. It started out small with some Chinese Lanterns, for my beloved Great Grandmother Gram. I remembered sitting on her garden glider, peeking through the wooden slats, looking at her Chinese Lanterns. I loved them, and they have always reminded me of Gram. When my husband's aunt passed I planted a Peony tree. I had remembered that she had said she loved them.

This spring my memory garden will have a new planting. As many of you know I just lost my treasured Grandmother. In her honor I am going to plant a Blue Spruce, which I will train to look like a Christmas tree. Every year, when I was little, She and my Grandfather would take us to get out Christmas tree.

My memory garden is my smallest garden. Yet, it is my favorite. I added a fieldstone bench and I sometimes sit for hours, visiting.

Now to start a memory garden there is one thing you need to remember. Leave enough extra room for future plantings. Space can be saved if one of your memories is a bulb flowed. Depending on the plant you can grow close together at different depths.

Choose a good Mulch. I cannot express how important this is. There will be empty spots that will be begging for weeds. Keep up with them by using a heavy layer of mulch, and add more to it each spring. It can always be raked away when you want to add a planting. Weeding will take hard work and time to do before a new planting.

Their really aren't any DON'TS in a memory garden, there can't be. Your memoirs of special people will be totally different. So, don't be afraid to add nonfauna items. If a favorite memory is someone and their cat, dog or even pig, add a concrete version of their pet. If your loved one was crazy for angles, add one of those. I added a gazing ball for my Great Grandfather. So you really aren't obstructed by the word garden. I have seen many Gardens with many sculptures and one or two plants.

OK, there is one Don't. Don't limit your self to people that have passed on, plant daisies for a childhood friend or teacher. Have a memory of a wonderful mass of daylilies? Plant some.