I have always loved my Aunt Linda’s garden in Rockford, Michigan. Every summer, she and Uncle Dale host my mom’s side of the family around July 4th. We hang out around their pool, read, watch tennis, ride bikes on the White Pine Trail, get ice cream from Rocky’s, and walk around Downtown Rockford. I even used to have some extended stays in Rockford during the summer when I was in middle school, and my mom and dad were tired of dealing with my pre-teen/teen angst. Even amongst all my emotions then, I had an appreciation for the beauty my Aunt Linda created in the limited space along their driveway. It has expanded more since then, but it still captures her personality and spirit. I was able to sit down with her on the front porch swing one afternoon while we were there this summer and talk to her about her garden.
Shelly: How long have you been here?
Aunt Linda: We have been in this house since 1975 (43 years).
Shelly: What did you start with and how has it grown over time?
Aunt Linda: The stretch out back by the fence – when we moved here, we grew grapes in there and we belonged to the West Michigan Wine Guild or something. We made our own wine –
Shelly: Wow!
Aunt Linda: Yeah, it was not very good.
[Both laughing]Aunt Linda: I don’t know how many years, maybe five or six years, we grew grapes there and then we thought wellll that’s not really working for us. And then we just dug them out and I planted some perennials. Through the years, then, you kinda move things. Then, I was working for the lab, but it was part time – two days one week and three days the next – so I had some time in the summer.
I would move the tall plants in the back and the short plants in the front, and I would do it all summer long. I wouldn’t wait – you know people say you have to do it in the fall or the spring – I just did it. And to this day, it’s kind of similar. You know, if I go out there in the spring and pull weeds, and then I think, Oh, I’ve got an empty spot here, I better go out to the store and buy a perennial and stick it in that empty spot. Or, if something needs dividing, I might divide it up and plunk it in the empty spot.
In this bed here on the side of the house, at one point it was just kind of like the back bed, it was just all flowers all along and then I thought, well people have these neat flower beds, and I didn’t. I’m gonna make this one neater. So, I got rid of it and tried to space things out and put mulch down so it looked a little neater. I had some periods where I had a lot bulbs, a lot of tulips, a lot of daffodils –
Shelly: Did the bulbs, did the tulips come back every year?
Aunt Linda: They did, they did, but you know, they wear out after a while. And, at Grand Valley, I just got so busy, and I didn’t have my summers off, and my life just got too busy, so I didn’t have time to worry about planting bulbs in the fall. So the last few years I’ve not been really good about my flower bed just because I’ve just been really busy. The plants in the front, we’ve redone those about 5 times over the forty years because they last maybe ten years and then you think “well it’s time to replace with something else” That’s kind of the story of our perennials.
Shelly: So, the back one, was there much planning to it or was there just, you know, I like these plants and I’m gonna plant them and then some editing like moving things?
Aunt Linda: Yep, I never really had a plan. I might go to the garden store and say, Oh, I don’t have anything that looks like that. You know, I have a friend that didn’t want any yellow plants in her flower bed, so she never had any. Now, mine, I notice in the spring my lupines are in bloom and my irises are in bloom, my garden is blue and purple, and now my garden it’s mostly yellow. The perennials change with the season. So I still, you know I think I’ve got a bee balm out there that I planted last year, that’s up right now it’s got those pretty purple flowers and I think oh that’s nice, that came back.
I have good soil.
Shelly: Yeah you do!
Aunt Linda: I don’t have clay, it’s nice and rich. You know one year, probably back in the 70s, Dale’s grandfather said he used Preen in his garden, you know because it gets rid of the weeds. So that spring I thought, well I’m just gonna sprinkle Preen. Well, all of my plants that come back by seed were killed because Preen kills the seeds so all my spider flowers – anything that comes back from seed – my poppies, I had a ton of Icelandic poppies. I don’t have any anymore, they were just kind of throughout the whole garden and they all were killed.
[Both laughing]Aunt Linda: Because I didn’t know, and I didn’t think about it or didn’t realize which plants came back by seed and which came back by its roots.
Shelly: And when the ones that come back by seeds, when do you kind of spread the seeds or like let them –
Aunt Linda: Usually I let them fall naturally. You know, sometimes I have had, when I do get those little Icelandic poppies out there (I don’t think I have any this year) I make sure I spread them out because I want little pockets of them here and there but for some reason they seem to be all gone. I had them a couple years ago. Same thing with spider flowers – I can’t remember the scientific name, they’re a large plant – they come back by seed, and I would save all the seeds and make sure that they got spread.
Now Rockford has a Rockford Facebook Garden Page, which is kinda cool because people share photos of their flowers and ask questions and you know maybe show a picture – last week some woman showed a picture of her phlox, which gets mold really easily – or what is this, and what can I do? And then there’s always people on there that say, this is what it is and this is what I use. You know, at one point I had six bags of lupine seeds, and I said I’ve got a bunch of lupine seeds, if anybody wants them let me know. I had a bunch of people that said, “Yeah I do!” So I wrote back and said I’ll put them on the front porch with your name on the bag. Everyone loved it. So, that’s worked for me too.
Shelly: Was it expensive starting out, or did you just kind of do things gradually?
Aunt Linda: I think gradually. You know, some things you get from friends. Julie – before the Canadian people [customs] got so picky – Julie and I would share too. She’d give me some and I’d give her some. So, I’ve never been a big – well, I shouldn’t say I’ve never been a big spender, our annuals cost us several hundred dollars every spring, because I get the hanging baskets and –
Shelly: Do you make the baskets?
Aunt Linda: Well, I buy it as a little basket, and then I put it in our own pots. These [pointing to impatiens in hanging baskets on front porch] came in those [the pots they were currently hanging in], but the ones in the back, in those coco mats, those came in plastic pots, and Dale just put them in. So, we spend a couple hundred dollars on annuals because they bloom the whole summer where your perennials have their little period.
But this is kind of the peak. I’ve always noticed right around the Fourth of July, and then I have some things that still bloom, like daisies, but a lot starts dying back around this time of the year, and then it gets hot and dry. Sometimes I drag – I haven’t this year – but if we have a real dry spell, I’ll drag sprinklers out or hoses out. I haven’t done that this year; I haven’t had to because we’ve had periodic rain.
I hope you have enjoyed looking at these beautiful plants and enjoyed reading about my aunt Linda’s gardens and how they developed over time. Stay tuned for part 2 where we talk about her houseplants and some advice for gardeners! Thanks for reading! What is your favorite part of her garden? Let me know in the comments!
