Mom's Memorial

The 2 biggest projects we have left on the house (thought we were done, huh?) are painting the upstairs and landscaping. I can handle the painting no prob...I just need a few days (not necessarily back to back) where I can tackle it without little fingers that are prone to touching it! The landscaping, however, has been the biggest giant. I come from a line of not-so-green-thumbers, so I already have that not going for me. Not only that, but I've had very little experience of my own growing things. Dave and I did manage to keep our Azalea bushes alive at our old house, but we are talking only 4 bushes!

I spent a couple of hours at Home Depot last week going over my options. I'll soon start doing my google search on landscaping and then get down to it. I'm feeling somewhat confident about it. We'll see.

In the meantime, though, it is time to get serious about planting the hydrangea bush that we took with us from our old house. This bush came from my mom's memorial service after she died. I planted it (with success) after she died so I would have a constant living memory of her. When we sold our house I knew that plant had to come with us. So a couple of weeks before our move date, I dug it up and replanted it in a planter for transport to it's new home. Because we were so up in the air about how to landscape our new home, this plant sat (growing, mind you) in the planter patiently waiting. It survived the shock of being transported quite nicely. I was very impressed. I guess so impressed that it made me in less of a hurry to get it back into the ground.

Knowing that cooler weather and better planting season was approaching, I started pondering where this memorial shrub might go. I thought I had chosen the perfect spot for it by our fence in the backyard. I wanted it to be all alone so it would have room to grow and bloom pretty purple flowers. So one day last week I got out my shovel, gloves, hose and planter and planted her in the ground, in her own memorial spot. But the more I looked at that plant all alone by the fence where we would barely ever get to see her, the more it nagged at me that that was not the best spot.

I sat on it for a couple of days UNTIL I glanced up and snuck a peek at what truly was the best spot. Next to our newly built storage shed. My wheels began to turn and I soon envisioned a memorial garden. A garden dedicated to my mother in her memory. A place where I could go to remember her and feel close to her. What made it even more special was the fact that this spot enabled the shrub and memorial garden to look down on the boys playing. It overlooks the boys swingset, trampoline and whole backyard. "How perfect", is how my mom would reply to that!

So for the past few days I have been starting on this memorial for her. I planted her shrub, and a couple other lilly plants, and purchased a few accesories to go in it. My favorite one is a statue of 2 boy cherubs. To me, they represent my boys. They are standing tall right next to her living memory.

My next effort will be finishing planting other flowers, widening it, getting a border in and putting mulch down. Followed by finding a stone or plaque that I can have engraved as mom's memorial.

I'll update pictures as progress is made.