Our family hopes to set a pattern for incipient Johnny Flower-seeds. There’s nothing easy about gardening in Minnesota but we’ve done it, though on the wing, and our efforts are strung gaily across the state, from the gumbo of the western prairies to the rock cliffs of Lake Superior’s north shore.
We’ve set up housekeeping in ten different houses during the last 15 years but always have managed to have a garden. In that we differ from other families whose work forces them to move about from pillar to post.
Those who wander up and down on the face of the earth do not own houses until they retire. They rent houses and landlords do not keep up the grounds or plant flowers for middle income renters. They must do it themselves, and few will bother to make gardens for landlords or future tenants.
No one can blame them. Women, whose housekeeping chores include packing and unpacking, and pulling up stakes every year or two, love flowers as much as established home owners.
They become starry-eyed when they see Mrs. Stayput’s flowers and Mrs. Gotrocks’ landscaped grounds in magazines. But, the constant moving to and fro stops them from planting gardens. They wistfully say, “We won’t be here long,” and let it go at that.
We’ve learned a thing or two which we’d like to pass on but truthfully our know-how consists chiefly of work, optimism and a love of growing things. The average four-rooms-and-bath presents you with a weedy lawn and not much else-not an inspiring prospect. The secret is to take courage and start right away.
Especially if your move is in springtime. Forget unpacking for a few hours and spade up the soil along the south side of the house. Turn over a bit by the side of that ugly garage and drop some morning-glory seed there.
Don’t expect to find good soil. One never does with rented houses. The surprising thing, though, is that many flowers will flourish in down-right poor earth. Work in any available dry leaves as you spade and be a bit generous with dehydrated manure and commercial fertilizer.
Shake out all roots you encounter to save the precious soil clinging to them and remove every grass and weed root you see to save many hours of dreary weeding later on.
You won’t be alone in the spring sun long. A neighbor, usually stand-offish with renters, is going to see you digging. They’ll be so glad that you are taking an interest in the neglected place that, dollars to dough-nuts, they will bring you some of the iris roots she’s dividing or will want to share some other perennials from her crowded beds with you. Ah ! don’t turn perennials down even if you won’t see them bloom. But, more about that later.
Forget Fancy Flowers
Two words, early and annual, are what the renter should keep in mind when buying seeds. Rare new blooms and all fussy, fancy plants are not for you. Make a list of old, familiar flower names, then consult that nice lady with the lovely garden down the street about how they should be handled in her town. If she sends you home without advice and flowers, she isn’t the right one. Try another.
For height, nothing is better than dahlias and the faithful cosmos. Plump glad bulbs, with plantings staggered for all summer blooming, are a happy choice.
Smaller marigolds and zinnias do well from seed. Bachelor buttons are a good standby and nice for cutting when added to alyssum from the border. Dwarf alyssum with moss roses (portulaca), by the way, make an effective low border. Both do well. in sand, almost. California poppies are a foolproof quickie.
Get nasturtiums, climbers, if you have a wall to cover, dwarf, if not. They come double or single, sweet scented and spicy and are like the Shmoo-the more you pick, the more you seem to have.
Seeds should be planted thickly and thinned later. The surplus seedlings will be used quickly enough as you find time to clean up and prepare other spots around the house.
Renters should become fast friends with the local nurseryman. He can help you with advice and his standard stock of annuals will not be expensive for you to invest in and will put your garden ahead several weeks. Even if you do not get many started plants, there are two kinds you must have.
Petunias will give you more for your money than any other purchase. Leave about a foot of space between plants and then relax and watch them spread. They’ll bloom from the time you get them started until heavy frost.
Pansies are another. They will take the place of the crocus,, daffodils, tulips and early iris that a renter usually must fore go. At a surprisingly early date, your greenhouse man will have almost fool-proof pansies for sale. Scatter the little darlings toward the front of the beds. Their merry faces will add high cheer to the place and if dead blooms are kept picked off, they’ll last almost all summer.
Bulb Bank
To be sure, renters move at most inconvenient times for gardening. Just is a bulb’s tiny green spear breaks through the ground or when it is in full bloom, you’re off again! Our family has partially solved the bulb situation by establishing a bulb bank.
From time to time, we send our stay-at-home, flower-loving relatives all the tubers, roots, bulbs we are able to save before moving. These are gifts but with a string attached.
They’re theirs for keeps but we have the privilege of requesting the offspring at any time. We’ve found that our bulb bank pays large dividends. No sooner have we moved into a new house when boxes begin to arrive full of bulbs, tubers, slips, cuttings, ivy for our window box, and choice home-grown seeds.
Flowering Future
We have planted trees, too. One of our dearest was a crabapple. It was given our daughter when she was very small by a neighbor who had an orchard. Even he was surprised, however, to see us tend it so lovingly the brief six months we had it.
Many years later we returned to our former home and tree. It was spring and as we neared the house we could see the pink and white blossoms of the crabapple brightening the street. My daughter told the lady of the house about “her” tree and she, of course, was delighted to show us how it had fared in the intervening years. That fall she sent us a box crammed with red-cheeked crab-apples and a note saying, “One good turn deserves another.”
Remember we mentioned perennials? Through the years we have sown seed to bloom unseen by us and perennials, shrubs and a few trees for others to enjoy. Unlike most wanderers, who complain of having no roots anywhere, we consider we have roots all over the state.
We have left labels to identify plants and notes to encourage people. True, we are Johnny Flowerseeds but there’s a method in our madness and a selfish purpose in our work. Whether we’ve said it with flowers or the written word, our message is, “Wherever you live from now on, please grow some flowers and leave some behind for the next occupant. You may never pass this way again, but others will.”
by Carol Mose
