Gram’s garden

My grandmother and me in her garden

In Seattle’s Greenwood neighbourhood, a little red house was owned for forty years by my grandmother, Gladys Corinne Walker,  and later for fifteen years by me.

I remember a patio embraced by a pear tree and a plum tree and three camellias, one pink, one red, one white. I would play with the other children in my grandmother’s small day care center on the green painted paving stone patio surrounded by low rock walls softened by campanula, with its blue bells, and baby’s tears, with shiny tiny green leaves. Above, hanging baskets cascaded with pink, red, and white trailing fuchsias. In spring and summer, every meal in warm weather was al fresco on the old picnic table. The pear blossoms in spring would garnish the tablecloth. A cushioned wooden chaise loungue gave me a comfortable place to read for hours.

a garden tea party

I grew up surrounded by my grandmother’s many friends who often came over for garden parties and delicious dinners.  Gram’s life revolved around her home and garden, and between her tiny day care center and the taking in of ironing, she managed to spend most of her time at home.

Gram involved herself in my school, which was a block away, by sending glorious bouquets of flowers with me to my teachers, and by running a plant booth for the yearly fun fair. A succession of children passed through her day care center, and I wonder if any of them (Sally? Sandra? Trisha? Mike and Bob?) later became dedicated gardeners.

Anyone who came to visit got a tour of the garden – a mere 50X80 or so in a neighborhood near Seattle’s Green Lake – and would leave with “slips” (cuttings) of plants: African violets, hardy fuchsias, roses … and a bouquet of anything in bloom.

Letter written to her by the secretary of the PTA:

Dear Mrs. Walker,

Your many friends in the John B. Allen P.T.A. wish to express their sincere thanks for the many, many years you have devoted to our school and the lovely plants you have donated to help make our Fun Night a success.

Both you and your plants have been genuinely appreciated and we felt it was time to say “thank you”. Many a child has gone home happy because he bought his mommy a plant…whether she needed it or not, she loved it.

Thanks again for everything.

Sincerely,

Jerrolee Hendricks,
Secretary

Gram by her greenhouse, 1972

Gram in her garden, 1972

And always, Gram in motion: planting, nurturing, in her jeans and an old shirt, her small glass greenhouse neatly organized with trays of seedlings, her garden weedless and luscious with prize-winning begonias and hybrid tea roses, apricot, clear yellow, red and pink, geraniums and petunias and neat rows of lettuces and green onions, tomatoes heavy with fruit, all mixed together. Her chrysanthemums were as tall as I, and as an adult, I looked and looked for those tall chrysanthemums for my first garden before realizing that their height had been relative to my own.

For a photo album showing this garden from the 1940s, and story of its progression from this:

Gram on her parking strip, 1940s

and this:

me on parking strip, 1958

to this:

parking strip garden, 1989

see our photo album on the Facebook Tangly Cottage Gardening page.