<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDo you want to go for a walk?\u201d Marilyn asked, after dinner. I\u2019d already been for two long walks that day. We set off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOkay, but I don\u2019t want to go too far. Or too fast. Also, I don\u2019t want to use my right leg.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow\u2019s that going to work?\u201d my sister asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ll use one of yours. Aha, I know where we should go. There\u2019s this great impatiens garden on Georgetown.\u201d So we strolled that way, passing the pond and the egrets fishing and geese strutting about with fluffy goslings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon, we arrived at the impatiens garden. It extends all the way across the front of the house, and it\u2019s perfect from the day the flowers go in. I was about to tell Marilyn the man\u2019s secret\u2014which his wife shared with me some years ago\u2014when a deep voice said, \u201cGood evening, ladies. Out for a walk?\u201d It was the gardener himself, out in the yard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYup,\u201d I answered. \u201cWe\u2019re admiring your garden. This was our destination.\u201d There\u2019s much more to his garden than impatiens, all of it lush and thriving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThank you,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you like the front yard, you should see the back yard. Would you like to?\u201d Marilyn and I looked at each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes,\u201d we said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We weren\u2019t even to <\/em>the back yard when we started oohing and aahing in earnest. The gate in the tall fence has lovely carved wooden panels that our host said he and his wife change out periodically for panels of stained glass. And just through the gate, blocking further progress, was a downspout extension. He flipped it up and out of the way. It had a hinge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDid you make that?\u201d Marilyn asked. Marilyn can fix everything. She can build anything. She has headed up Habitat for Humanity builds. She\u2019d never seen a downspout hinge before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo,\u201d the man assured us. \u201cThey have these.\u201d And that was the least of the marvels of his back yard retreat. There was, for instance, a dwarf kiwi tree. His students had given it to him years ago. Its foliage stretched at least ten feet from one side to the other. Who knew you could grow kiwis in Michigan, and why was this tree called dwarf? \u201cBecause the kiwis are this big,\u201d he said, holding thumb and index finger close together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also grows several varieties of coleus. One of them is unusual enough that I didn\u2019t recognize it as coleus at all. \u201cMy wife got that one for me,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen another one like it.\u201d And so it was with the other plants. A white flag iris so simple and elegant that it looked like art. The pathways. The koi pond. The plans for future projects, including a breakfast spot where he and his wife can sit and watch the multitude of hummingbirds that frequent the yard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a delightful tour. And on the way home, I told Marilyn the secret to the splendid impatiens display, as shared with me by the man\u2019s wife some years ago. He doesn\u2019t take the plants out of the flats they come in. The two of them used to plant all of each year\u2019s impatiens in the ground, but no more. Now, he\u2019s angled the garden bed and just puts the flats down. Instant perfection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking of perfection, my husband and I are now Up North, sharing a cottage on Lake Huron with a daughter, a granddaughter, and the granddaughter\u2019s husband. We\u2019ve been watching boats go by. Purple martins on the wing. Swans in the water. Gulls fishing. People fishing from small boats, trolling motors moving them slowly over the water. The marina\u2019s odd little runabout boat, with a young guy twirling round and round on a high stool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re on Saginaw Bay, where property owners have to deal with reeds as a nuisance. Or, more accurately, reed corpses. Large stands of reeds are visible from where we are. And when, alas, each stalk breathes its last, it breaks off and goes floating across the bay. In due course, it takes on enough water to sink to the sandy lake bottom. After which, wave action brings it ashore. Piles and piles of woody reed straws accumulate on the beaches, and the householders rake them up and dispose of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But we\u2019re on vacation. With family around us. And soon we\u2019ll be with more family. Tomorrow is another granddaughter\u2019s wedding day. She and her intended plan an outdoor wedding, and so far the weather\u2019s holding favorable for the occasion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gardens, a great lake, and a wedding. Ooh. Ahh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10 June 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cDo you want to go for a walk?\u201d Marilyn asked, after dinner. I\u2019d already been for two long walks that day. We set off. \u201cOkay, but I don\u2019t want to go too far. Or too fast. Also, I don\u2019t want to use my right leg.\u201d \u201cHow\u2019s that going to work?\u201d my sister… Continue reading Ooh. Ahh.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[93,117,118],"class_list":["post-363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-family","tag-garden","tag-great-lake","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moncrieff-in-michigan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moncrieff-in-michigan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moncrieff-in-michigan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moncrieff-in-michigan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moncrieff-in-michigan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/moncrieff-in-michigan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":364,"href":"https:\/\/moncrieff-in-michigan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions\/364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moncrieff-in-michigan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moncrieff-in-michigan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moncrieff-in-michigan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}