Dad's Garden

Dad has always been the real gardener in the family. He grew up on a giant cattle farm in Indiana, and then we had a small farm in NY for 20+ years. When they moved to this house in Bloomington 2 1/2 years ago, Dad was really excited to put in a garden, vegetables on one side and flowers on the other. He spent lots of time out there nurturing his creation, and in many ways it provided both therapy and a creative outlet for him. We're all going to try to learn how to keep this up, and while Mom may change around some of the plantings - she's thinking of putting in sunflowers next year rather than some of the higher-maintenance veggies - this garden will continue to be one of the many ways in which we'll remember Dad every day.

Here we start with the herb garden. Look at these! Dad was able to grow things that I'm only dreaming of at this point - he's got Italian basil, mint, chives, dill, thyme, more stuff that I can't even recognize yet. It smells fantastic.

Tomatoes in the back, a row of eggplant, and some peppers that look like they'll take another year to really take hold.

Then Dad has a huge zucchini plant - look at those flowers!



These are a really rare onion that grows under the ground but also sprouts bulbs at the top. Dad got these from his father, who still farms, and he was so proud that these took hold so well.

Dad's shed, his little world out in the back yard. It's filled with gardening tools, fertilizer, and lots of birdseed. They love to watch the birds, and I spent a lot of hours watching the activity in the back yard in the early mornings, constantly amazed by the 3 bright red cardinals that come to visit every day.

And here we move into the flower side of the garden. Even with my parents being gone for a month, there was enough rain that it held up pretty well.



Our family mascot, since 1974.








Over the weekend, we hung Dad's Tibetan prayer flags in the garden. These are the flags I gave him for Christmas. Tradition holds that as the flags wear and disintegrate, the prayers are released into the world. They really look beautiful blowing in the breeze.