Grandma's Flower Garden

Tanya would have loved my maternal grandmother.  This little white haired Ontario born woman with roots in Yorkshire was to me what every grandmother should be.  Grandma loved flowers, too. Her flower gardens, on the farm at Kelfield until 1955 and then in Biggar until her death some 50 years ago, were the most beautiful I had ever seen. 

This picture my sister recently sent me was taken at the farm so most likely is very late 1940's or early 1950's.  She also had a big vegetable garden but flowers were her passion.  Mostly annuals as I recall.

 My grandfather was a hardworking no-nonsense Dutchman (who came to Canada via Iowa which is how he ended up with Scandinavian spelled surname).  He didn't believe in frivolous time wasting things, so my grandma and the three girls used to read standing up with brooms in their hands so they could look busy if grandpa came into the house.  But grandpa knew what was important to grandma and through the 1930's and any year it was dry, he hauled water from the dam for her flowers in barrels on the stoneboat behind horses or tractor.

Grandma's love of flowers carried over to her three daughters.  My mom didn't have the time or energy to grow as many as grandma but she had lots of colour in her garden.  We used to tease her that she never planned a flower garden, she just let everything go to seed and in  spring, cultivated between the rows and what ever grew was her flowers for the year.  Her two sisters also had lovely flower gardens.

Too many summers weeding vegetables kind of put me off gardening of any kind, so I am thankful for Tanya.