August 14, 2001

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My mother had many talents and interests. During the course of her life, she was involved in quite a few fascinating things.

There were things my mother was very good at doing. Among others, she was a great teacher---not just my opinion on that; lots of good remarks from her students over the years. And she was good at being my mommy. Of course, there were things she wished she were better at. And gardening was one of those things.

When she and my dad had our house built, they had a planter box built onto the edge of the front porch. The plan was to put something flowering there, with plenty of greenery for the rest of the year. Good idea, but it was for whatever combination of reasons excruciatingly hard to get anything to grow there.

Until one spring day when something green started growing. Such pretty little green shoots coming up through the heretofore barren soil. Mother very carefully watered the crop, and both of us were happy each day to see evidence of new growth.

The problem was, Mother wasn't quite sure what had been the last seeds she had put in the box. It had been a while, and she had other things on her mind to remember. But this was all right; she figured as soon as something bloomed it would be recognizable.

Only nothing started to bloom. Lots of really pretty green shoots, but no bloom. That wasn't too discouraging, Mother thought perhaps whatever-plant needed a season of being green first. But she was getting curious, and was wracking her brain trying to remember what seeds had been planted.

One day, a friend who has a small farm out in the country a few miles from out home came to visit. She and Mother got caught up on each other's stories, then came time for the friend to leave. Mother and the friend were standing on the porch, and Mother got the notion that surely her friend would recognize the mystery plant in the planter box. So Mother pointed to the green shoots and asked her friend if she knew what they were.

The friend said, "Mary, you really don't know?" To which Mother of course replied that she had no idea. The friend then said, "Well, I am sort of relieved to hear that. I was wondering why you were growing crabgrass."

For the uninitiated, that's a weed. Not something that one would tend, and definitely not something in need of such wonderful care. The seeds probably came with the soil, or were planted for her by some helpful birds.

And that pretty much ended Mother's desire to grow pretty flowers in the planter box. She stuck with ground cover from then on.