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My mother's garden

Raquel

By Raquel

10 comments


From the time I can remember, my mother has always loved flowers…so no matter where we were, one of the first things she did in a new house was to get her plants settled in, and once we lived in the States, to plan her garden.

Well, plan is not exactly the right word. My mom is not into doing a great deal of planning, though she will designate certain areas for certain types of flowers – for example a flower bed under a tree where she would put in crocuses and tulips, another where she planned to have roses – once she even planted a fig tree! It never grew much but it did survive Virginia’s winters, and it did give figs, which we would pick, and with it and the leaves mom would make fig syrup – miel de higo – a specialty from her hometown of Santa Ana. Needless to say, figs are some of her favorite fruit! Because we often lived in rented houses, mom would also work with whatever the owners or the previous tenants had left in the garden – at one particular house we had a huge number of irises, and mint growing wildly in the back.

But the garden that I like the most and the one that I think is her pride and joy is her garden in El Salvador, at the house my parents bought in the 1970’s before the war erupted.

The garden has two levels, and the flagstones and the stairs are made from big pieces of slate from the volcano, brought to the house by one of my mother’s uncles, Calín. The rocks where the eucalyptus tree is and other crevices that are on the small mound that separates the two levels are also volcanic rock, I think they found it in what used to be a plain that lay covered for many years with ash and pyroclastic material from the last eruption of San Salvador’s volcano. As I child when we drove through there I imagined it was a sea of rocks and that strange flowers and animals lived and roamed among them. Now, more than thirty years later, that place is covered by grasses and small tees, though here and there you can still see outcroppings of the black volcanic rock.

The garden is very simple, really. All along its sides are flowers beds, and the middle is planted with grass. Like in most houses that have gardens in El Salvador, the garden is completely enclosed by a wall on three sides and the house on the fourth side. My mother has filled the flower beds (she also has containers with geraniums and succulents and begonias and anything else that pleases her) with roses, hydrangeas, coleus, hibiscus, begonias and bleeding hearts…on the walls she has orchids living on wood, as well as hanging from the eucalyptus tree, in addition to baskets of – I think they’re called burro’s tails here, we call them – well, mom calls them – guineítos. At one point she had a gardenia, but then she got bored with it and did away with it, which is too bad, because the scent of gardenia was just lovely.

On the mound separating the two levels she has planted azaleas – to my great surprise, I think it was because she loved them so much in Virginia, than when she and my dad moved back to El Salvador she was determined to have azaleas – I told her they wouldn’t bloom, they would never hibernate – and while that’s true, they actually DO flower, and they get HUGE, they become these big shrubs that rival the aloe vera in size – we also have that in the garden. And we do use it, for medicinal purposes, as we do the eucalyptus leaves.

The bottom garden has a cement turtle that is filled with water for the birds to come and drink, and a lemon tree and an orange tree, and bougainvillea and ivy along the wall. The remnants of a vegetable garden – my dad’s idea – can still be seen, though no one plants vegetables now. Once in a while my mom will plant a papaya seedling, and if it takes, we’ll have papayas for a while. I don’t think I can name all the plants my mom has in her garden – she told me her latest acquisition was a pink hydrangea (she already has a white one and a blue one) and of course her ever-changing collection of orchids. Most orchids in El Salvador grow wild, they grow on trees, and my mom is friends with a lady that lives out in the country, know only as the “Orchid Lady” who often stops by and sells my mom orchids. The only argument I have ever heard her have with this lady was over the fact that a promised orchid – I think it was a rare color, or something – turned out to be of the common variety. After that mom has insisted on seeing the orchids in flower before buying them!

I can’t imagine my mother without a garden, or without houseplants. They are a part of her. And without a doubt her deep love of plants and gardening has been passed on to me, as well as her respect for them. Though I don’t have as much patience as she does!

But in some ways this isn’t so unusual. Most people in El Salvador at the very least like plants, and people whether poor or rich will plant trees and flowers where things are barren. A good example of this are the people who buy these tiny houses – El Salvador’s attempt to create affordable housing and to relieve its ever-present housing shortage – which come on bare plots of earth baked by the sun. As soon as people move in they start planting trees and shrubs and within a few years, the landscape is almost unrecognizable. It’s what keeps us, I think, from becoming completely deforested – because as a society we are not great conservationists. But the climate and people’s natural inclination towards nature saves us a bit from ourselves and the folly of complete deforestation.

More blog posts by Raquel

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Next post: Clay, ceramic or plastic pots?



Comments

 

hi raquel, what a fantastic picture you painted there of your mothers gardens. how beautiful that orchid's grow wild in El Salvador. welcome to GOY

8 Apr, 2008

 

What a great time your mother has had creating her gardens! Lovely story. Thank you.

8 Apr, 2008

 

VERY enjoyable reading. Thanks for sharing :)

9 Apr, 2008

 

Hi Raquel just loved reading your story ,your mother sounds like a lovely lady

9 Apr, 2008

 

What i lovely life of Flowers/Fruit&Love youv received from your Mother Raquel,The garden sounds wonderful& the pic`s look Super that uv up loaded 4 all 2 see :) Cant wait 2 see&hear more about yourself,Abig Welcome also 2 GOY :D

9 Apr, 2008

 

Welcome to GoY, Raquel, and many thanks for sharing this with us. It is fascinating to find out about gardening in other parts of the world, to have an insight into the experiences of gardeners working with a range of differing growing conditions and to be able to empathise with their ups and downs

9 Apr, 2008

 

A lovely blogpost, Raquel - and beautiful pics of your parents' garden. Many thanx for sharing this with us.

9 Apr, 2008

 

Thank you for all your comments, and I'm glad you enjoyed the blog...I think sometimes we don't even realize how much we've inherited already from our parents even without them saying "you have to do this! You have to do that!" =)

9 Apr, 2008

 

Exactly, Raquel! I think I've reached that stage where I can "hear" the voice saying what to do. Funny thing is, my dad now never does what he used to swear by, just tells me what to do and then reaps the benefits. For example, he trained me how to remove the male flowers from cucumbers, to prevent bitter fruits. A few years ago, he began buying all-female plants, to avoid this task.For me, this is not a task, but a chance to sit down in the greenhouse and work with nature. And............he always inspects, and goes home laden, with the fruits of that which he taught me. Cunning old devil, lol!

10 Apr, 2008

 

Hi David, yes, I think parents do that, especially as they get older...my mother is 73, not super old by any means, but still, she gives more advice than follows it! =) Though I have to say that when it comes to gardening, she's alway sbeen more the show me by doing type and not by explanation...lol...!

15 Apr, 2008

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