My friend Pat's gardens...

Hey all,

I was just over at Pat's this morning digging out two huge Lions tail bushes she was tired of and was giving me,... and took a few pictures of Her gardens today. Pat is 80 years old and is one of the most amazing gardeners I have ever known... ( We share plants and garden talk a lot )

Hailing from Boston and growing up on the Sea in Her youth, she settled in Miami 50 years ago when she was an airline stewardess with her husband a firefighter and was an avid gardener there, and has been since she was a child. She clearly still is as you will see in these pictures.

Pat has healed herself of many serious health conditions with plants along with her strong faith in the Lord through the years, and I love her stories.... She works like a horse in her gardens. Yes....She is one of the most inspirational gardeners and ladies I have ever known. I am blessed to know her and want to share her gardens here...

Pat and I have worked side by side together in her gardens and that is the only way she will have it. She has planted 90 percent of these gardens herself over the ten years she has lived here in DeLand,...set or helped set all the blocks and dug most of the holes and plantings. The raised strawberry bed she put in is amazing, ( We mushroom composted them together 2 years ago and she hasn't done a thing but water them since! ( Thats Pat in the background ) She started buying the Snapdragons on the clearance racks at our local Lowe's back in October for .25 cents each and look at her gardens now!!! She has more color going on then me or anyone around here now, even after the weird late freezes we have had...


Pat is not on the net. She is a treasure and one of the most special people and true friends I have ever met or had. Gotta' Love Pat!

Enjoy Pat's early Spring gardens!

David

This message was edited Apr 7, 2013 2:34 PM

enjoy them I did! thanks for posting them. You can sure see the work and the love put into it.

Im headed back out to try to catch up on some planing of my own. Tired of the husband telling me ' thowing away more money are you??)
Um no, but Id like to throw something away ;-)

I found pots for 10 bucks at HD stuffed with agapanthus. There was no way I could leave those. Right beside them, there were little one gallon pot for 5$ with 1/20th of what I got. I buy a few more every year, but have never stumbled on such a deal of agapanthus.

That's awesome! Pat AND her garden. Just downright awesome and I wish she lived near me.

What a beautiful Lady and her flowers - thanks for sharing your treasures with us!

Thank you all for responding and I'll tell Pat what you said!

Do you think she will adopt me???? I'd love to go visit her when I'm down there. Someone else from DeLand just started a thread about the Tower Garden. Seems there are many knowledgeable gardeners down there.

David, please tell Pat she is a living treasure and so blessed by the Lord to be able to enjoy her gardens.

BTW David you are blessed to have her for a neighbor. I'm sure you appreciate her and her gardens.

Bonnie

I KNOW she appreciates David - he's a treasure, too!

Me a treasure? HaHaHaHaHa!!! You made me smile Kay,....but I do have some treasures in the gardens!

I'm gonna show pat the nice things you all have said when She stops by this week...

Thanks, and Happy Gardening!

Hi David,

Pat has a beautiful garden and I am envious that you get to live so close and get to enjoy that on a regular basis.

And I ahve to agree with Kay, you are both Treasures!!!

Would love to be around when all those strawberries are ripe! YUM!!!

Hey Shauna,

Just having lunch and checking in...

Pat is as sharp as a tack in mind, and and as agile as many 30 year olds! She loves garden talk and showing her gardens to those who appreciate gardening. I will be happy to take any of you who visit this way over to visit as long as shes home at the time. Shes going up to Boston for a couple of weeks soon. She just dropped off a bowl of those Strawberries to me, since you mentioned them!

Your raised planter is well done and I wanting to build some now. I have a few special gardening friends here whose talents shade mine...Always learning...

I hope all of you guys and gals have a special day at Bonnies,...and I know shes going to everything she can to make it so! She seems just the type from what I know from her writings here on DG...

David

Miss Pats gardens are amazing! David, your such a sweet heart, putting her on here for all of us to see her gardens. I want to be that age and still be planting good things. She seems like a garden guru, some people are just born with a green thumb, and passing the knowledge along, she'll always be remembered as Miss Pat, the lady who had beautiful gardens. WHAT A JOY!!! You can feel comfort in the fact, that she has touched you in a way you'll never forget her. What a blessing! And is she the next neighbor by you? It looks like your yards adjoin together, I bet the people on your street are very envious, I know I would be. Thanks for sharing!!! Jami

Unfortunately no Jami,

But she only lives a few blocks away. I Thank you for Pat!

My Mom had a Green Thumb. There were always plants all around,and in, the house. She just loves all the plants we had in HI. She & Dad so enjoyed going to all the beautiful gardens. Unlike me, she loved flowers that "smelled like flowers".
When she came to live with us in MD, in her 90s, she still helped me with yard work. She liked the raised bed. She could sit on the wall & pull the weeds. Never see a pretty flower that i don't think how much Mom would have liked to have it in her yard.
But today I need to take a break from gardening & get some quilting done.

That is a great shared story Q. I appreciated it. Hope you sleep well tonight dreaming of what you created today, and wake up thinking about how its going to progress tommorrow. The creative process is what motivates us artists and gardeners I think...
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Pat has just had built by a Master Carpenter who lives across the street from her, the most amazing planter box.

It is 20' by 3' and is amazing! She's going to plant these 10 huge burgundy Crinum Lillies she has dug out in them. She plans to plant low growing annuals like Allysum at the base around the plants.

I dream of planters like this!!! Always a new thought this gal!

That looks like something my husb. would build. Strong enough to hold an elephant. He says build to last and he sure does. We remodeled 3 homes in our lifetime and they are all still standing and in use. He is a retired welder so he is a wiz with steel also. He made our name on our pasture gate in over foot high letters. Should have been on front gate but he idn't think it was good enough. You should see the antique Int'l Harvester tractor he restored. Took every single wire and bolt off of it and painted it while he had it torn in half. Never thought it would run again but we use it all the time. Even has the authentic decals on the face plate. Makes him happy. Took him 3 years. Only thing I can think of new is hyddraulic hoses for all the lifts and the PTO.

Pat will really enjoy that planter I'm sure. If she had Charlie around they would change the world. He is slower now but still keeps on fixing and making new things.
My next poject I would like is a humped back bridge over the larger pond. He said he is thinking about it. Thats a good sign.

Bonnie

If we get the monsoon rains again this year that might make a good ark!!!!

LOL! Q!
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Sound like an interesting and blessed place and life Bonnie!

Wow Pat has a lovely garden, I'd make friends with her also, she sounds like a truly wonderful woman. Amazing strawberry patch. She sounds like my Aunt Phurby, she passed away last August at the age of 93. She worked in her gardens up until her last days, she lived in here in Orlando since the early 60's. I still drive by her house when in that section of town.

Pat is amazing. Your Aunt sounded like a lovely lady.

Wow...Pat and her gardens remind me of the hymn my grandfather would always sing when i was a little girl, and we'd walk our hundred acres...."I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the clooooover...." He knew every plant, even as it emerged from the seed....It's where I got my love of beautiful plants from! Pat certainly shows her heart through her gardens!

(and yes, I know the dew was on the roses, we'd just sing it that way because we had to walk though the bunny clover to get to the stream where the cool flowers were)
:)

I think the same thoughts in my own gardens,... and especially in the mornings and late afternoons and before evening as the Sun is setting, and well know Pat does... Thank You for sharing Mary.

I appreciate those words for Pat, Van. I will tell her!

David give her a hug for me..
And yes, Mary.. that song is very special and true to many gardeners.