This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for March 10, 2022, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.
As my wife and I have grown older, we have had to scale down our yard maintenance. No longer able to work flower beds and keep the bushes trimmed, I had to turn most of that over to her. Even though, as a member of the Wharton Garden Club, she is savvy about plants and flowers, she has difficulty maintaining the yard.
We have had to re-assess our goals for a “beautiful” yard and downsize them to at least a “nice” yard. As we grow older, we have to grow more realistic. What can we do to have a nice yard that doesn’t require an impossible workload? We decided to find a way.
Looking at possibilities, I couldn’t help but remember my maternal grandparents’ yard circling their farmhouse.
Because they were farmers and had to spend most of their time and energy running a farm, they had a minimum of time and energy to spend maintaining the yard. The minimum maintenance requirement involved special structuring of the yard; a method favored by many folks during the early 1900’s.
The yard was surrounded by a tall picket fence to keep farm animals out. A thick gravel sidewalk ran from the front gate to the front porch (folks did not use much concrete in those days). There was no grass; instead, the ground was covered with pea gravel, which my grandmother would sweep with a beson (a special broom made of sticks). In the front section of the front yard, spaced apart in the pea gravel were large rose bushes (my grandmother was a fanatic lover of roses). The other flowers, such as geraniums, begonias, etc., were planted in old worn-out kitchen pots and foot tubs. Amid these plants, there were a wild peach tree and a short, fat fig tree.
My grandparents’ generation was practical-minded, thus all trees, front and back yards, were fruit-producing. In the backyard, there were several native pecan trees, and small plum trees. Instead of flowers, there were blackberry bushes. Having a food supply in the backyard was more important than beauty, though these were not ugly trees or berry bushes, blooming before producing fruit.
Inspired by memories of my grandparents’ low-maintenance yard, suggestions from yard expert Dustan Losack, and Peggy’s online research, we have begun our transition from a high maintenance to a low maintenance yard.
We’ve started in the front, having Dustan take out the scraggly cedar, the ugly iron plants, and the weeds growing in the long flower bed in front of our large front window. Since this is the focal point of our home, we had to start there. Dustan replaced the foliage with an aesthetic assortment of rocks, bought from River Bend Rock Landscape Supplies in Columbus, Texas.
Considering there are dozens of different kinds and sizes of rocks to choose from, — flagstone, river rocks, gravel, crushed stone, boulder rocks, sandstone, pebbles, etc., — my wife spent a day in Columbus choosing rocks. She chose Arizona rose flagstone and some boulder rocks for the main highlights, along with an assortment of smaller rocks and gravel. Dustan has finished placing them, and the results are amazing. One terra cotta pot of sweet Williams has been placed amid rocks, and soon other terra cotta pots of hearty flowers will complete the rock garden.
It’s a good beginning, and with Dustan’s help, an even more splendid ending will follow. We may not win the Wharton Garden Club Yard-of-the-Month prize, but soon we will have a nice-looking, low-maintenance yard!
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Ray Spitzenberger is a retired WCJC teacher, a retired LCMS pastor, and author of three books, It Must Be the Noodles, Open Prairies, and Tanka Schoen.