grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Passalong Plants in the Garden

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Passalong Plants

Passalong plants are the BEST sort of plants to have in your garden! They add both charm and magic wherever they are planted.

I started thinking about this last week when my neighbor thinned out her bed of Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum odoratum) and gave us several plants. I’ve been wanting to grow Solomon’s Seal for years but had not gotten around to buying and planting it.

I’m not kidding when I say John and I saw it growing in the neighborhood that very morning, admired it, and talked about adding it to our shade garden.

Voila! Just like that, a bucketful showed up on our porch.Continue Reading

Cold Morning

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Cold Morning: an acrostic from this morning’s writing practice.

Cold Morning

Crystals cover slanted rooftops. A cold night
Offers a glittery morning.
Leaves, already brilliant with fall, still sleep, muted and
Dreamy with frost. The whole world

Magically rests beyond windows fogged with breath.
On this Sunday before Thanksgiving Day, I
Remember the holiday meals of my childhood at
Nana’s house on the home place.
I relive cozy afternoons with her,
Near to me, she still feels all these years later.
Gentle and generous even in death.

Nana

Happy Sunday, on this cold morning. I’m counting down to Thanksgiving. Time to make that grocery list and check it twice! Four sleeps, y’all…

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Cold Morning – writing practice this morning #SundayMorning #amwriting [/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:
Bing Crosby, I’ve Got Plenty to be Thankful For

To all the mothers who make the world go ’round…

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Mother's Day roses

Dear all you mothers who make the world go ’round,

Yesterday as I cut roses from my garden, I was reminded of Mother’s Days past. How we, my little sister and I, wore a tiny red or pink rosebud to church that day. Momma wore red too, but because she was an adult in charge of things like money, she bought hers at the flower shop in town. Her corsage, a full grown rose, came in a clear plastic box with a long straight pin attached to the back for fastening to her dress. Nana wore a corsage of white gardenia, her favorite, each petal as soft as velvet, its perfume so strong and sweet that forty-five(!) years later, yesterday, when I walked past a gardenia bush at Westwood Gardens, the aroma pulled me over and vaulted me back to Brinkley Chapel. Just like that.

Gardenia from Westwood Gardens

Nana wore a white flower because her Momma, my great-grandmother, died years before I was born. And even though I never met her, I’ve known her my whole life.Continue Reading

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!