At the invitation of the NNA Board of Directors, I have returned to write about Northside memories and challenges. My challenge this spring is a BIG one – gardening by squirrel. Reflecting on the beautiful gardens of the Northside, both front and back yards, and remembering such spots as the one in Lydia and Maurice Clay’s back yard, which was begun by Bliss McDowell, and Loris and Phil Points’s current idyllic space gives me great pleasure. I love my backyard garden beds, replete with heritage plants and…squirrels!
This spring, I have noticed some of my red tulips moved next door to the Prewitt’s yard, and I had a mixed bag of unplanned colors appearing in my beds. I wish I could catch those four legged critters in the act! My last Boxer reacted to the word squirrel with fierce dedication, but the two I have now do not seem to understand the vocabulary! I have even gone so far as to abandon my late husband’s bird feeders in order to lessen the population of the furry creatures, but to no avail. So, I will accept their landscaping talents and try to be amused…even as a baby squirrel woke me one summer night a couple of years ago as it jumped on me while I slept. He apparently found his way in, and thankfully I found no others with him. He quickly left, slipping out on his own four feet!
As this early spring gave us the most glorious red bud blossoms and the richest forsythia in years, I am so excited about the summer gardens generated by the early warm weather – though not necessarily thriving with the later rain. As I mentioned, heritage plants are an important part of my flower beds, and I enjoy the single ruby red and fragrant double white peonies which came to our yard more than eighty years ago from my father’s family home on East Third at Deweese. Likewise, the tiny blossomed fever few (which I do not see in any garden catalogs) from my maternal grandfather’s greenhouses in Woodford County and Louisville are prolific. The lovely towering purple phlox migrated from next door when Clara Curran had a massive supply, and I so enjoy the lush white hostas from a friend in Woodford County. I even have some day lilies and tiger lilies which we moved from Ohio in 1983. Part of the charm of gardening in the Northside is to be able to receive gift plants from others and to share what we can…even liriope, even though sharing might make someone dislike us later! Do share, though, and enjoy! Maybe the squirrels will love you, too!
