Nature's Treasures

My mother's gardens are lovely. They encompass 3 acres in Upstate NY and benefit from all four seasons. Even through long and bitterly cold winters, the bulbs lie dormant, resting in preparation for their "coming out" party in Spring. Blooms continually present themselves for three of the four seasons providing pops of color against the lush, green backdrop. Growing up my mother did not have the benefit of staying in one home. Instead her family had to move from one rental property to another throughout her childhood. I think that is why it was so important that she and my father provide us children with one home. A stability to provide us with roots to grow.

My mother has maintained the home she and my father built together over 64 years ago. It emits so many fond memories of growing up and playing with my siblings. We played baseball, ghost in the graveyard, and swam in the pool they built in 1967.

She showed me how to plant and care for flowers and passed her love of gardening onto me. I have done so with my own daughter. As I write this we just returned from the local market with new flowers to plant. With age, her stamina has waned but her passion for the work has not diminished. She takes great pride in her home and still tries planting new floras. It warms her heart, and mine, when we drive up and over the hill to see the yard on full display.

I have been living with my mom now for the past 11 months since my father passed away. I hope to move permanently out west in the next few years and want to take a "piece" of her gardens with me. I struggled with how to do this as I would be moving out to Nevada and would be unable to transplant them. After much consideration, I decided to take the next best approach.

I decided to take clippings of as many plants and blooms that I could throughout the Spring and Summer months and incorporate them into my own home and gardens to come. I bought a new pair of Fiskars scissors so I could ensure a clean cut when gathering them up around the yard and surrounding fields. I needed to find a quality tool that I could rely on. The potential foliage provided various stem widths and characteristics and I didn't want to waste cutting them incorrectly, negatively impacting the look of the gardens, and potentially wasting the samples.

I bought gray clay, rolled it out and pressed the various clippings in different layers, and then carefully removed all the plant fragments. I created a border and poured Plaster of Paris on top of the clay and let it set. I peeled the clay away from the bottom and voila, a 3-D impression came out. I sanded the bottom and edges and have begun the process of applying layers of Mod Podge to seal the top, bottom, and sides. I plan on intermittently placing them around my new kitchen along with other tiles. I also want to use these tiles to create the front of a fireplace mantle and when the Gladiolas bloom, I will press the full length of the flower and their stems to be used to frame the sides of the fireplace.

I know that each time I see and touch them, they will bring me back to my childhood home and I will feel closer to my mother. They will evoke conversations with guests that visit. I will remember the smell of the wet soil after a good rain, the feel of the sun on my back, and my mother's humming as we worked side-by-side.