Friend of Gardening--West Main Cross Has It's Own Treasure Island

By Gwen Podeschi, Christian County Master Gardener

I first became acquainted with Ruth Garrett's garden on West Main Cross Street when she called to offer plants for the Christian County Historical Society sale several years ago. What a treat awaited me on my first visit to her garden! The shaded haven seems miles away from the busy thoroughfare she lives on, a perfect escape from the bustle of town life for someone who dwelt on a farm thirteen miles south of Taylorville from 1949 to 1986. "Bernard farmed for Yolande Oglesby and we lived out near her home," Ruth says. "When we moved into town, we saw this house and it was the one we wanted." Gardening in her yard is a labor of love for Ruth. "If you're working on something you want to do, it's not really like work, is it?"

A mention of the yellow violets that she gave me prompts Ruth to wave her hand toward some specimens peeking out from among hostas. The blooms are gone and they have set seed. She says, "Yes, there they are. They go all over, don't they? I have to pull some of them out, but they always come back." I have to agree with her about the flowers, but they are still a welcome sight in my own garden every spring and they always put me in mind of the delightful spot they came from.

Our next stop is a corner of the garden near an arbor covered with wisteria. A riot of harebells is blooming there, soft pink bells swinging in the wind. A red-eyed coreopsis is open nearby, surrounded by more buds to come, its colors reminiscent of a sunset and daylilies are just beginning to join their neighbors. "But I want you to see my azaleas," Ruth continues down the line. "I've just put in a lot of new ones. They're doing pretty well, I think, but the blooms are mostly gone now." One late bloomer sports clusters of soft pink flowers and in my gardener mind's eye I see a bright future in months of May yet to come. The bright green new growth at the tips of the shrubs bespeak the loving care received.

Around the next corner, gold variegated euonymus has found its way to the top of Ruth's six-foot fence with a little help from attached trellising. It serves a background for a short row of sweet corn. "There's my sweet corn. It's not had much chance to grow yet, with all the rain and cool weather," says Ruth. At the feet of the young corn plants are a few petunias. "I had the most beautiful tomatoes back here last year, but the darned squirrels got every last tomato, so I just didn't put any out this year." She shares a story about one of her first years on West Main Cross. "We had tomatoes growing out in the country—too many for just us. Bernard put them out on the boulevard with a sign that said 'free tomatoes' and Albert Boeker drove by and saw them. He was headed someplace else and came back around just as another person was loading the whole lot up to take them away. He asked if he could have just a few, but the lady said, 'No.' Now, wasn't that something!"

Tucked among her flowers, Ruth has some squash and even a few potato plants that she started from some stored potatoes that had sprouted. "Who knows, I might not get anything from them, but why not give it a try?" I notice several young morning glory vines on trellises. "I just couldn't have a garden without morning glories," she replies. Further down the border, a healthy grove of gooseneck loosestrife waves in the evening breeze near a red fox veronica. "Now that will take over," she says. "I think I got it from the historical society sale."

Columbine and hydrangeas are some of her other special favorites. The variety of columbine blooms is a treat. Ruth speaks fondly of a pure white hybrid that has just finished blooming while I examine a plant with tiny doubled flowers of wine purple. She buys live plants and also sows hybrid seeds, so the variety is truly amazing. More traditional two-toned blooms appear around her border in color combinations of white/purple and yellow/red.

Pointing out the purple and white blooms of a newly-planted hydrangea, Ruth's true gardener's nature shines through. She discovered the plant while shopping at a local hardware store. "I saw that it would get about three feet high and said 'would grow in shade,'" she says. "I thought to myself, I have just the spot. The shed is on one side and this dogwood tree on the other. So we'll see what happens." Remembering my own numerous trips to nurseries and plant sales, it's easy to identify with that moment when your attention has been caught by a new and fun variety and you're taking inventory of available space and conditions. Inevitably, gardeners give in to temptation and home comes another baby to be coddled and bragged about.

And, as with all good gardens, treasures of a non-living nature appear among Ruth's flowers, symbols of memories and her family and friends. My favorite find was what appeared to be a bird bath top on the ground. It IS a bird bath/water source for this gardener now, but it had a much more mundane function on the family farm. "Oh, that—it's a hog watering dish," Ruth explains. "I stand it up against the shed in the winter so water won't freeze in it and break it. We brought it here from the farm—it just seemed so useful. I fill it up with water." The hitching post near her back door was at the home when Ada and Lowell Songer lived there, its ring supported by the head of a very fine horse. It stands near a small hedge of boxwood, recently clipped to keep it just the right size.

"I like to do my own pruning. I'm always cutting back on that wisteria on the arbor over there," she points out. "When Bernard's heart started giving him trouble, we had someone come in to do the mowing and I still do that. But I like to do my own work. I put things in and, if I don't like them, I just yank them out again." Ruth will be 81 in August and her zest for the garden life continues unabated. We wind up our visit by taking a look at a very old rhododendron that caught the worst of the December, 2006, ice storm. Always looking for ways to make her yard more beautiful, she asks about trimming the damaged branches to stimulate new growth. Standing near the front of her home near the street, I take note of the peace and quiet to be found under the branches of the oaks towering above her home. What gardener couldn't be at home here?

Christian County Master Gardener, Gwen Podeschi, conducts interivews with local residents who have a special talent, project, or landscape feature of interest. These interviews are then written up and published locally.