On Saturday I stopped by to visit a family and found them in their back yard. Just walking into their yard was a treat. Alongside the driveway there were rows of plans, carefully tended and perfectly weeded. In the side yard were dozens of rose bushes with gorgeous blossoms. In the back yard were a few fruit trees and two areas growing vegetables with neat rows and carefully cultivated plants. The vegetables were up enough to be identified and you could see that some crops, like lettuce and radishes had already yielded harvest. We sat under an apple tree that was laden with green fruit. It was lovely and I complimented them several times on their beautiful yard.

Our yard is beautiful, but in a different way. We have a large open area that is filled with the natural plants of the hills – grasses and sage and a few wildflowers. Because we keep it mown, it looks like a lawn as long as it gets enough water. In the front yard, the application of fertilizer and water and a bit of broadleaf herbicide from time to time has yielded a more lush growth of grass. We have a few flowerbeds. This year I didn’t plant much of a vegetable garden. Last year I planted a couple of rose bushes in the vegetable garden because it is fenced away from the deer. With modest success in that venture, I added another this year. I always plant sunflowers simply because I like sunflowers. There are a couple of tomato plants and a row of lettuce, which has given some fresh greens for our salads this summer and is nearing the height of its production, a few carrots which aren’t yet ready to pull, and that is about it this year. It seems that each year I plant a few more sunflowers.

In the beds by the back deck, I have wildflower beds, but they are mostly daisies. We love the daisies. They require little care. They come back each year without much tending. They have long-lasting blossoms that keep producing for most of the summer. And they are just plain pretty. We have a mixture of common daisies and a few larger Shasta daisies as well. Some were grown from plants purchased at the nursery. Most were grown from seed.

I really don’t know much about gardening, just a few things I have picked up from watching others. My father-in-law was a very good gardener and his roses were the delight of everyone who visited their home. His youngest daughter, my sister-in-law seems to have inherited his way with plants. I always look forward to visiting their home and looking at their yard with all of its plants. They live in a very different climate than ours, in Oregon, right on the dividing line between the high plains desert and the more lush temperate forest at the base of Mount Hood. But there is more than location to successful gardening. One of the things is the investment of more time that I am currently willing to give. The work is not hard – in fact it is very rewarding, but it does require the investment of time.

Daisies, on the other hand, are easy. They are forgiving of busy schedules and compete well with the weeds that don’t get pulled. They will even push their way through grass to show up each summer. Daisies grow wild across the west (and probably other places as well). The lore from where I grew up is that you can use daisies as a gauge of the harshness of the winter. I’m not sure whether or not this is true, but I grew up believing that if there were wild daisies it meant that it didn’t get below -30 in the winter. The super cold places had other flowers, but not daisies. The daisies grew in the sheltered areas at reasonable altitudes and stayed away from the places where the icy winds whipped all winter long. The theory or story works for us. We didn’t see -30 or even -20 last winter. The roses are a different matter. If they aren’t pruned and carefully mulched in for the winter, they will winter kill in our area. Keeping them going from year to year, however, isn’t much work.

I know a lot of songs about daisies:

“Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do.
I’m half crazy, all for the love of you.
It won’t be a stylish marriage. I can’t afford a carriage.
But you’ll look neat upon the seat of my bicycle built for two.”

I'll give you a daisy a day dear
I'll give you a daisy a day
I'll love you until the rivers run still
And the four winds we know blow away

I'm a Daisy Girl Scout, yes I am.
Here is my tunic, here is my pin
When a do a good deed, hear me shout,
I'm a Daisy, inside and out!.
(No, I never was a Girl Scout. I don’t know why I know this song.)

Flyin' me back to Memphis
Gotta find my Daisy Jane
Well the summer's gone
And I hope she's feelin' the same

There are probably a million more, if one were to check. I guess that the daisies provide a bit of inspiration for the songwriters. It doesn’t hurt that it is one of the flowers also is a common name for women and girls. Women often inspire songs – both good and bad songs. The ones I remember are rarely the great ones, just the ones that stick in your head and you can’t get out.

So we grow daisies. They are pretty. They are easy. And they fit the character of our yard. And, for whatever reason, the deer aren’t as likely to eat them as they are to go after some of the other things that grow in the garden. They’re a good plant for this place and this time in our lives.

Still, I think I’ll add a rose bush each year. I’m starting to find a little more time for the garden and I like the roses. It seems a fitting way to remember my father in law and there is plenty of room in this world for more flowers.

A brief note: Susan and I are heading off for a two-week vacation today. I’ll keep writing the blog, but the postings may be irregular, depending on Internet access and our schedule. At any rate, they’ll probably show up a bit later in the morning. We’re heading to Pacific Time Zone and probably will sleep in a bit on our vacation.

Copyright © 2013 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.