Gardening Enriches The Soil And The Soul
Jul 11, 2024 by Tempe Javitz
Gardening Enriches The Soil and The Soul.
My grandmother Jessamine was a lover of plants. She did spend hours
cultivating a garden of vegetables for her family’s use, but she also
planted an elaborate flower garden around their X4 ranch home.
The garden with bedding plants outlined in rocks.
Jessamine’s diary notes are often hilarious.
Wednesday, October 25, 1922. “Daddy Parker being here, I had him
help me dig up some yuccas, and I’m setting them out around my
flower beds.”
Miss Clarke came home this p.m. with the mail man, and she said
Daddy Parker had remarked, “He guessed there was some chance for
him, for if women liked those ugly old soap weeds and ugly rocks,
maybe someone would like even an old duffer like him!”
The yucca plants au naturale before transplanting.
At the back of the 1922 diary is a list of who gave her flowers
that year--some of them were potted. Then a list of new books
purchased: Wild Flowers in October. A book of birds on December 9th.
December 16, The Complete Garden by Taylor. Jessamine also received
House and Garden and Country Life in America--two magazines
concentrating on gardening.
Saturday, October 21, 1922: Jessamine went to visit Shorty Cadell’s
place on Canyon Creek. A Brian Shelby was living there then.
“After dinner Louise, Brian, George Williams and I went up the canyon
to dig up three nice cedars to take home for the garden.” Unfortunately,
she didn’t take a photo of those nice cedars.
Sunday, May 26, 1929: “Rained all day and all night. I worked outside
transplanting plants all morning.”
Sunday, March 29, 1931: “Sorted magazines all day, 25 years of accumulated
garden magazines. Cut out articles of interest only for a scrap book.”
Her husband Will, she often notes, thought she spent way too much time
on the flower garden.
She even gathered up shed elk and cattle horns and cattle to decorate
part of the garden.
Then she planted numerous flowers about the front porch.
Jessamine’s son Torrey afterwards built her a pergola with benches
to provide seating to enjoy the garden.
Of course, gardening often took a back seat to raising seven children,
assisting her husband during roundups and brandings, and then washing,
ironing and taking care of their large home. The fact that she managed
to plant such a large flower garden and keep it blooming for many years
is a testament to a woman with amazing energy.
Jessamine’s fifth child, her son Torrey, had this to say when reminiscing
about his mother: “When members of the family think of her, she is
standing in a sea of flowers. She could raise anything, and everything,
wild flowers, iris, roses, and the best raspberries in the world. She
was much involved in a garden club in later years in Story, Wyoming,
where she and Will retired.”
Jessamine out picking wildflowers
My grandmother Jessamine was a lover of plants. She did spend hours
cultivating a garden of vegetables for her family’s use, but she also
planted an elaborate flower garden around their X4 ranch home.
The garden with bedding plants outlined in rocks.
Jessamine’s diary notes are often hilarious.
Wednesday, October 25, 1922. “Daddy Parker being here, I had him
help me dig up some yuccas, and I’m setting them out around my
flower beds.”
Miss Clarke came home this p.m. with the mail man, and she said
Daddy Parker had remarked, “He guessed there was some chance for
him, for if women liked those ugly old soap weeds and ugly rocks,
maybe someone would like even an old duffer like him!”
The yucca plants au naturale before transplanting.
At the back of the 1922 diary is a list of who gave her flowers
that year--some of them were potted. Then a list of new books
purchased: Wild Flowers in October. A book of birds on December 9th.
December 16, The Complete Garden by Taylor. Jessamine also received
House and Garden and Country Life in America--two magazines
concentrating on gardening.
Saturday, October 21, 1922: Jessamine went to visit Shorty Cadell’s
place on Canyon Creek. A Brian Shelby was living there then.
“After dinner Louise, Brian, George Williams and I went up the canyon
to dig up three nice cedars to take home for the garden.” Unfortunately,
she didn’t take a photo of those nice cedars.
Sunday, May 26, 1929: “Rained all day and all night. I worked outside
transplanting plants all morning.”
Sunday, March 29, 1931: “Sorted magazines all day, 25 years of accumulated
garden magazines. Cut out articles of interest only for a scrap book.”
Her husband Will, she often notes, thought she spent way too much time
on the flower garden.
She even gathered up shed elk and cattle horns and cattle to decorate
part of the garden.
Then she planted numerous flowers about the front porch.
Jessamine’s son Torrey afterwards built her a pergola with benches
to provide seating to enjoy the garden.
Of course, gardening often took a back seat to raising seven children,
assisting her husband during roundups and brandings, and then washing,
ironing and taking care of their large home. The fact that she managed
to plant such a large flower garden and keep it blooming for many years
is a testament to a woman with amazing energy.
Jessamine’s fifth child, her son Torrey, had this to say when reminiscing
about his mother: “When members of the family think of her, she is
standing in a sea of flowers. She could raise anything, and everything,
wild flowers, iris, roses, and the best raspberries in the world. She
was much involved in a garden club in later years in Story, Wyoming,
where she and Will retired.”
Jessamine out picking wildflowers
