Spring Time in My Backyard

For the first time since I moved into my house, the back yard is in bloom. I threw the ten pounds of wild flower seeds around the gravel atoll surrounding my backyard in late October. The wet winter did the rest.

In the next two months, my favorites will blossom: Mexican Hat, Baby's Breath, Bishop's Flower, Blanketflower, California Poppy, Calliopsis and Sweet Alyssum.

Since 1997, I grew my spring flowers in the front yard of the Tempe house. Within three years, they consumed the yard in joyous color. I enjoyed sitting in the Fisher-Price kindergarten chair and listening to the radio while tending to my flowers.

On those mornings and afternoons when I weeded and collected seeds, I got a chance to talk at length with neighbors as they strolled down the street. At the end of the season, anyone who was interested received their fair share of seeds.

I received seeds from several people I would have never met except for their interest in flowers. One older woman of mid-70's age gave me some poppy seeds which, as an young girl, she grew in her back yard next to the railroad tracks near downtown Tempe. They are the most unusual poppies I've seen. Damn odd, but I like them.

--