In memoriam
Linda Ohm
May 8 1950
October 18 2012
In memoriam
Linda Ohm
May 8 1950
October 18 2012
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In memoriam Linda Ohm May 8 1950 October 18 2012 A garden distinctly marks the passage of time. Kind of like life, with people growing and shining, and sadly over time, gone. We are experiencing this in both our garden walk and life walk in pronounced ways. Dahlias gone, mums shining, Linda failing, grandchildren shining. In the category of ‘gone’, we have the dahlias. Mike’s dahlias put up a good fight against the heat and drought, and had their last hurrah just a week ago. Pretty impressive! Today, the dahlias are not so impressive. Mike had cut the stalks before we left for Door County on the 5th, and next weekend he will dig up and store the tubers. Those two weeks give the tubers time to concentrate on growing eyes for new sprouts in the spring. Usually, he will clear the cut stalks, but that task was left for another time since we were leaving town. Now after a week, they look pretty sad.
In the category of ‘shining’, we have the mums. These 5 plants have gotten so full you can’t even tell how many there are. Oh, yes you can – I just told you. If you’ve planted new mums, be sure to water them regularly. That will greatly improve the chances of them coming back like mine did.
The garden time line is undoubtedly more predictable than our own time lines. We’ve all got one; we just don’t know exactly what it is. We watched our wedding video while we were on vacation. Much joy, and yet some sadness seeing those who have gone. Linda will likely be next. She is home with her loving family, going as gracefully as one can when cancer is involved. Back to the ‘shining’ category, where our grandchildren happily reside. Allie is 3 now, and Cam is just starting to walk. I can hardly wait to see the progress he has made while we were on vacation.
Do you want to know what else is blooming in the October garden? To see what other bloggers have blooming on the 15th of every month, visit May Dreams Gardens – Bloom Day for our Garden Bloggers’ Bloom day entries.
I am amazed by how many people have never made a scarecrow. I know scarecrows are old fashioned, but I am still somehow surprised how many people need instructions at our Elk Grove Garden Club Scarecrow Factory. Let the voice of experience help – that’s me! After 10 years of running a Scarecrow Factory, we have this down to a science. One key factor to consider is stuffing material. Hay v. straw v. plastic bags. Hay and straw are certainly traditional, but can play havoc with allergies. Of those two, straw is BY FAR the better choice. Scrunched up plastic bags work well too, and the scarecrow can be stored for the next year. As far as clothes, let your imagination run wild, keeping a few points in mind. Non-stretchy is best. Scarecrows wearing a sweatshirt tend to turn into a lumpy bumpy wet sloppy mess. Overalls are perfect as they negate the tricky step of attaching the pants to the shirt. Kids like to make kid size scarecrows. Footed sleepers are quick, easy, and fun.
Optional
Now have some fun! 1. Sew the head on three sides. You need the bottom open for stuffing. Use big stitches to keep it easy. Make the stitches an inch away from the edge to allow for unraveling. 2. Position the face pieces on the head. They need to be far enough from the top to leave room for the hat, and far enough from the bottom that they don’t get buried in the shirt when you attach the head. 3. Hot glue the pieces in place. Remember – its hot and its glue. Keep your fingers away. Put a piece of cardboard in the head to stop the glue from seeping through. 4. Stuff it! The head, the pants, the shirt. Best done outside as this is a mess. Fun, but a mess. Use a tarp if easy cleanup is on your list. 5. Leave some straw sticking out of the sleeves and pant bottoms. Tie with 4 pieces of twine. 6. Pin the pants and shirt together. 7. If you are using wooden supports, this is the time to put them in. Insert the vertical one through the top and bottom of the shirt. Let it stick out the top to support the head. Insert the horizontal one through the sleeves. Twine the supports together into a cross. 8. Tie twine around the bottom of the head, and attach head with pins. 9. Pin or hot glue the hat. Accessorize! In honor of Favorites on the 5th, we are going to travel to another world. No, I haven’t gone alien-crazy, I’m talking city v. country. I’ve always been a city gal, born and raised in Chicago, moving to the requisite suburbs to raise a family. Ah, but inside me is a country gal. I admit it – I listen to country radio and I want to live in Mayberry, or the outskirts. This could be our farm. And this could be us. If you think I’m kidding, know that my library includes “If I Had a Horse How Different Life Would Be” and “Hit by a Farm”. Intellectually, I know a horse is a lot of work. Intellectually, I know a farm is a lot of work. Actually it can be worse than that. Here’s a quote from Catherine Friend’s “Hit by a Farm”
As far as the horse, my Mom grew up on a farm and knew the dark side. She never let me ride a horse. Never. Linda Martell would get to go horseback riding and I didn’t. Mike will humor me and go horseback riding on vacation. He is in firm agreement with the philosophy that says a horse is dangerous on both ends, and not so friendly in the middle. I don’t get it – how can he feel that way when he looks so happy in this picture?
Still, I’m like Owen Wilson in “Midnight in Paris”. I sometimes think I belong in another time and place. If you haven’t seen the movie, see it. That’s all I’m gonna say about it. Now, back to our regularly scheduled program of Favorites on the 5th. I post on the fifth of every month directing you to another blog. Today, we travel to Little House in the Suburbs where you can read articles like Backyard Chickens: 5 Things I Didn’t Know and Homemade Laundry Detergent: New Tutorial. Happy trails to you!
We are having a wonderful fun-filled autumn. So much so that I’m a bit behind on getting these Pioneer Day pictures posted. As you may have read in my last posting, I had quite the to-do list this last week. I love crossing things off my to-do list; however, maybe I should just put a great big smiley face next to Pioneer Day instead of crossing it off my list. I don’t think I ever want Pioneer Day off my list, though I am glad it’s now almost a full year till it rolls around again. Pioneer Day is the event where the Elk Grove Garden Club has a Scarecrow Factory. We helped families make 120 scarecrows this year. We could have made more, but we ran out of clothes. Lauren even went home to raid her father’s closet. We also took apart sample scarecrows that we’d made just so we could have more supplies. That included some scarecrows that came from my own house. Yes, my front lawn is scarecrow-less. I do expect to resolve that issue this weekend when the family is all together. I literally had to buy scarecrow supplies myself this week so we can do that. Next year’s supplies have already started coming in. I’ve hit a few garage sales, and Sarah brought over two boxes of silk flowers. Lucille is cutting the stems to make the flowers right-sized for adorning lapels and hats. Maybe I was premature to think I even could mark Pioneer Day off my to-do list. Around here, there is always another Scarecrow Factory on the horizon. I’m not the only one who looks forward to it. We definitely get repeat customers. You saw Danaan’s picture, didn’t you? It’s a picture of Danaan last year and this year at Pioneer Day. We had others who came back and also found their picture from a past year in the collections we had hanging from the trees. I love that. Sandy and Sarah Ortiz are repeat scarecrow builders who thoroughly enjoyed the experience. What creativity! They were on-site for a few hours making memories, I mean scarecrows. Ok, both.
Here are some other pictures that exude the family fun and creativity that come with scarecrow making.
Tomorrow is the day we open our garden for you. We had a lovely weekend for working in the yard. Lovely. Lovely. Lovely. It felt so good to be out there. Mike even took a vacation day today to accomplish more. Not everything of course, but more. When I first started planning this, I thought we might even morph the pile of bricks into a patio. Not gonna happen. So you have to promise not to look at them. Up until Saturday, I thought we might touch up the mulch. Not gonna happen. With the threat of frost the last few mornings, we wake up afraid that our dahlias will have frozen and died. Not gonna happen. That’s the optimist in me talking. The pond is running, the dahlias and zinnias are still fighting it out, and it’s pretty out there. I love my garden!!! Mike is outside already and just came in with the ‘What were you thinking?’ question. I had starting trimming the bushes between our house and Tom’s. The bushes are taller than me and they now have a Mohawk. All because I got the trimming partly done, then cut the cord. Accordingly, he inherited the job. Please compliment him on how nice they look. We also played with marbles.
No, we didn’t really play Hungry Hungry Hippo. But there are some of you out there who know what I’m talking about. Come by tomorrow to see. We’re at 331 Forest View, Elk Grove Village, IL. 5 PM to dark. It begins! I have some great pictures to share with you from Elk Grove Village’s Pioneer Day. I still need to sort through them, so for now I offer you just this one. Well, just these two. Or does it count as one because both pictures are in one. I’m so confused. We had pictures from past Pioneer Days hanging from the trees. Danaan Sutton found his, so you are seeing Dan last year and Dan this year. I’m told he is already planning for next year.
More to come!
It seemed like my zinnia bed had a chance of beating Mike’s dahlias. But preseason performances can be deceiving. Take the Bears for example. They looked pretty poor this week, but we Chicagoans know they are going to the Superbowl. The big question at our house this preseason was whose garden was going to the Superbowl of September? After all, Mike’s dahlias were short and rather weak, and not even blooming when we expected. The heat this year was excessive, and his key player, water, was on the no-show list. Plus Mike likes to experiment with his team, as in lets go ‘au naturale’, skipping most of the fertilizing this year. For a while, it looked like we were going to have to rely on my zinnia bed for massive color.
It was war! My zinnias v. Mike’s dahlias. After all, pink is pink, right? The dahlia garden began to produce decently towards the end of August. The dahlia garden getting better now as it hits its prime. I, of course, didn’t take a picture of the parts that are still suffering from the heat stroke. I’m going to show you what looks good. If you want to see what doesn’t look good, you are going to have to show up in my yard. Details on that in just a bit.
It has become evident that Mike’s dahlias were going to put up a fight. Some of the new players he acquired this year are serious competitors. Take Drummer Boy, for example…
And Sorbet…
Alright already, I admit defeat. The dahlias win, and rightly so. If you’d like to see dahlias for real, you’ve got options:
Congratulations on the victory. Well deserved. And oh yes…Go Bears! Do you want to know what else is blooming in the September garden? To see what other bloggers have blooming on the 15th of every month, visit May Dreams Gardens – Bloom Day for our Garden Bloggers’ Bloom day entries.
Doing something over-the-top nice for someone is so much fun. It is especially fun when they aren’t expecting it. Linda expected us to come over to clean up her garden a bit. She didn’t expect us to come with 2 carfuls of plants. She did not expect her yard to be transformed. I bet she didn’t even expect my grandkids to be so darn cute. I’m sure she also didn’t expect cancer 5 years ago, or to be in home hospice now. We gave her a memorable day. Odd how those things work; it became a memorable day for all of us too. I’m hoping that she will be outside in the lovely September air soaking up the weather and the prettiness. Yes, I said prettiness. Prettiness really is a word that aptly describes Linda’s transformed garden. It is now filled with mums, fall annuals, Black-eyed Susans, Guara, and Michele’s outstanding flower filled urns. Her roses are trimmed and Creeping Charlie is much less evident.
Mike and I arrived with the plants. My son John arrived with his family. He and Heather have two children. They provided the cute factor. Completing the crew was Linda’s husband Bob and her daughter Shawna. The parade of plants began. I don’t know who enjoyed that more, Linda, or me.
You know how kids can get crabby after a while? We don’t! At least not this day. Smiles abounded. Allie helped me move dirt. A lot of dirt. Most of it to the dog’s water bowl. Oh well.
Cameron helped give Grandpa Mike a push in the right direction. There were tree branches and bushes to trim, weeds to pull, and fun to be had. Linda was even up to being outside with us the whole time. We were all amazed by how much we accomplished in such a short time. It was one of those days when everything just went right.
There was a bonus for Allie. Shawna let her take home some Barbie dolls, a huge stuffed animal, and a pink boa.
The bonus for the rest of us was a super good feeling of time well spent with family. We had made some nice memories as well as a beautiful garden for Linda to enjoy this autumn.
By the end of the day, Cam was ready for a well deserved nap, and so were we!
STOP! We don’t have to travel back in time to do that. We have to travel forward in time. Fast forward to Sunday, September 16th, 1:00 – 5:00. That is when the Elk Grove Historical Society sponsors one of my favorite events, Pioneer Day. I help run he Elk Grove Garden Club’s Scarecrow Factory that day. We supply everything but the creativity and the cute kids. Pay us a little more than the standard $7.00 fee and I wouldn’t be surprised if we could supply the creativity and the cute kids too. I can’t promise they’d be as cute as these two, but we could try.
Oh, ok. You can come without a kid. But you still can’t handle the glue gun. We reserve that privilege for (questionable) adults like Don Kerstin.
If you want ideas for scarecrows and pumpkins, you can come to me. Come to me here on-line, or come to me on September 16th at the Elk Grove Historical Museum Campus at 399 Biesterfield Road. Either way, you’ll have some good old fashioned fun.
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