Dear Corrie, You Won the Last Argument: I Garden

When I saw all the plants my favorite nursery for perennials is growing, I felt excited for a gardener’s Christmas.

I think Corrie would feel proud.

She might not say it.

Like many mothers and daughters, she’d already developed a clear favoritism towards her father and brother over me. When John asked her on my last Mother’s Day with her in May 2020, “What makes Mommy a good Mommy?”

“Ummm … she cooks.”

“What else, Corrie?”

“Ummm … I don’t know.”

No doubt about it, Corrie would’ve challenge me throughout her childhood, preteens, teen and college years. She would’ve paid me back for how I’d acted towards my mom as a teen.

Corrie would’ve moved beyond the morning “disagreements” over getting out of bed because she stayed up looking at her book past “lights out.” She would’ve challenged me more than what shoes, leggings, or skirt she’d wear. We’d move past the desire to wear Elsa boots to school when I knew she’d play in the dirt.

For all of my daughter’s love of skirts and Disney princesses, she played hard, had a good aim with a ball, and usually tore a hole in her leggings.

This is one of the Top 5 Corrie pictures, but I think it shows her personality and confidence.

Corrie looked just like her father, possessed a gifted-and-talented mind, a left brain, like her father, and knew what a great dad he is and was. But she would’ve tested me.

She would’ve taken a brush out of my hand by now to say, “I can do my own hair, Mom,” because, at five, she was beginning to call me, “Mom.” I would’ve corrected her.

But …

I’d give almost anything to have all those tests, disagreements, and challenges for my little girl again because I know she loved me. For all the mornings we were late to school because of her hair, she snuggled in my lap, and wrapped her arms around me every night.

So …

I’d like to think Corrie would feel proud of seeing her gardens grow. When I throw myself into gardening, something I swore as a child and teen I’d never do; it is how Corrie shows me she won the last argument.

Dear Corrie, I said that I’d never garden. I didn’t want to do all of the work. You won. We have nine gardens, Sugar Bean.

Love, Mommae

Some might consider my pictures and work in the gardens an obsession. It’s healthier than drinking, drugs, gambling or worse. Gardening, to me, is when Corrie wraps her arms around my neck as she asks me for one more hug and one more kiss. When I garden just before sun set, it is the time Corrie asks me for “water, Mommy … I’m thirsty … I can’t sleep.”

As a woman said on my favorite show (on the BBC) Gardener’s World, “Gardening brings out the best in you.” Gardens have stories, and these gardens are all inspired by Corrie. They speak more than I ever could, and I feel my best when I work in them.

Corrie’s inspiration has led John, Hayes and I to new hobbies. I started interlayering cardboard in this section of Arendelle where early spring flowers are blooming.

Currently, I work across the three larger, mostly sun gardens, as we prepare for spring. No till gardening has become the most recent ambition. This involves a method in which you use cardboard, leaves or grass clippings, and compost. The Anniversary Garden is the first full no till garden, while I transition Arendelle and the others–except Corrie’s Butterfly Garden–into no till.

While I worked in Corrie’s Butterfly Garden last week, today I started to interlay cardboard between the early spring blooms and plants located in section 2 of Arendelle.

Section 2 of Arendelle, where I interlayered cardboard, leaves, compost and mulch.

I wished I’d taken pictures of the cardboard and leaf layers, but this is the first step into transitioning this established garden into a no till garden. The current plants and flowers will remain undisturbed in their location.

One year ago, this garden had only these flowers before I started adding phlox and candy tuft.

I made or created holes around the early spring blooms. The ones peaking through, which haven’t yet bloomed, are tulips.

Although we started care for plants in June 2020 prior to when John built the retaining wall, I didn’t consider myself a gardener. While I began some plant education in 2022, shade and sun, soil types, and understanding gardens; I became a gardener in 2023 with the creation of the Arendelle Garden.

I will add late spring and summer blooms in the space topped with compost and mulch.

A view of the area I worked today in section 2 from the opposite side.

While I don’t have my daughter’s hair to braid anymore, I have her gardens. It is because of her I’ve learned all of these skills. Corrie made me a better person. Because of her, I know about no till gardening.

Most importantly …

Corrie proved me wrong.