Green Spaces in Rural Places:

This week I thought I'd write about flowers. But this morning, just before 4 a.m., I was awakened by the winds and some thunder.

The windows were open, bringing in the cool air, and I got up to close them. I knew the forecast was for rain, and while we have been fervently wishing for rain up here north of Glasgow, I didn't want it inside the house.

I checked the weather station we have inside the house, and it showed the winds gusting to 50 mph. While I was shutting the windows, there was a huge bolt of lightning that lit up the room, followed almost immediately by a thunderclap that roused my husband.

Then the rains hit. We had 0.87" in a matter of minutes. And as the rain was tapering off, came the dreaded sound of hail hitting the windows. All farmers hate that sound, especially with harvest just around the corner.

We managed to go back to sleep, knowing we'd have to check for damage come morning. I have a few tree branches down in the yard to pick up, and holes in the leaves of the cucumbers, squash, and cabbages.

Some of the leaf lettuce is shredded. And the corn is taking a rest, bowing down to the east, as if in supplication to the coming sun needed to help it rise again.

Of course, gardening is not just about food. There are gardens to feed your body and gardens to feed your soul. Don't we all thirst for beauty? While flowers are necessary for plants to produce food, those flowers are not the ones you want in your flowerbeds, although my maternal grandmother would grow green beans in amongst the flowers alongside her home. She thought bean plants were quite attractive.

The flowers that produce food aren't the ones brought inside to be put in vases and admired for their beauty. For those, you want plants whose main purpose in life is to flower in order to produce seeds to make more flowering plants.

I have friends with greenhouses, allowing them to garden for much more of the year than I. Other friends have little interest in growing food-producing plants, yet spend their summers tending their yards and gardens and enjoying myriad blooming plants. Some friends have even added aquatic gardens, with fountains and fish.

My grandmother mailed rootings from her daylilies to me from Southeast Missouri. At that time I had no idea if they would survive a Montana winter, and delayed planting them. I finally picked a spot and stuck them in the ground. Not only did they survive, they thrived, and have been divided many times.

 Daylilies are a very hardy perennial. We had a waterline break under the house two winters ago. Finding the break involved digging up my yard on both sides of the house. The flowerbed that had been on the northwest side was partially destroyed, and the daylilies that had been there disappeared. When the dirt was put back into the hole, the topsoil was gone, and the deeper dirt was now on top. One of the daylilies was buried under 8-10" of that subsoil. I was amazed to see it sprout later that summer. The dirt was then excavated, gently, and that plant is once again thriving.

 On a subsequent family summer vacation to Missouri, Grandmother Louise sent 10 tiger lily bulbs home with us, as well as a pink-flowering sedum. These perennials thrive up here as well. The tiger lilies edge the east side of my vegetable garden and require occasional thinnings, which I sell in the spring.

I have another lily, the true name of which I don't know, from Grandmother Louise. My grandfather Estes loved this particular lily, which he called a 'naked lady'. The leaves come up right away in the spring, and look similar to daffodils. The leaves do their job of feeding the bulb, then die away. Later a single stalk will poke up and bloom, sans leaves, hence the name. I would like to move these, as they just survive where they are, but the trees near them have so many roots in that bed that I can't dig them up.

Petunias are wonderful in the summer, and are hardy enough to keep blooming after the first few lighter frosts in the fall.

Sunflowers will draw in bluejays and other birds late in the summer. Cosmos and Mexican sunflowers attract hummingbirds as they migrate back southward in the fall.

All of my flowers draw in bees and butterflies, as well as birds, to help pollinate my vegetable garden. I love seeing their beauty as well as the beauty of the flowers all summer.