National Gardening Day 2025

I didn’t realize today is National Gardening Day but it’s perfect to share my Mom’s Memory Garden update. Mom passed away January 15, 2000 and Rich and I made a memory garden in her honor. Mom loved flowers as far back as I remember when I was a young girl. We always had a side yard filled with Iris and Tulips plus lilac bushes. I remember picking bouquets for my teachers in grade school and mom or grandma would wrap the stems with wet paper towels then cover it with aluminum foil. I can still see the smiles on the teachers faces when I handed them the flowers.

Mom’s Memory Garden started with a small azalea bush that was given to Rich and I at her funeral. As we planted it, the idea to make a garden transpired. Mom loved roses so of course we needed some roses to go with the azalea bush. Her garden has changed throughout the years but the azalea bush has grown from a one gallon size to about a six foot beautiful bush.

Back in 2019 we did a major do-over to mom’s garden. We added a rock border and for Mother’s Day Rich made a cross and glued a penny on the front that I found in the garden. I also made a heart with penny’s from heaven and edged it with dried roses.

Last year I totally neglected mom’s garden and I felt so bad. My goal this year was to clean it up in time for Mother’s Day. I stared a week ago Saturday when I got home from 4pm Mass. I raked up all the winter debris and old mulch and just by doing that it looked so much better. It was getting dark so I ended my cleanup for the night.

I started working in the garden Sunday about 10am and it was then I realized our rock border was almost non-existing since the rocks had sunk into the ground. So I ended up digging them all out and giving mom’s garden a fresh start. I also added a yellow rose bush to the center were one of the rose bushes had died.

About 1pm my neighbor asked if I could use some mulch since they had more than they could use. He brought over 5 bags and it made the finishing touch! The problem area has always been the pie shaped piece behind the shed. Well I had a mass of Canna’s that grow like wildfire so I transplanted some in that area and they seem to be doing well. I can’t wait to see that area filled with beautiful yellow Cannas.

I took this picture yesterday and you can see how much the yellow rose bush has taken off and the red roses are looking beautiful in bloom.

We added this large Angel in 2020 and somewhere Lia found the tiny Angel that is at the base. So we have the largest and smallest Angels in Mom’s Memory Garden.

This is a night shot of my finished makeover of Mom’s Memory Garden for National Gardening Day 2025 and I’m so happy I completed with time to spare for Mother’s Day. The total project took about 8 hours between a few hours Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday. I hope mom is loving her garden this year, I call it my labor of love for her.