A long line of mothering...

Every year, mother's day rolls around, it usually falls around my Grandma Fitzpatrick's birthday. 

On this day, I would buy my own mother something traditional, a plant, a nice, sappy card, maybe some candy...and I would usually do the same for my Grandmother's...but they are all gone now.

Until we have reached the top of the mother food chain (these days around here that's "Grandmother", as we have recently lost all of our local "Great Grandma's") it's hard to even imagine celebrating or experiencing "Mother's Day" on the other side.

In honor of my maternal Grandma's passing - and the incredible Great Grandmother that only one of my girls had the pleasure of meeting....we recently planted a memorial garden, in the small town where she raised her large family and across from her eternal resting place. 

My Grandma Metzka had a lovely garden; a flower garden and a vegetable garden.  Both of my grandmother's had me outdoors, down in the dirt and growing things...from as young as I can remember.  It was only natural (oh, the puns just keep coming!) that a fair tribute to her would have been something beautiful, something growing, and something that needed lots of hard work. :)

So I thought, "let's build a memorial garden in Custer Park for Grandma!" --- (that's all I did)

And then my fabulous husband, who makes all dreams come true...made this happen.

He helped me come up with a plan (where I rambled and insisted on this and that)....

.....and then he drew up the plan, presented the plan to Custer Park, arranged for the maintenance schedule, ordered the plants, and set aside time from his busy schedule to put this darn ol' garden into the ground.

Along with helpful hubby, previous colleague, my ambitious two year old, our on-call babysitting Grandma Fitz, my knight-in-shining-pick-up-truck-father, and the numerous family members who contributed financially to the cause...we installed The Violet Metzka Memorial Garden this week.

It went a little like this:

Future Garden Site.  There are 7 Ash trees planted in Custer Park near the town hall in memory of my Grandpa Metzka.  He had 7 daughters.  This is tree number 6, and where we planned our memorial garden.  Here you see hubby explaining to Annabelle how we will mark the bed lines for the garden installation.

Two year old Annabelle, and Great Granddaughter of the honoree, removing sod from the garden bed with Mr. Erickson.

Sod removal is hard work.  So hard, Daddy just points, Matt just drives the tractor, and we rely on the two year old to do the serious labor.  Annie didn't flinch...girl comes from a long line of hard workin' women...

Sod out...let's get some plants IN! 

 Oh, and bare toes in the dirt...must have bare tootsies!

Due to Custer Park's stringent child labor laws, we did allow Annie to have a quick PB&J near the boxwood.

Placing the plants.  (see toddler totally slacking in the lawn chair)

Fabulous hubby and hardworking daughter, planting my Grammy's Memorial Garden.
 Best. Mother's. Day. Gift. Ever.

Planting Hosta.

Planting, watering, etc...

Riding the tractor with Mr. Matt Erickson.

Annabelle watering the planted and mulched, mostly finished...memorial garden.

We are still plotting a memorial bench to top off the memorial garden.  So this project remains a work in progress - but the planting is done.  We've crammed a lot of plants in there...I'm guessing in a mere 6 weeks we'll be thinking it's pretty darn full ;)  I had such a wonderful time, being back home, working with my friends and family, running into the locals...  Super thankful for my MOM who took care of our itty bitty infant so that we could have free hands at the garden - so thankful for my Dad who never says no when I call for anything (this time it was a pick up truck) and who always makes me feel like I can do anything...thankful for the visits from Aunt Bonnie while we worked and the support we had from family along the way.  I can't think of a better way to honor Gram M, than with something that will continue to grow and change -- how else can you symbolize a mother of 7, grandmother of 10 and a great grandmother of 7 and counting...

Happy Mother's Day

Annabelle must have been in charge of the camera while she was visiting with her Great Aunt Bonnie.

A tiny clip of "garden installation through a toddler's eyes" :)

Translation:

Bonnie:  "....people I know..."

Annie:  "there's Mom and there's Matt and there's Daddy, and so...there's more Matt (Matt's helper's name was also Matt, so this clearly makes him "more Matt") over der and they're workin, and so, they're workin and stuff...."