Growing up, my aunt and uncle’s backyard was a pristine oasis of flowering plants. They didn’t have children and the garden was off limits to us kids without adult supervision. Stepping into that space sprouted my dream of having a beautiful yard of my own someday.
My first yard came with four parkway trees and sod to water. It was a blank canvas that overwhelmed me. For years, I visited nurseries intent on decorating my yard with the perfect blend of foliage. Defeated, I would return home with potted annuals.
Our neighbor had a green thumb, and one day she caught me while I was watering my petunias. I rattled off the catalog of vegetation that I planned on planting someday until she laid it out for me: “Just stick something in the ground and see what happens.” That sentence changed my entire life. Until then, I spent more time thinking about my dreams than acting on them. It was time to get started. So, I bought a spirea and stuck it in the ground, and it made the space beautiful. Then I planted daylilies and a few shrubs. I haven’t stopped planting since.
Today our yard is a welcoming oasis where kids kick soccer balls into flowering shrubs and rabbits sometimes eat my tulips -- the space is better than I ever imagined. It reminds me that dreams, like plants, can’t bloom if they are never given a place to take root.
I’m Faye Licari and that’s my perspective.
