Beginner Gardening: Was someone in particular your inspiration for gardening?, 1 by Connie_G

Connie_G wrote:
I was reading the postings about the week's question concerning your oldest garden tool...and Yuska from San Antonio mentioned that her 95 year old grandmother was still gardening at 95 and produced the most beautiful garden in her neighborhood!

I started thinking about my sweet little Mamaw who was still gardening at about 90 (she lived to be almost 98!). She had a "Southern swept garden" in South Texas. There were flowers everywhere in the front and only a gravel path that led to the front porch (lined with Oxalis) and to other areas of the garden-- no lawn at all! (The back, of course, was the location of a fruit orchard and the "kitchen garden" where she and Papaw grew watermelons, strawberries, tomatoes, beans, okra, squash, potatoes, carrots, etc.)

The front flowers I remember most were azalea bushes, plumbagos, hydrangeas, bachelor buttons, hens and chickens in a mounded, circular "rock garden," phlox, cockscomb.... and zinnias in a side garden for cutting.

Mamaw Myrtle had a limited amount of water (from a windmill!) in our hot Texas summers, and I was occasionally "allowed" to apportion out the water to the most needy plants when I visited for several weeks in the summer.

I think of her every day when I work in my gardens...and in particular when I tend to one of her "favorites."

(I hope this thread is not a repeat of one already done...I did a search for "gardening inspiration" and only single phrases popped up...couldn't find a thread devoted to the topic, which is dear to my heart.)