Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for July 10, 2022

I think the same way. I also wonder if we move will the people who buy the house appreciate the work put into it or just rip it all out and start over. Around here a lot of new owners just tear the house down and build bigger. House, yard, plants the whole thing. Appreciate it for as long as you can.

Pessimism is the root of his problem. Leaf him be.

So far, so good! 8^ )

I always think the same thing. Very time I visit my favorite U.S. city, Key West, I think it will be for the last time. Seems probable. But I’ve had three last visits. I don’t know what to make of that.

We always took some oriental pears we grew to a favored teacher. After the last of us finished high school, he got the name of the type of pear tree from my father.

A few years later, Daddy went by his house with a few, apologizing because the trees had done poorly but wanting him to enjoy what we had.

Mr J. Floyd Smith took him out back to show his own bumper crop from a grafted tree of the same type.

“I bet you didn’t think I’d live long enough to see it make, did you?”

“To be honest, that was exactly what I was thinking.”

A few years and several successful crops later he died. Several decades later Daddy died. Several hurricanes later our first set of pear trees died.

It’s okay. Daddy planted more later. They are still good even though I don’t tend them as I should. Daddy thought in terms of generations.

Your Daddy was a wise man. Thanks for the reminder to plant trees for my kids.

We say “when it matures, it won’t be our problem “

When we moved here over 15 years ago we transplanted a Rose of Sharon from our old home. Over the years we transplanted seedlings from that tree and now have about 20 (that survived) on our property. Curiously from that first tree which has purple/magenta flowers many of the transplanted seedlings have white/magenta flowers and our nearest neighbor’s property is over 1,000 feet away. Even more curious is that one tree with white/magenta flowers has one branch that produces albino flowers. I’m not a horticulturist but I’m thinking that soil conditions may cause the different flower colors but how one branch of a tree produces albino flowers is beyond my ken.

Pushing a lawn mower around all that will be challenging.

On my last house, I spent ages replacing the flooring and painting every wall. First thing the new owners did? You guessed it.

“A society grows great when old men plant trees the shade of which they know they’ll will never sit in”

Whenever I plant a shrub, I wonder if it will live out the year.

Being about Arlo’s age, I can say this with certainty: Sooner – not later- Arlo will be right.

I should also mention that my own Janis wonders if she will be around to see me finally mature.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.

The second best time is today.

Anymore, I figure I won’t – but somebody will.

They could spend some time trimming down the past plantings.

When I move into a place, I immediately have any and all trees removed and think how much better it looks and how much future toil and trouble I’ve saved myself.

Gave mom a 3 ft. red maple for Mother’s Day many years ago… I miss her dearly ,but her gift is still growing strong.

One day, the answer will be no…….

About 20 years ago I planted a line of bushes halfway down the long dirt driveway to provide a future visual break between the house and the road. I don’t know what kind they are, but I’d only ever seen that kind tortured into hedges (for some reason hyper-trimmed shrubbery gives me the creeps). I let these do their thing and now they’re 15 or 20 feet high, thick, and covered with pink flowers in the spring. Mother Nature is a wonder.

They say that the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. When we moved into our house 22 years ago, there were five or six shrubs about four fee tall separating our backyard from out neighbors’. Today there are six or seven trees up to 30 to 50 feet along the line and we can only see the neighbors’ house in winter when the leaves fall.

For me it’s an Elm I found as a twig, and nursed through drought, hungry rabbits and cicada swarms, then left behind.

I think I understand now. If Janis let’s Arlo sail, she’ll have to leave behind her gosh-darn-golly-gee-ding-dong plants.

A wine Icee?