Folks so often ask me, “Why do you people stay
When so many of your neighbors are moving away”?
Now the reason for the question is, the people moving in
Happen to have a different colored skin.
Well, my husband has a green thumb and for years I’ve watched him toil,
Turning a plot of clay to rich and fertile soil.
Today we reap the harvest of a home gardener’s dream,
Our fruits and vegetables are better, our flowers are supreme.
The only part of the outside work I ever have to play,
Is to pick and arrange the flowers I love to give away.
Do you know in early spring when winter is about to go,
We’ll have a few warm days and then perhaps another snow?
I can look out of my window and get a wondrous thrill,
For peeping through the snow I’ll see a hundred daffodils,
Before they are gone narcissus are blooming everywhere,
I could pick a hundred every day and still have more to share.
Then tulips and iris are bursting into bloom
And the sweet scent of lilacs is floating through my room.
Soon the garden takes on new color that resembles Flanders Fields,
With the hundreds of poppies and peonies our garden yields.
Next the climbing rose vine surrounds that spot with glory,
All the other roses are in bloom and each one tells a story.
Like; this is a Peace rose, Mom brought a small bouquet to me,
Dad put one in the ground and now this lovely bush you see.
Oh! I remember Mom saying, “Try it I don’t think it can be done”,
But Dad proved he could grow a bush from a single rose, via his green thumb.
In August you could name it, we’d have it, I could find it somewhere,
Pick a dozen mixed bouquets any time you’d never miss them there.
Next comes asters, gladiolas and dahlias in almost every hue,
And then we have the mums in every color too,
They stay with us until the snow is on the ground,
Which proves we have flowers to give away almost the year around.
My husband loves working in his garden, gets most of his pleasure that way,
As long as he is able to work in the garden, that’s where I want to stay.
My freezer is filled with vegetables and berries picked right there,
We always have more than we can use so here once more we share.
Happiness is gained in life by making others happy too,
It has brought us so much joy to share our garden the way we do,
Why! almost every Sunday in the different churches out our way,
You will find some of our flowers in their Altar’s bouquet.
I am very fond of the folks that live next door to me,
For more than thirty years we’ve been one big family.
We share our joys and sorrows, we share our gardens too,
When I need something that’s not in my garden I go next door and pick a few.
I heard this little story on my TV the other day,
The greatest joy we get to keep comes from the joy we give away.
So when folks ask me in the future, “Why we stay around”,
I think the answer is going to be, “It’s because we’re Garden Bound”.
And in the little white house by the side of the road
We will stay just as long as we can.
Because from seeds we sow, God’s gifts grow
And help us to be a friend to man.
