Leave a Little Something When You Go

Since I’m new to this Army wife thing and moving around, I can only talk about the two places I have moved in the last six years.  I try to make even temporary military housing our home while we’re there. One of the things I really love to do is plant things and have beautiful flowers in my yard.
When we lived in Hawaii, we moved into a house that had been vacant for a while and didn’t have much going on as far as landscaping. However, once I moved in and started watering the beds, several beautiful things started growing again. I loved seeing a bougainvillea start growing and I loved training it to grow around the fence surrounding our small patio. It provided year around color in that area.  In one particularly bare area I planted a beautiful bed full of hibiscus, lantana and other flowering plants. Hawaii was wonderful because you had growing season all the time.  I also love to cook with fresh herbs so I planted rosemary, parsley and basil that I left there for the next person.
I searched for a photo of my plants and only found this one. I think I was taking a photo of the Nick’s unit crest but you can kind of see some of the plants. That whole area was bare when I moved in. Another beautiful thing about living in Hawaii is that things grow super fast! I also left a pretty good size avocado tree. I never got fruit from it, but someday, someone will.

I also grew a pineapple from the top of one I bought and rooted. I harvested and ate that pineapple before I left, but the plant had more little shoots on it when we moved away.

As spring comes dragging into New England, I’m watching beautiful flowering bulbs sprout that others have left before me. It’s so much fun to see what new thing is blooming in the yard. It makes me wonder about the people who were here before me and planted those bulbs.

Something is sprouting in my back yard. I think they may be tulips.

This rose bush had beautiful blooms last summer and I cant wait to see them again.

When I was digging around in a raised bed planting my parsley I found these shells under the dirt. I’m not sure why they are there. Maybe they were originally on top of the dirt for decorative purposes. I like them and will use them in my own plantings.

More shots of the plants in my back yard.

I took this one of the bed of a vacant house. I know these are tulips and I told them I would be back for them when they bloom. I love tulips and I think they would look fabulous in a vase on my table.

Another shot of the vacant house. You can tell it’s vacant because no one has trimmed back the winter dead stuff. I love the hyacinths that are here though. They smell wonderful.

Vacant house again. I imagine someone put a lot of work into this at one time.
I haven’t done a lot of planting here. We’ve only been here a short time. I will leave the herbs I put out back and before we leave, I will empty the pots of mums from last fall and put them in the back yard bed too. That way the next person will have something to enjoy when they move in.