My mother-in-law, now long departed from this earth, was a
very keen gardener. She knew the Latin
names of most plants, as well as their culture and history, and delighted in
growing her own plants from the seeds and cuttings she could obtain from family
and friends.
My husband said he remembered that she would spend hours and
hours in her garden, and her flowers won several prizes at various shows. These photos were taken by her in 1964 (long
before I met her) of her homestead garden out the back of Huntly
(in the Waikato).
It is a pity she never photographed her vegetable garden as
well as I have heard the family (seven children) were virtually self-sufficient
in home produce. Every year the farm
tractor would plough up a paddock and potatoes, peas and tomatoes would be
grown for bulk preserving.
There was also a large orchard, milk from the dairy herd, and
meat from cattle, sheep and pigs. Eggs
came from chickens and ducks, with any excess being sold to neighbours. What many would call an ideal life, but she
told me once it was a lot of hard work and that was just how it was in those
days.
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| Summer profusion in the Front Garden |
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| The Lily Pond (complete with goldfish) |
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| The Back Porch area |
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| The Shrubbery divided the garden from the road |
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| A corner devoted to gladioli |
I hope you have enjoyed this little trip of garden
nostalgia. By the time I met her she was
living in a different house with a different garden, still amazing, but that is
another story.
Margaret.
Lovely to see these photos. I spent a lot of my childhood in Huntly so this brought back happy memories.
ReplyDeleteHubby grew up in Pukekapia so knew Huntly well :)
DeleteLovely photos,very typical of the gardening style of the 60's, the gardens were so pretty.
ReplyDeleteDiana
I think it was the profusion of flowers that made them so pretty. Today the trend seems to be more structured and not as colourful.
DeleteYour MIL must have been a very interesting ( and hard working) person. To do all that gardening and raise 7 children. In my younger days I wanted to try being self sufficient on some acreage but it didn't work out. It was probably for the best because I don't think I could have worked as hard as some of the older folks did.
ReplyDeleteI don't know where they got their energy from, especially with their big families - but perhaps the older children did a lot of the work as well.
DeleteI especially notices the two water tanks, presumably extra for the garden.
ReplyDeleteThe water tanks were for house supply, fed from rain on the roof.
DeleteOh thank you for that. She sounds just like my grandmother. Her pansies always won prizes, her peaches were renown for their size. She loved her garden.
ReplyDeleteWonderful photos.
Old fashioned pansies are one of my favourite flowers. Sounds like my MIL would have got on well with your grandmother!
DeleteGreat photos - are they hollyhocks or gladioli at the back of the last one?
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping my children remember the years this garden has flourished and not the dry flower less ones of drought years. Even though we've got tanks 'for the garden' if there's no rain to fill them there's no flowers in the garden. I gave up veggie growing a while ago
That sent me looking a bit closer at the photos LOL. The last photo is all gladioli with some blue delphiniums in the back. The first photo has a couple of hollyhocks at the back.
DeleteFrom what I understand, the water for the farm was pumped up from the nearby lake and was also used in the garden. The rainwater was collected for household use. It must be so frustrating to watch your plants die from lack of water.
She worked so hard to maintain such a garden and raise seven children. Growing your own vegetables and preserving them would have been chore enough. Incredible!
ReplyDeleteAnd she lived until she was 93 years old!
DeleteIt does sound Utopian, but I am sure, as you say, that it involved a lot of hard work.
ReplyDeleteShe was very pragmatic about the hard work, telling me it was just something that you did although no doubt she must have struggled at times.
DeleteI can see what a gifted gardener she was. Growing food for such a big family must have been a monumental undertaking!
ReplyDeleteI do not know how I missed this....so glad I came back looking for something else. I loved hearing about your MIL and seeing these photos.
ReplyDelete