The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

I have written about this again and again but it is so beautiful in my back yard I have to write about it one more time this spring.

When my mother and I bought the Sixth Street house in Havre, we had moved back home from Lakeside and Somers on Flathead Lake. One thing mother loved about living in those locations was that winter or summer she saw a huge amount of green evergreens out her windows.

I knew that we had to have that in Havre as well.

The back yard of our house was just mainly dirt but you know I had known I wanted to grow dahlias and have a flower garden so this was like a blank canvas for me to work on.

I got a hedge of green and blue spruce to separate places in the garden. As I planted them, I made sure they were planted where mother could look out her favorite dining room picture window and see the green all year long. Then I planted three beautiful Black Hills spruce which were never going to grow huge but which had wonderful tiny cones and lots of branches. I planted the three of them in a pod which continue to be oh so beautiful all year long.

Mother’s favorite tree was a tree called an Apache Aspen which looks like a very thin Lombardi popular. I planted two of them at the entrance of the garden and they are just beautiful. Then right in front of Mother’s dining room window I planted a quaking aspen that I have grown to love as much as anything in the yard.

Even though the yard is essentially finished with a wonderful lilac hedge around the terrace, there is still lots of work to do. Yesterday 30 dahlias arrived to planted. I just planted 40 giant zinnias in the annual part of the garden. Later this week I have 60 gladiolas to put in, then the garden will be finished for this season.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you about the apple trees. Below my second floor bedroom window, there was a patch that needed something. I didn’t want to have to take care of another flower patch so I planted three apple trees and do you know that earlier this spring apple blossoms surrounded my bedroom window like you could not believe.

Too bad Mother is not around to see all this.

I imagine she is looking from afar and is seeing it all and smiling a lot! I know I am down here!