Starting Over...New Things and Old
Welcome to the first entry of the new gardening blog. While this blog is new, it's really a lot of old things. It is an accumulation of fifty years of growing things: orchids, roses, English gardens, Japanese gardens, Australian and south African plants, fruit tress and edibles.
I have had the great pleasure of doing a few interesting things. I started as an official with the North American Soccer League when I was just eighteen; the youngest ref to ever officiate in the league. I was referee number 121. The money soccer provided enabled me to start a nursery. I've been a landscaper, high end gardener to the rich and famous, and ultimately a minister; by far the toughest job I ever had. In the past I've written for national orchid and koi publications, and done a little writing on theology and cooking. I have many interests and passions.
Why a garden blog? Good question. It is said "advice is often given, but rarely taken." I have never given advice. Giving advice seems arrogant, presumptuous, and rude to me. I don't give advice, but I am told I am a good listener, and I love to share experience. I thrive on teaching, learning together, and sharing what life and wonderful mentors have taught me. I offer these things to you.
I am starting over on many things in my life. My wife is gone after thirty-four years together; I am in a new house and garden after thirty-two years in one home. So many memories; some sweet and precious, others painful. That's life. I am a very sentimental person. I was profoundly affected by the words of Shelby Foote, the southern author and historian in Ken Burn's magnum opus on the civil war. Do you recall the poignant and florid sentiment in the letters written by the confederate and union soldiers? They wrote in such romantically moving and emotional ways, but never in insipid sweetness. He said "people of that age loved sentiment, but detested sentimentality." Our age can learn more than a few things from theirs. Among the things we would benefit from is a renewed reverence of the sentimental.
I tie so many memories to the sights and smells of life. My former home was a collection of plantings that held intense meaning and memorial. I planted a tree for the birth of each of my children. A tree for the births of grandchildren. Roses to memorialize departed loved ones. As a minister, I walked side by side through pain and loss with many people. I found cut flowers given in a time of grief lasted a week, but a rose bush, orchid plant or fruit tree became a memorial to a cherished loved one and brought lasting joy.
The first tree I planted in my former home was an Anna apple tree, planted for my daughter Maria Christiana, born two months after settling into our new home. It was more than a tree, it was and is a memory. It marks a passage of life, an event of intense importance. There are massive deodar cedars I see on the rim of Tecolote canyon when I travel down Genessee Ave. that mark the births of Allison and Erika. A towering Torrey pine that reminds me of that incomparable day my only son Samuel was born.
In June 2015, I came into a new garden; a new canvas to paint life's new memories upon. The first tree I planted? You probably guessed...an Anna apple. Ironically, my firstborn gave birth to my first grandchild Kristiana Marie Golojuch; we call her Anna. The new Anna apple is in her honor. The next plantings? Mathiola, or commonly called stocks. They were the first flowers I planted in the old home, and the first flowers planted in the new. Have you ever grown them? I am sure you would enjoy them. By my reckoning, the most pleasant perfume in all the world of flowers. I breathe in their intoxicating perfume...I am back in 1984, my dearly beloved bride, a new baby, and our first house. Ah, the memories.
I have had the great pleasure of doing a few interesting things. I started as an official with the North American Soccer League when I was just eighteen; the youngest ref to ever officiate in the league. I was referee number 121. The money soccer provided enabled me to start a nursery. I've been a landscaper, high end gardener to the rich and famous, and ultimately a minister; by far the toughest job I ever had. In the past I've written for national orchid and koi publications, and done a little writing on theology and cooking. I have many interests and passions.
I am starting over on many things in my life. My wife is gone after thirty-four years together; I am in a new house and garden after thirty-two years in one home. So many memories; some sweet and precious, others painful. That's life. I am a very sentimental person. I was profoundly affected by the words of Shelby Foote, the southern author and historian in Ken Burn's magnum opus on the civil war. Do you recall the poignant and florid sentiment in the letters written by the confederate and union soldiers? They wrote in such romantically moving and emotional ways, but never in insipid sweetness. He said "people of that age loved sentiment, but detested sentimentality." Our age can learn more than a few things from theirs. Among the things we would benefit from is a renewed reverence of the sentimental.
I tie so many memories to the sights and smells of life. My former home was a collection of plantings that held intense meaning and memorial. I planted a tree for the birth of each of my children. A tree for the births of grandchildren. Roses to memorialize departed loved ones. As a minister, I walked side by side through pain and loss with many people. I found cut flowers given in a time of grief lasted a week, but a rose bush, orchid plant or fruit tree became a memorial to a cherished loved one and brought lasting joy.
The first tree I planted in my former home was an Anna apple tree, planted for my daughter Maria Christiana, born two months after settling into our new home. It was more than a tree, it was and is a memory. It marks a passage of life, an event of intense importance. There are massive deodar cedars I see on the rim of Tecolote canyon when I travel down Genessee Ave. that mark the births of Allison and Erika. A towering Torrey pine that reminds me of that incomparable day my only son Samuel was born.
In June 2015, I came into a new garden; a new canvas to paint life's new memories upon. The first tree I planted? You probably guessed...an Anna apple. Ironically, my firstborn gave birth to my first grandchild Kristiana Marie Golojuch; we call her Anna. The new Anna apple is in her honor. The next plantings? Mathiola, or commonly called stocks. They were the first flowers I planted in the old home, and the first flowers planted in the new. Have you ever grown them? I am sure you would enjoy them. By my reckoning, the most pleasant perfume in all the world of flowers. I breathe in their intoxicating perfume...I am back in 1984, my dearly beloved bride, a new baby, and our first house. Ah, the memories.
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