The beauty of a well-tended garden has the power to bring joy to the beholder and sometimes inspire poetry.
In the case of Arlene Alexander's well-tended garden, the poetry is haiku written by Spottsville Elementary School fifth-graders who are students of teacher Nancy Groves and student teacher Meghan Durham.
Last summer, Alexander made lots of photos -- simply for her own enjoyment -- during the peak blooming moments of her many and varied flower beds at the family farmhouse on U.S. 41-A. She labels them an "eclectic" haven for butterflies and hummingbirds.
The gardener, a Henderson Community College professor who teaches education courses, was working with Durham on her student teaching lesson plans when they hit upon the idea of using Alexander's garden photos for a lesson on writing haiku.
"There wasn't any grand plan from the beginning, but she (Durham) was teaching it, we all got excited and it just came together," Alexander said. "She just made it fun and interesting, and they wrote some great poetry. The kids are still fired up."
During the course of the lesson, the photos were posted around the classroom and the students got to choose their subject matter.
The project, called "Haiku Garden," will be turned into a booklet that the students will be able to have as a keepsake.
It's odd that so much natural and lyrical beauty has come from something that Alexander was reluctant to do in the first place.
Though her grandfather loved gardening and was particularly good at growing flowers in their Kansas City, Mo., neighborhood, her mother took no interest in plants and Alexander assumed that she had inherited the same "brown thumb."
"Because of this fear, I never owned a plant until 1974 when I purchased my first houseplant, a ficus," she recalled. "It took me two weeks to commit to buying it and a promise from a friend that she would take it if it began to look sick. I have never been without plants since that time."
For two decades her gardening consisted of houseplants and container plants, but in 1994 she decided to expand her efforts to a flower garden.
She discussed the plan with her farmer husband, David, who made it clear that she could have whatever flowers she wanted, but since he already worked outside all day long he wasn't inclined to do flower garden work.
She would be solely responsible. For awhile.
"With a success from that flower bed, our garden grew larger each year until I realized that I had all I could handle," she said. "I try not to ask David for help but when I am in need, he is there helping me."
The resource of his help came into play when one hot August morning she decided to add a water garden to the display.
Her husband had mentioned an area of their yard that he found particularly difficult to mow because the flower beds were angled in a certain way. She decided that would be the place for the pond.
"After a couple of hours of digging by hand, David took pity on me and gave his son, Tim, a 5-minute lesson on how to use a back hoe," Alexander said. "Later in the day, we had dug a hole that we found would hold 1,100 gallons as opposed to the 100 gallon pre-form that I had purchased for the spot. There was no turning back at that point."
The pond and its resident fish is a source of fascination for the family's dogs and the photos of it were a favorite subject for the poetry writers. A special feature of the pond is that every rock around it was hand-selected by Alexander from camping trips, road sides, rock yards and other locations. It's also special to her because her gardening friends Nancy Grimsley and Cindy Hawes helped her with the design.
Though she enjoys using annuals as fillers in the garden (such as the extremely fragrant moonvine, zinnias, cosmos and periwinkle) perennials are Alexander's favorite.
Those include achilla, aqualigia, centaurea montana, coreopsis, dicentra, echinacea, gaillardia, heliopsis, lavender (Provence), nepata, mondarda, oenthera, rudbeckia (Indian Summer), stachys, salivia, comphrey, lotus, heuchera, geranium (Cranesbill) and Russian sage.
"Actually, I am not sure that I ever met a perennial that I didn't like although some of them don't seem to like me," Alexander said. "I do have some echinops that David doesn't like because it reminds him of thistles (a farmer's nightmare)."
In her garden, each season brings something new to appreciate. In June, participants in the Garden Club of Henderson's "Gardens That Swing II" tour will also get a chance to appreciate the Alexander garden (along with 10 others).
"I never get bored waiting for a bed to peak or mourn one that is on its way out. The spring beds are a blend of colors including purple, blue, pink and shades of green. The fall bed is full of different types of grasses so it is the lushest in the fall as it turns from green to brown," she said. "My favorite bed is my summer bed because it looks so showy to me. ... the combination color palette that makes me take notice."
It's this season of the year, though, that is sure to give a dedicated gardener some special joy.
"It is always a miracle to me to see the small plants peeking through the soil each spring," Alexander said.
