A large van can be used for more purposes than hauling canvases and setups to art shows. When my Mother made that decision, she directed me to “Bring me a big bag of dirt.”
The front and back yards of 843 Clarks Lane were her Louisville, Kentucky’s object of concern where the dirt became a useful soil enhancement for her green thumb plantings.
Tulips always surrounded the birdbath in the backyard. When I see a birdbath in a today yard without an encirclement of tulips, I think of the homeowner as sadly neglectful.
A hydrangea bush had a regal space beside the back porch steps as did a yellow rose bush planted by a neighbor’s fence. At the back of the drive, a bed of iris resided as a queen of the court gesture to the tradition of continuing the family’s history of transplanting bulbs from the Crittenden Drive home in Highland Park.
Forsythia, Barberry, Calycanthus, and Evergreens thrived under her patient dirt layer attention. Each spring I could count on her asking for that “Big bag of dirt”.
And then there was the year of a bale of straw. She was riding with me on the occasion when that idea occurred to her. I do not know what she did with all that straw, but unlike the bags of dirt that did not leave residue on the van floor, I was forever finding bits of straw behind the driver’s seat whenever I unloaded for a summer art show.
I no longer drive that van but when I see a display of bags of dirt or a bale of straw I am once more unloading some spring necessities for a Mother on Clarks Lane.