I and my wife Cindy would like to welcome you to our
home. It is situated in a tiny mining village in
southwestern Pennsylvania, between Pittsburgh and the
Laurel Highlands. At one time, our community was a
growing commercial center, with banks, department and
grocery stores, and many other of the amenities associated
with an industrial town. We read a number
of "big town" newspaper articles from the
mid 1900s describing the thriving and growing nature of
the community. The basis for that growth was
coal and many of the homes were built by the coal
company. The economic boom that mining payrolls
generated, attracted retail businesses and services to meet
the growing consumer demand. This was the reason my
wife's Grandfather, a barber and machinist, moved to our
town. He was a part-time barber and full time
Westinghouse worker. The suburban rail system
(Street Cars) provided reliable transportation to
Pittsburgh, for his number one job. A corner of a local
store, provided opportunity for his second job, that
of a barber. He met his wife here and raised three sons,
living in several homes along the way. Not long
after their third son was born, (My wife's father)
he and his wife bought and
moved into the house next to the blacksmith's shop, and
across the street from her brother's Service Station
and Ford Car dealership.
The blacksmith shop turned into a fire-truck garage
which was latter torn down and now is our driveway. The dealership
became an independent garage, and passed to the next
generations. Surrounding stores turned into
houses. Now the service station is gone, (the victim
of government tank regulations) and the garage is closed
and resurrected as a seamless aluminum gutter
company. Cindy's grandparents died, before I met
her. The house was rented out for a while, to
various individuals. Cindy and I, and our oldest son
Matthew moved in about 20 years ago.
Like everyone else who has lived in our house, we have
left our mark on the place. Our penchant for
holiday decorations and flowers have earned us such a
reputation in the community that we can direct most people
to our house by just saying "The place with the
flowers". Since it's on the main drag,
everyone knows where it is.
So, welcome to our home, "The Place With The
Flowers"! Regardless the weather, it's
beautiful outside. If it's raining bring your
umbrella or just get wet. If it's snowing dress
warm. If it's a sunny day, kick off your shoes and
take a walk with me through the ankle deep green
"grass". I'll give you a tour of our
place. For you violet lovers, you will find Viola
species planted in several of our gardens.
Sorry, that the tour is not just about violets, but
perhaps you can suggest prime locations for us to
plant additional native violet specimens around
our home, while you enjoy the totality of our garden,
including violets and their neighbors.
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Western Corner Of Our House
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One of the first things you may notice, when you leave
your car, is the green, deep turf lawn. We keep
it cut at about three inch height, so that it is
easier to care for and so that the various naturally occurring
flowers growing there have a chance to bloom. In
the grass, you will find Tyme leaf speedwell,
Clingman's Hedge Nettle, Dandelions, White Clover,
Oxalis and of course, Viola adunca and Viola
conspersa. The lawn is green because it is
tall and has a diverse species mix, not because of
fertilization. I am to lazy for that.
Besides, the medium height grass requires less cutting
than short shorn turf.
The house sits only about 10 feet from the road,
surrounded by the grass, and flowers. We have a
large front porch that is a great place to sit and watch the world go
by or the breakup of the annual firemen's
parade. There is a banner hanging from a pole that
changes for every season and holiday. Cindy and I
love to look for new ones that no one else has.
Every year, we plant hanging baskets of Petunias - Petunia
hybriden to hang
on our front and back porches. When they appear on
the porch, winter is officially over as far as we are
concerned. They remain till Cindy wins the argument
to throw them on the compost pile. That usually
happens when the cool days of fall approach and the
flowers become dormant. I never want to take them
down and always try to delay the inevitable till it is
obvious that they are through for the year. Then,
when I do acquiesce, I flip them out of their baskets and
onto the top of the compost pile, so that I still get to
see their last few blooms till fall's frost comes and
turns them into dead brown sticks. We used to have
petunias planted beside the porch and along the side of
the house, but, we have found that the hot afternoon sun
tends to cook them on this southwestern exposure.
The baskets do well, thanks to the partial shade
offered by the porch roof. They still get the
late afternoon sun but take it in stride, as long as we make sure that they
have adequate water for the afternoon heat.
The brick bordered area beside the porch now is home to
rosebay and miniature rhododendrons, variegated-dwarf
juniper, variegated grass, coral-red geraniums and a
pink azalea. A tin silhouette angel watches over
the plantings. The lattice work at the base of
the front porch and the plantings in the front garden
are illuminated at night with low-voltage
spot-lamps. At the corner of the house there is a stand of
blue-oriental-irises. They provide lovely blue
, white and yellow blooms in the early summer, interesting green foliage from
then till frost and a fascinating brown, desert like
backdrop for our Christmas Crèche. The brick border
continues around the corner and along the side of the
house, which hosts dwarf spruce, miniature rhododendron, variegated-dwarf
arbor-vitae, red geraniums and the occasional volunteer gladiolas.
At the south corner of the house, another blue iris
and a wire fence form the end of this garden
bed. The entire brick bordered flower bed, both
at the front and side of the house, is mulched with natural colored pine bark
nuggets.
The primary entrance to our back yard is along the
southwest side of the house. A wide flagstone
walk winds from the limestone gravel driveway, past
the flag pole, post light and wishing well,
through the garden gate, to the back porch
steps. The walk is lined with low-voltage tier
lamps. Variegated hosta bloom at the base of the
post lamp. There is a cement planter of desert daisies
at each side of the missing gate. These too have
replaced previous plantings of petunias because they
are very tolerant of the heat generated by the
combination of afternoon sun and reflection off of the
white aluminum siding on the side of the house.
The daisies are also quite cold tolerant, often
blooming well into December.
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