I may never have learned to love to garden if not for the influence of my grandparents. They spent all their waking hours outside, only going indoors for meals. My grandfather was a plasterer/cement mason by trade and had always worked in construction. He built their home in addition to others for his family members. He was also an avid rockhound and created jewelry from his finds in the desert. My grandmother was a homemaker all her life and a darn good one too. Together they were an inspiring pair for me to try to follow in their gardening footsteps. They showed what a little time and sweat could create in a landscape!

My grandparents, George & Alma Harlock c. 1960. This is how they dressed for working in the garden.

Alma in a section of her garden at her home in Oak View, CA.

My grandmother, Alma Harlock, had a large garden plot that took up a whole city lot where she lived in Oak View, CA. She had several fruit trees, including a fig tree and a persimmon tree in addition to the traditional fruit trees. There were several rows of raspberry and boysenberry plants, artichoke plants grew like weeds plus the annual veggies she planted like corn, tomatoes, onions and peppers. She also had a large flower cutting garden tucked in among her veggies. All her produce was either canned or frozen for eating later but oh, it was a big day when she put water on to boil, picked the ears of corn and popped them into the water... heavenly!

Looking back, I only now realize how truly large her veggie garden was now that I have one of my own to take care of. The house and hours of daily toil to take care of that was her life's work. Being around plants was her greatest joy and she has passed that joy on to me!

Section of Alma's garden plot with strawberries in the front, veggies in the middle and fruit trees at the wall.
My grandfather built all the retaining walls in addition to the house, garage, patio, and her beloved greenhouse.

My grandfather, George Harlock, tilling the garden soil.

Alma had a passion for ferns. My grandfather, George Harlock, built a greenhouse for her in the 1950s just for her fern collection. Instead of glass, he used discarded flourscent light tubes from industrial sites. It made a great greenhouse with soft diffused light. We called it the "tube house" instead of the greenhouse! This area was a wonderful greenhouse for a plant-loving lady. My grandmother germinated fern spores between sheets of glass and would nurture them all the way to beautiful adulthood. I can remember my favorite ferns: rabbitsfoot fern, maidenhair fern and stagshorn fern. She also had various flowering plants tucked in among the ferns. What I would give to have that greenhouse now!

After my grandfather passed away in 1966, Alma began to raise plants for resale. Every weekend found her loading up the trunk of her Chevy Nova with potted plants from her greenhouse to sell at swap meets. She made a few extra dollars, got to meet new people and now had something to keep her motivated. I went with her on many trips when I was in high school and saw first hand how she sparkled when talking to a customer about the plants she had brought.

Entrance to Alma's greenhouse at her home.

Her garden also included a large collection of cacti and succulents. Living in southern California allowed her to have native plants and many others from the SW area of the United States. Alma was born in La Canada, California and had always been around the drought-resistant plants of the area. I can remember my grandfather driving his pickup to the high desert just to fill the pickup bed with the kind of golden sand my grandmother needed for her cacti garden.

I can't tell you how many times as a small child I would trip over on the spiny cacti, cry and have to have the spines pulled out of my hands and other parts of my anatomy. I have great respect for all prickly plants, let me tell you!

White cacti blooming in her desert garden.

The roses on her front lawn were the envy of the neighborhood. She looked after them like delicate children. These were the only plants she used chemicals on as the aphids loved them and rust was a serious problem for California grown roses. There was a small room off her greenhouse that was always locked as she kept her garden chemicals in there away from her grandchildren. Organic gardening was not vogue but she had a large compost pile behind the green house and believed in the power of composting!

A section of Alma's prized rose garden.

Alma was a member of the Los Angeles Fern Society, the California Begonia Society, and was an active judge and participant in the Ventura County Fair. She entered many shows and fairs over the years and had quite a large collection of first place ribbons for her flowers, ferns and veggies.

Alma was featured in the local newspaper for her gardening skills.

I did ask her why she loved to garden so much. She said her father, John Armstrong, was always out in his garden in their home in Los Angeles, CA. He would come home from his job as a postal worker and putter in the garden for hours. She loved her father and spent a lot of time with him among his beloved plants. He had been a farmer for a few years in Indiana before moving his family to the Los Angeles area around 1900. Guess once you are bitten by the gardening bug, you just have to get your hands dirty.

My great-grandfather, John Howard Armstrong c. 1910. He was an avid home gardener. I'm sorry I never got to know more about him as he passed away when he was only 51 in 1923.

I wanted to touch on my grandmother's love of plants and gardening as she was the major influence on my love of all green things. I spent a lot of time in her garden as a child, helping her weed, transplant, pot, water and best of all, eat! There were many hours of just sitting among the plants, enjoying watching the frogs, lizards, butterflies and hummingbirds that frequented her various garden habitats.

The walk on the north side of the house where her shady plants thrived.

A section of the patio my grandfather built at the back of their house.

A frog visiting the cool shaded patio on a hot California day.

Guess gardening is in my blood! I have always had houseplants to look after when I lived in apartments and didn't have a yard. The house where I now live offers a large yard on a corner lot and over the past 10 years, I have transformed a yard of just grass and a few trees into a haven for flowers, herbs and veggies. My neighbors always comment that I could do landscaping for a living if I wanted to but I just smile at them and say that my yard is big enough for me as it is (they don't know how many years I put into landscaping for hire in my teen years). It is enough for me to be able to spend my days outside with all my plant friends, even on the days of hard work of spading and weeding.

"The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies." -- Gertrude Jekyll