The Norman Muilenburg School of Gardening

As spring approaches and crocus and daffodils poke their heads up, I can't help but think of Norm with his gardening hat on. (As an aside, had Norm and I not had children, I doubt that we would have had a house or a yard. )

He did yard work reluctantly, never planting anything new, basically just beating down what was already here. Once, he ripped out a juniper that was in a line of other junipers, not caring that now there was just a big hole where there should have been something.

I never trusted him to prune when I wasn't home.

Our neighbor of many years, Virginia Steenson, was a gardener and when the kids were here playing ball, she didn't care for their balls coming into her yard crushing her tender plants. She planted Arbor Vitae on both her front yard borders. After she passed away, her daughter and son-in-law moved in. One day when I was working and Norm was off, I came home to find the BOTTOM 2 feet of Arbor Vitae branches sawed off. " Norm, what have you done? Those aren't ours," I said. He answered, " I just got carried away." He said the same thing to Paul, the son-in-law when questioned about the event. I think he took all his frustrations out on the yard.