Memory Garden

This garden totally moved me. I was walking through a neighborhood not far from my own, enjoying not knowing where each street would take me next. As I began to make my way down a substantial hill I saw this unusual garden with a wonderful old woman tending to it, her big straw hat shading her face.
Keep in mind this is a very residential neighborhood, everyone with their allotted area, but this garden rambled. It was very purposely planted, a row of one kind of plant followed by an other. Instead of this appearing rigid or dull, it gave the illusion of space enough for rising and falling, like waves or rolling hills.
I stopped to admire the grounds and the lady of the house took a break from tending to them. She was gentle and cheerful. She was proud to share with me that she had grown up on that street, in that very house! She called her garden a 'memory garden'. She said instead of bouquets she thought it better to give plants that can grow along with you over time. Maybe she bought gifts for the garden in remembrance of certain people and events as well and this is how she acquired such quantities of each kind of plant. What a lovely theme and what a pleasant surprise to stumble upon this place and learn it's history on an ordinary afternoon.