I’m a little late for the August blog carnival, I intended to publish it this past Monday, but the death of Jon–one of my husband’s closest friends–kind of threw off the schedule. My husband had been friends with Jon for 20 years. He was a groomsman in our wedding and was one of the witnesses who signed our Ketubah (Jewish wedding contract). Just a week ago I was chatting away with Jon and Adriana on a conference call; Jon was giving us business advice regarding our new joint venture, Beetnik Media. The next day, Jon, my husband, and three of their close friends went to Las Vegas for a guys weekend. On the drive home, Jon was involved in a car accident and died on impact. Just like that, one of the most positive, funny, caring guys I know lost his life. He was only 37 years old.
As you can imagine, as much as I love gardening and writing about it, it all seemed a bit frivolous after Jon’s death. Now that I’ve finally accepted that Jon is really gone (for awhile I had convinced myself that Jon had signed up for some lame reality TV show where they fake your death and you get to see what your friends and family say and do after you’re gone), I have been mulling over how to get back in the garden writing saddle again. I’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment from growing irises in memory of my Grandma, and I was thinking of planting some window boxes with orange, blue. and white flowers in honor of Jon (he was a huge Mets fan). So I thought maybe we could make the August carnival about “remembrance gardens.”
In case you missed the first five LOTB carnivals, and you’re not sure what a blog carnival is, it’s when one blogger requests that other bloggers publish posts on a certain topic and then the carnival host(ess) publishes links to everyone’s submissions. It’s a great way for LOTB readers to find lots of great ideas, and for other bloggers to reach out to a new audience. If you’re still not sure what I am talking about, check out the February LOTB carnival.
For the August Carnival, I’m seeking posts about how you’ve used your container garden to honor the memory of a lost loved one. I’ll leave things wide open, I don’t want to tell anyone how to remember someone who has died. You can write about how a certain plant reminds you of your mom, a special ornament that you like to keep in your garden that your friend gave you, or just about how gardening in general helps keep your loved-one’s memory alive for you. However you want to interpret the topic is fine. If you need help or have a question, don’t hestitate to email me.
To submit a post, use this form: Container Gardening Blog Carnival Page. You can find it by going to Contact > Blog Carnival at the top of the page too. You need to publish your post on your blog and submit it through the blog carnival submission page by August 28th. I’ll be publishing the carnival on the 30th.
You are free to use the image at the top of this post or this badge if you participate, but you must download them and host them yourself (i.e. right click and chose “save image” and then upload it to your website, or to a hosting service, like PhotoBucket or Flickr).
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Fern – I don’t have anything to contribute this month but I am so sorry to hear about your loss. My deepest condolences to you and your husband.
Fern, I’m with Liam here. I am so, so sorry for your loss. It’s never easy to lose a friend, and to lose one who was still so young hurts even worse. I’m so sorry.
On a brighter note, Beetnik looks very cool. I love the design of it!
Hi Fern ~ I’m sorry for your loss. Thoughts and prayers †
This might be long and rambling, but… and it’s sorta container gardening related — raised beds are just really large containers, right?
When my wife’s first husband passed away, her cottage garden became a memory garden of sorts, with gift plants from master gardeners, their friends, and the church community. To this day, every year, it gets a red geranium planted by Glenn’s bench. Since we’ve been married, we’ve sadly added or nourished along favorite plants of a close friend, my sister, and my wife’s Mom, all who have passed away in recent months and years.
I think using the Mets’ colors is a great way to remember Jon, and there’s so many color combinations you have to choose from. You’ll figure it out – honest. And, if you’re like me, it will help you remember the good times, sometimes when you aren’t even expecting it. Hope to see some pictures down the road of what you’ve come up with.
Peace
@SolakNC
I am not a blogger…just a follower…I commemorate the rescued mutts I have lost in my little desert garden with various rocks or horseshoes we have found together. Note that I also commemorate my mutts that are still with me the same way… I am so sorry for your loss.
Memorial gardens are a great way to celebrate a life. I don’t have any to share, but wanted to give my condolences.
Fern, I am so sorry for your and your husband’s loss of your dear friend, Jon. peace, Carolyn
Fern, I’m so sorry to hear about Jon. It’s a tragedy to lose anyone, but someone that has so much of life ahead of them…..that’s particularly sad. My condolences to his family and yours.
I don’t have anything to contribute other than that I am so sorry for your loss, Fern.
I am so sorry for your loss.
If it were my container memorial garden I would grow Gladiolus because they are considered masculine flowers. I would plant Forget-me-nots at the base because they mean exactly what their name implies: Remember me.
Once again, my deepest condolences.
Truly sorry for your loss, Fern.
I do have a story to give you for “Remembrance Gardens” this week. Thanks for the chance to write on this topic.
You’re going to laugh, but one of the big reasons why I raise carnivorous plants is to remember my maternal grandmother. This woman had no fear of man, beast, or god, and took no grief from same. She was also an exceptional painter and gardener, and I can’t look at a Sarracenia “Scarlet Belle” without thinking of how much fun she’d have had painting it. (In a strange way, too, her death in 2002 helped sprout my love for carnivores: I took a job in Tallahassee partly to have a quiet place to mourn for a while, and I became hooked on carnivores while I was there.) Between carnivores, cactus, Euphorbia, and exotic fruit trees (including my beloved Buddha’s Hand citron), I think I’ve done a better job of summing up her personality than any static memorial.
I am so sorry for your very painful loss. What a horrific thing to go through.
I just wanted to share that I lost my best friend in 2002 and in her honor, her family and I cleared a trail in the woods behind her parent’s house and created a ‘walk’. We planted flowers and placed little ornaments along the way that represented her and eventually after some time had passed, we all found some comfort on that walk.
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