And best of all, they were free!

Thomas works for a rock quarry, which I think I may have mentioned before.  He gets a lot of perks at this particular rock quarry, including being able to bring me (free) nice limestone rock in interesting shapes and sizes, most filled with wonderful fossils, quartzite or crystal.  He can also get loads of gravel in various sizes for a really, really good price.  He has hunting priveleges (lots of deer and turkey on those dozens of acres) and fishing priveleges (in a beautiful, deep quarry lake).   Two years ago he was told of an old, old pear tree that was once part of an old homestead on the property.  The tree yielded lots of big, juicy, wonderful tasting fruit, not like anything you could buy in the store; it reminded me of the pears we used to pick and eat (or windfalls we picked up off the ground) when I was young --  not touched by herbicides or insecticides.  We had fresh pears, pear preserves, pear butter and pear wine for the past two years.  And now, this year, he's been given another perk:

Last year the quarry owners bought up some more adjoining land on which an old couple had lived for many years before their deaths.  He was told about and given permission to get any plants, trees or shrubs off that property that he wanted.  Well, I wrote about spending a hundred dollars yesterday at Meijer Garden Center and I've written about planting and landscaping my front yard recently.  Thomas and Eler Beth, over the past week, have brought to me from that property at least two dozen big, beautiful hostas, six rose of sharon bushes, I-don't-know-how-many iris of various colors, tulips, jonquils, peonies, juniper, spruce and some things that I can't yet identify.  Imagine what I would have spent if I'd bought all those!  Oh yeah, and today they came back with asparagus!! 

Of course I can't use all of them.  Eler Beth and I have happily called up friends and neighbors and made offerings!  One friend of ours even gave Eler Beth a thank you card, telling her how much she appreciated the plants and that she'd planted them that day and that whenever she looks at them she'll think of Eler Beth.  So I'm finally going to get my front yard the way I want it, and I haven't had to spend much.  Mostly what I got at Meijer yesterday was top soil, potting soil, mulch, a few little border plants and a lobelia to hang at my front door.  When I'm finished out front I'm going to get to work re-doing the back yard; I'll still have plenty of flora and fauna to work with!  The wonderful thing is that everything I've planted so far, even the plants that are already blooming, still look beautiful after I get them in the ground and watered really well.  I don't think I'm going to lose any of them.  And my little stone bench looks good next to that huge rose of sharon!!