In the 30s and 40s, green close clipped lawns were a rarity. Although lawn mowers had been invented, these were years of the Great Depression and very few people had money for such a non-essential item.
So yards were bare ground and either raked smooth or swept, depending upon the type of soil. My mother's yard was of deep sand. Sweeping was a hopeless project, and raking almost as bad, so she pulled up the weeds and bought a few packages of flower seeds.
Of course, they were annuals, but when the flowers are allowed to mature, and drop their seeds they’re almost as nice as perennials Every petunia and phlox seed must have come up.
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Snapdragon and larkspur were not as plentiful, but had enough blooms to pick a few for playtime–like making necklaces by stringing their flowers together, or popping the snapdragons“mouths” open. Hollyhocks towered over it all.
The sandy sidewalk was lined with jonquils, the smaller, fragrant version of daffodils Perennial sweet-pea grew nearby. It was actually a vine, but mother contained it with a wrap of chicken wire to hold its tendrils in a bush-like mound.
There was no place for a vine to grow because the only fence was between the house and the field, and was covered with a trumpet vinevine, and both ends of the front porch were covered with honeysuckle and Seven Sisters rose vines.
It’s an understatement to say my mother loved flowers.
