Friendship Garden A Work Of Love

By Nancy K. Crevier

“A Glimpse Of The Garden” is a miniseries focusing on the heart of a gardener’s work — a special spot, an extraordinary plant, a place of respite, or a place that evokes a heartfelt memory. What is down the garden path of your friends and neighbors? What is down your garden path?

Liz Arneth met her neighbor Pam Reilly many years ago, when the Arneths’ dog leaped the fence and was found by the Reillys. “We connected, and for years we were back and forth,” recalled Ms Arneth. “Pam was the type of person who never stopped working. She always had a goal. We shared a lot of laughs, especially about her gardens. Gardening was not Pam’s life, it was an afterthought,” said Ms Arneth. That is why she thinks that her friend, who died 11 years ago of pancreatic and liver cancer, would get a kick out of the memorial garden that she planted for Ms Reilly.

After her friend’s death, Ms Arneth was not sure if anyone was going to do a memorial for Ms Reilly. “I found out that there is a bench at Rowledge Pond, where she and her husband lived, and that the people of the Lake Winnisquam community in New Hampshire where they built a retirement home, had planted a tree in her memory there. But I decided to make a little garden in this one spot where I could see it from the house, and see it when I drive in,” Ms Arneth said.

“I have struggled to get it to this point. It’s in a rough spot under a swamp maple and the ground was rock hard. Plus, the battle against the deer…. I tried to get a lot of things to grow here over the 11 years, and I leave things grow there that might not really belong there,” chuckled Ms Arneth. “Pam would appreciate that.”

What she has ended up with finally is a tribute to Ms Reilly of several varieties of hosta, iris, catmint, woodruff, flame bush, and white-leafed lamium clustered at the base of the maple. A small stone bench, donated by a mutual friend, and a rock embossed with the word “LOVE” add to the peaceful nature of the little front yard garden. “Bee Happy,” “Bee Good,” “Bee Kind,” are among the admonishments around the border of a tiny flag at the garden’s edge.

 “Our friends have contributed plants, too, so it really is a friendship garden. I think about Pam when I go out there. She was a good friend,” said Ms Arneth.

That is what is down the garden path at Liz Arneth’s.