It's 1969 and I'm finishing the small upper wall at my parents' house

My father must have taken this picture. I doubt I've seen it for over 40 years.

The larger wall (foreground) I mostly finished the year before. That was my first cold frame and it was a couple of years old; I was just relocating it to this newly leveled bed. Notice the leafpile in the top bed. I dragged bag after bag of leaves and grass clippings home both to go into a compost pile and to compost directly on beds over winter. My mother has continued to improve the soil. After ~42 years of amendment with organic materials, the soil (initially clay) is in pretty good shape.

A picture taken more recently would show a large ornate gazebo and the brick wall that replaced the chain link fence. And of course an established mixed border. I guess I ought to have that picture but I don't. This spring, I swear.

Salvia melissodora....the salvias are flowering again in Polyhouse 7

Grape scented sage is one of my favorite salvias. I like the flowers, the leaves, the fragrance of both, and the name (from the Greek for honeybee + fragrant). It's a plant that's been on my list for Florida for the entire four years I've gardened there. I just never got it done

It gets large, I read 6-7' but have never seen a plant as tall as I am (6'2"). In the heat of summer, the leaves are bluer/grayer than they are now. I know it has been used medicinally by native Americans in Mexico too. Wow. Good plant!