Family trees

Joy and Ruby Patton share a geneaological green thumb

A beautiful garden, green and healthy, grows behind the split rail fence that surrounds the front yard on Lawrence’s west side. A welcoming picket fence adds a quaint touch to this property. Beyond the gate, a thick mat of groundcover clusters at the feet of a river birch tree. Persian Shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus), a strikingly beautiful specimen, shows off its dark green leaves that are flushed with purple in the shade of the tree. Potted mums and a huge potted fern salute an American flag near the front door.

The garden is the handiwork of mother-daughter duo Ruby and Joy Patton.

Joy and Ruby Patton's collection of more than 60 different Coleus are an impressive display with a wide array of colors.

“Mom has always had a green thumb,” Joy acknowledged. “I may have inherited it. It just took a long time to come.”

Ruby has been gardening much of her life.

“I was the gardener when I was in the retirement home,” she said of her former residence. When she moved in with Joy several years ago, she brought beautiful violets with her. They grow along the side of the house.

Ruby’s green thumb goes back to the time she was raising her family in Ensign, outside of Dodge City. There she kept a flower garden from which many plants have been transplanted to her children’s gardens, including the one she currently tends with Joy.

“One of the coolest things about our garden is that is a family thing,” Joy said. “Many things from come from our childhood home in Ensign. They call that Ruby’s lilac.” She pointed to a tall lilac specimen. Other plants from her childhood home include periwinkle, four-o’clocks and moss that Joy’s older siblings call Daddy’s moss.

“By the time I came along, it was Mom’s moss,” said Joy, the youngster in the family.

The Patton garden has a collection of plants from outside Kansas as well. A Korean Lilac from Minnesota grows in the backyard. Joy’s sister helped plant a hibiscus from her garden in Oklahoma City. Joy pampers the hibiscus, but she said, “My favorite thing is foliage.”

True enough. An impressive display of coleus spreads out and colors one corner of the front garden. More than 60 plants make up the coleus collection.

“We had to go to different nurseries to find different kinds,” Ruby said. The plants are perfectly placed, smaller ones at the front, taller ones toward the back.

“If I miscalculated, I just trim them off,” Joy confessed.

The garden beds throughout the yard are filled with a beautiful assortment of perennials and annuals.

Joy and Ruby Patton's Persian Shield is a strikingly beautiful plant with shades of almost metallic purple.

“We spent a month planting,” Joy said. “We planted a lot of perennials this year, so it’ll be easier next year.”

Still, I saw double orange impatiens seemingly glowing in the shade of the tree near the driveway.

“We’re kind of suckers for something new,” she added.

Roses, a favorite of Ruby, lilies and crepe myrtle grow side by side with tomatoes and peppers.

“We mix our vegetables in our flowers,” Joy explained. Nearby, a small space is packed with herbs.

Initial construction of the flower beds and shrub areas took some doing.

“Everything you do is more of a project because of the rock,” Joy noted. “Everything we plant, we use one bag of topsoil and one half bag play sand. We dig a hole and fill with that mixture.”

The garden is surprisingly healthy and lush in spite of the trying growing conditions experienced this summer.

“We feed all the pots with liquid Miracle Gro once a week,” Joy explained. “Everything else gets fertilized weekly with the hose connection.”

Huge hostas border the side bed, their leaves clear and green. The garden receives plenty of water to keep it looking good

Of course, there’s the inevitable weeding, a chore that Ruby tends to daily.

“I pull a plastic sack of weeds every day,” she said. “That includes cuttings from dead blooms.”

Joy admitted that part of the love of gardening is social.

“It gives us an excuse to be outside, talking to our neighbors,” she said.

On the other hand, she learned an important lesson from her Mom’s example.

“Wherever you are, make it a little beautiful,” she said.


Carol Boncella is education coordinator at Lawrence Memorial Hospital and home and garden writer for the Journal-World.