Family’s labor of love blooms in backyard
Love of gardening is passed down to Rebecca Reppert from her parents.
For Rebecca Reppert, tending the garden at her parents’ home in Reading is a labor of love.
“I have been working very hard in my parents’ garden for what seems like months,” she wrote in an email. “I mow, trim and weed by hand, and yes, I did start last summer redoing the entire lawn.”
Reppert’s parents — her mother, Joan Reppert, and her dad, the late James Reppert — started the garden 40 years ago, she said, so she has grown up helping to care for it, doing chores such as planting bushes and taking out bulbs.
Reppert described what makes the garden special: the pink and yellow color scheme; unusual herbs such as sorrel and two kinds of lavender; medicinal herbs like southernwood; memories of past projects such as the raspberry bush; the bricks in the border are from Union Street, when it used to be paved in brick.
“All around the yard are plants gifted to my mother over the years,” Reppert wrote. “Some flowers attract butterflies. Years ago, when the lawn had more white clover, we had bees. A cardinal has taken up residence in the arbor vitae.”
She said there are three separate garden islands: the rock garden, the horseshoe in front of the patio and the regular working garden that produces cutting flowers and tomatoes.
“We have been fortunate that for the most part, it is free of pests,” she wrote. “I have learned as I go how to combat blight and insects naturally. I know there are bigger gardens in Berks, and more experienced gardeners, but I think our corner is colorful and diverse, and we have shared it and its bounty with neighbors and friends over the years.
“The common battles with lanternflies and black spot make for conversation among strangers and fellow garden enthusiasts.”
The garden beds circle the entire yard, with 40 years of plantings that have provided many cut bouquets, she wrote.
Last year, she cleared a row of prickly hedges that were just leaf catchers and made some extra room for sunflowers and tomatoes, which produced a bumper crop.
“But the garden areas are special because they were a combined effort of my parents and me digging in various things over the years,” Reppert wrote. “My brother laid out the brick pathway and designed the horseshoe garden. Friends and family donated plants from time to time.
“Each year we do something different. In fall there are mums, in spring, tulips and daffodils. Now we have a spirea that flowers and some lettuce and heather, all new this year. I have been known to sneak in an artificial flower or two ‘just like your father,’ mom said.”