Keiko

One of the houses I grew up in had a beautiful Japanese maple by the front door. My mom planted it when my family first moved into our house when I was 4 and that beautiful plant was still thriving (or maybe just trying to eat my mom's front door) when she sold the house last summer when I was 30 years old.

I knew that when I owned my own home I wanted to have a Japanese maple in the front yard, so a few months after my husband and I bought our house I went and bought my Japanese maple. When I brought my fancy new plant home I found out that my husband really likes to name things. He insisted I pick a name for my plant so I chose the name Keiko after the whale in the movie Free Willy.

Her first year on our yard seemed touch and go because we ended up needing to move her and the first year I didn't do a very good job remembering to water her during the summer. But I realized that giving her a name made her more real so I think of her like a person and that helps me remember to take care of her.

Since Keiko we have added several other "friends" to our yard. In the backyard we have a rhododendron named Mrs. Sally sassafras purple pants Montgomery the III (Bryan named her). And in the front yard we have 4 hedges that we are trying to grow in order to block the junk yard next door they are named Harry, Mary, Terry and Jerry (again Bryan did the naming). These plants aren't doing as well as Keiko but hopefully I can convince my mom to come over this summer and help me figure out why they aren't growing. Mom?