Ever since I was a kid, I have always been delighted at the opportunity to work in my father's plantation. I do this when I come home on the weekends from boarding high school. I would do anything, from climbing the hills where his cocoa and tobacco grew and helped him to pick weeds. He had so much pride in his work and produced the best of everything on his many farms. He competed and sold many o
f his produce to the Jamaica Agricultural Society. He had a tobacco hut in the field where he dried the tobacco leaves to get them ready for the market. It was addicting to produce long strings of tobacco to hang from one end of the hut to another. On a given day or half day I could do as many as fifteen strings. My father loved me dearly and I did not even realize how much his favor was until he told me. My mother was a fanatic of flowers and I helped her to produce the most unusual kind that other families in the community did not have. I always bring home a plant of something new for her garden whenever I come home for the weekend. She was eulogized as having the most beautiful flower garden in the district. It is then understandable why I am so addicted to the idea of planting anything, a tree, vegetables and most notable the best flower garden on my block. Living here in Mt Vernon for twenty five years I have run out of space with mature shrubs , Japanese maple of the highest pedigree, azaleas, ferns, hydrangeas , multiple rose buds, Lilies, Easter lilies evergreens like spruce, just to name a few of the perennials that I can remember. I take great pride in the horticulture of my garden and will even do it for others. A green thumb is sometimes rare. My Victorian home stands out significantly to passersby. In 2004 when my mother died I went to Jamaica for a month long stay. Upon my return I received a letter from one Dr. Hazelton, a professor at Sunny College. She said in her latter "The house you live in is of great interest to me
My grand father John P Walsh was an Englishman who came from Jamaica to the United States in 1910 to study Law. He bought the house and lived there until he died in the house in 1910.. I have been passing occasionally and was very upset at the way the grounds were kept. Of late since (1991 I noticed a change in the gardens. This was especially important to me because I am writing memoirs of his gardens and grape vine that was in the greenhouse in the backyard)I do not have the grapevine though) Will you be kind enough to accommodate me so we can walk through the house once more? Sure I granted the wish and Dr Hazelton turned up one summer day in 2005 with her mother who was married in the house. She brought with her the wedding album to show her coming down the Hollywood staircase which is still preserved and in tact. "I had no idea that I would see the house decorated like we had it", she said. Of course John P Walsh was a Jamaica. I guess we had the same taste Each year for twenty five years, my garden is different and better than before.. .
