In My Little Town...Gardening Brings My Family Home

Gardens are a form of autobiography.  ~Sydney Eddison, Horticulture magazine, August/September 1993

I didn’t even realize my garden was an autobiography until a few years ago. I have a small flower garden out front, and by small I mean maybe a foot wide and four feet long. And it always makes me happy.

But one day, as I was staring at it, I realized that I was happy because I was seeing my whole family. The purple irises that my grandma loved. The ‘daffydills’ my granny grew. The Black-eyed Susans my mom always pointed out on our road trips to visit distant cousins. The crocuses she planted to pop up through the snow and welcome spring. The tulips my mother-in-law loved.

Actually, the tulips make me smile for my mother-in-law and my father-in-law. I knew he was a great guy when I looked out the kitchen window one day and realized that my father-in-law had planted tulips for my mother-in-law – and that the tulip bed itself was in the shape of a heart.  How sweet is that?

Having grown up in the Midwest, the long growing seasons here are a joy. And the variety of plants! Wow. So much color! So many textures! So many new kinds of veggies! So many herbs to fondle and inhale! It can actually be a bit overwhelming.

When we moved into our house, the garden was stunning. And then (who knew?), things grew, or died. Now what? Dirt. Blank spots. Good places for toddlers to dig in, certainly. But it was so pretty before. And I didn’t know how to make it pretty again.

Thankfully, a neighbor suggested Yamagami’s Nursery on De Anza. Yamagami’s gave, and continues to give me, hope – for pretty and for yummy. I’m not sure that was why the Yamagami family started their business, but it sure is one reason the Yamagami and Oka families have my thanks this and every season.

Taro Yamagami bought two acres of land from the Regnart family in 1948, and opened a fruit stand. Perhaps you’ve seen it? It’s near the corner of De Anza and Highway 85. His fruit stand evolved to include a variety of local plants.

When Taro, one of the first landscape architects in California, decided to focus more on the landscape side of the business, he sold the nursery part to Mas and Betty Oka, in 1963. Mas had been working for Yamagami’s Nursery for 10 years by then. The Oka family worked hard for many years, growing the business.

Preston Oka took over for his retiring parents in 1983, having started sweeping up at the nursery in 1959. Amazing to think that the same business has been in the same spot for 63 years, and that the same family has been involved almost that long.

One of my favorite things about Yamagami’s is the information desk in the middle. When something new pops up in the yard, I can take a leaf in to the info desk, and someone there will actually know what it is and if it’s something I want to keep in my yard or something I should pull out. Now that is a blessing, because the number of non-native plants that have popped up in my yard is not cool. I want the yard and garden to be appropriate for my family (including people and critters), and my community (including people and critters).

Community is a part of  the Yamagami tradition. My kids have been there on school and scout field trips, and always come home with some new experience and bit of wisdom. We’ve all learned to enjoy the word ‘ranunculus.’

Yamagami’s loaned plants for the Miller and Lynbrook graduation ceremonies, and donates to schools and churches in the area. Yamgami’s has participated in CEEF and Great Schools programs. There is even a program to donate plants to prisons, to help prisoners learn to heal plants and souls.

Recent thank you letters posted by school and 4-H visitors said, “Your plants rock!” and “I got to plant my own flower.” Education for kids and adults is available through tours, classes, brochures, and a monthly emailed newsletter (I particularly like the recipes and calendar – and that calendar is full!).

Yamagami’s is currently collecting clothing donations for Hope Services. On Wednesdays, canned food donations for Second Harvest bring a discount.

Recent activities include bike sales with Hope, book sales benefiting the Western Horticultural Society, and free talks about fruit trees and water-wise plants.  Discounts are available to Master Gardeners, with a donation being made to the Master Gardener program. Glass pumpkins in the gift shop support student artists at San Jose State. Yamagami’s Nursery is part of the Watershed Watch Program, and offers a discount on featured green products.

So many places now sell plants and bulbs online. The pictures are pretty and the ability to point and click is so easy. I prefer heading over to my neighborhood store and exploring.

I am just going to enjoy walking around and seeing and smelling the new plants, and dreaming about giant pumpkins and flower gardens. I’m going to pick up some new iris bulbs, a few tulips, a handful of daffydills, some purple and white striped crocuses, and a packet of seeds that will soon bloom into beautiful Black-eyed Susans. I’m going to enjoy bringing my parents and grandparents to life again in my heart and in my little town.

Visit Yamagami’s at 1361 S. De Anza Blvd, or check their website at  http://www.yamagamisnursery.com/