In Kansas and I suppose throughout the plains states, when farmsteads and farmhouses were abandoned, the structures often eventually succumbed to the harsh elements. The valuable ground they were constructed on is often cleared and reverted back to farm ground. If a good structure still sat there, all but that structure may be razed leaving only the decent outbuilding or nothing at all. It’s at those sites where homes once adorned with flower gardens once stood that you will find “ghost gardens”. Every spring, beds of Iris, jonquils, daffodils will spring forth in the middle of ditches and on the filterstrips along fields or next to old delapidated barns . A few years ago, The hubs and I went in search (with permission) to dig iris rhizomes so we could add some color to our yard. We dug brown, yellow and a wide variety of purple irises along with the prize of some beautiful purple Louisiana irises.
I just imagine the women and men who planted them, decades ago and imagine how proud they were.
I wonder who they were, and I thank them for sharing.