My Gardens

A gardener is a gardener is a gardener. It started in my teens, when I tried to put some flowers in a small patch in my parents' home, following in the footsteps of my Dad who put in a backyard pond complete with water lilies and a fencing of grapevines by which he produced wine every year. I didn't learn from him very well, killing the first flower garden I put in on my own after I was married by neglecting to water the seeds in hope that nature alone would cause the the flowering plant leaves to pop up. Some classes, magazine subscriptions, and books many years later, here I am with my current crop of gardening interests. Immediately above is my Riots of Color two months later, which I promised to show you. Isn't it marvelous what sun, water, and the grace of God will cause to grow? The fence around it was put there when the rabbits ate some of the early blossoms, as I mentioned a while back.

The rest of the photos are, as follows: At the top, our vegetable garden which, despite the poor showing of seeds that emerged, has managed to give us several meals of beans so far and the tomatoes are now coming in, better late than never. Below that is a part of my prairie garden, which lines the back of our backyard. The great thing about prairie gardens, often called "natural landscaping," is that they grow on whatever soil you have and, once established. do not need watering, fertilizing, or any other specialized care. Since they are native to the area and its particular habitat, they are rarely at risk of plant diseases or bugs. I'm in it for the ease of care---lots of beautiful flowers with not a lot of work. Not that I am lazy or anything...

The next photo shows the hedgerow that lines the east side of our lot. Its major plant is a dogwood shrub that feeds the birds well and allows woodland plants to grow under its bare limbs in the spring. What a glorious view we have in May, with several varieties of understory plants right outside the kitchen dinette window--wood anemones, trout lilies, etc. Below that is my present project--a long-standing problem I think (hope) we are finally coming to terms with. When we moved in, I planted our front ditches in a ground cover, because my husband could not mow up and down hills, eliminating the option of a lawn there. I found in the library what I thought was the perfect variety. The Serbian bellflower handles our cold winters well, is evergreen, and grows well in sun or shade. It's one weak link is that it requires a well-drained soil. My ignorant mind thought, this being a set of slopes, that that would take care of the "drainage" part. Wrong! We have clay soil, and "well-drained" to master gardeners means sandy or rich loam well-conditioned soil. I learned this a few years after the planting was in, so with the help of family and friends, I worked into the existing soil some peat and coarse sand or Perlite. It has helped lots. The south side of the ditch is now growing well. But for some reason this north side, off the road, has shown heavy plants losses every winter. We finally decided recently to plant a mix of ground covers on the north side and a small line of rain garden plants at the bottom of the ditch, where nothing seems to do well.

This extensive mix of plantings tells you why I have been very busy all summer, even with the help of my teen garden girl. In another week I will be off to Arizona for six days to attend a graduation and visit with relatives again and after that my girl is off to school for another year, so I will get my life back and have more time for writing soon. I've spent so much time outdoors with my teen helper that I have severely neglected putting in the usual time I spend on my posts and book projects. I hope to do better shortly. Hope I haven't let you all down.

Hoping also that you like this change of topics, as we come to the end of summer,
Margaret