IT'S ABOUT MORE THAN PLANTING FLOWERS.....

I do believe, however, that gardens and gardening are about more than planting flowers.. they are proof that hope and faith are still alive. The last time you planted something, didn't you just KNOW it would grow? Know that it would bloom and blossom into some divinely beautiful flower? Of course you did. Well, I am not sure that was my thinking when I started out... but I do know that as a gardener, I now have the faith that the combination of dirt, water and sun is a magical formula that creates a miracle from a hard little seed. But back to my story...

I was on my own with two children (fabulous, of course) and little time for the luxury of a garden.

Our Spring outings consisted of racing off to the greenhouse, piling lots of pots of pretty annuals into my convertible and hauling them home.

All I had to do was arrange them on the verandah or on the walkway and ...

Voila.... instant lush.

Container gardens are a wonderful way to have a beautiful plants you can easily move to other locations. If you're moving from one home to another during garden season, take your pots with you.. ...more instant lush.

Or, if you are entertaining, you can place your pots around the area where your guests will enter your home or move them to your deck. Better still, you can have a different colour scheme every year!!! If Container lush is for you, I'll give you some of my notes to help you get started.

For me, though, digging beds didn't have much appeal. I wasn't that girl. Besides, I vowed when I grew up, I would have nice nails no matter what... , so getting dirt under my nails just didn't do it for me.... ugh... not very gardener-like, huh??

Note: By now, you may have guessed that as I have this web site about gardening, I will reluctantly admit I am ' a gardener'. Now I can even tell you names of most plants be they annuals or perennials.

...I still hate getting dirt under my fingernails...

but I solved that problem with these amazing gardening gloves. Each Spring I treat myself to a couple of pair... they come in delicious colours like soft green, lavender, light blue and peach. They have rubber-like palms and fingers with a nice cool mesh on the upper... They are called 'MIRACLE WORKERS '. I buy mine from my local garden shop. The reason I buy two pair, is that I like to wash them after each use.... it gets rid of any bacteria or other stuff hiding in the soil that some plants may not like... besides, who wants to put on dirty, gritty gloves? While one pair is drying, I have a fresh, clean pair. Mine get awfully dirty and wet....so it's nice to have an extra. Besides, if an offer of a little help comes along, you can hand over a clean pair of gloves... a nice touch.

Now I have to say that my stint with container gardening did change..... I still have some pots of annuals on the deck but now I have real gardens too......full of perennials.

Then one day....

years and hundreds of flowers in pots later, fate twisted and I found myself needing to fix a shattered life....

Just then, as "luck" would have it.....a tree fell in the already lousy-looking yard and the cost to remove the stump, had me more than stumped. I decided to make the best of the scar in the middle of the patchy grass and plant a few flowers around the eyesore- the unloved stump.

Surprisingly, my little stump garden blossomed (oops, no pun really intended- but I have to admit it is a good one)- into a flower bed. Then, with a few rose bushes, it became a Rose Garden. I dug holes, moved dirt and pushed soil around - quite happily. What a great and healthy way to heal the problems of life. Puts a little hope and faith back into the bigger scheme of things.

It wasn't long before I was carving beds of earth around the edges of lousy-looking yard and filling them with daisies from the side of the road, daisies from the farmer's market, and wild phlox I found along the railroad track. I haunted yard sales and garden club sales and started asking questions.

Of course, then... I wanted some Roses... who wouldn't want a Rose Garden?? You can see how I ended up with a rose garden in another story...

Each time I brought home more plants, I had to enlarge the beds.... although the grass was getting greener and more lush, it wasn't long before there was less and less to cut.

Imagine ! Me... a gardener !!! A former non-gardener, I poured heart and soul (and more than a few dollars) and made a real garden. In fact, I became a bit of a show off, and pretty cocky too... I loved how my garden looked in its third year and it didn't take much for me to be talked into entering my garden in our city's contest.... I came in third.... goodie for me... enough crowing - back to the story.

So full of bravado in fact - in the early Spring of the first competition, I really got caught up with my bit of hope and faith and (with a some muscled help) took up all the grass in my front yard and made it into a garden. Yowza... what a lot of work, but what an amazing look... it was stunning... and I think the judges liked it too. I'll show you the process and give you a few do's and don'ts later too..

By this time gardening was in my blood- plants were all I craved... more and more of them.... and each year, the joy of choosing the colours for that summer. was no longer a task.... it was thrilling and full of real joy... .. it can sill be a daunting task to choose a colour scheme when the greenhouses are full of the dozes of colours, and all the different shades of those colours. Let me give you a few tips that work for me.

In no time at all, my life was healing, my plants were growing, my flowers were blooming and the sad and lousy yard became a lush garden.

The following year I entered the competition again (that is a whole other story) ... and came FIRST...ooh la la....

All this to say, if I can do it, so can you. I'll show you what I did.... the shortcuts, the successes and the failures..... and how I am learning to go hand in hand with Mother Nature and not pretend I know more than She does...humble pie is still pie and I love a good piece of pie now and then.

I'll show you how I did it.... sometimes on my own, sometimes with help... learn what works and what doesn't. Build a Rose Garden with me, Plant Perennials, do some Annual Planting, Take care of your garden, bed it down for the winter.... follow along with my story -

let's pretend we are gardeners and we'll make a garden together.

We have a fan !

"WOW - Am I impressed with your website!!!! I love everything about it - from the way you organized it - to your progress pictures - to helpful hints for novices - to the beautiful finished product!!!! FABULOUS!!!!! I love the story about your front yard. Congratulations on a job well done. You should be very proud of it. And, I do think you will inspire others to try gardening. Your flowers are just gorgeous. .   And, of course, you can use my comments  -  even my name!!!"

Sandra Whitson, PA