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Gardening Joy...
I love gardening... it gives me such joy and hopefully does for you. Small or large garden, if there is no joy, what's the point?
Studying to become a Master Gardener taught me what works, what doesn't and why. The title? - it just means I know how to find the answers I need because I can reach out to many "masters" of gardening, all over the world.
I love that.
Lush gardens give us joy so we can share our passion with and learn from other gardeners. It's about hope, experiments, successes and even failures...maybe that's why you're here.
I hope you find the answers to questions or solutions to any problems you may have - if not, let me know.
I'll do my best to help if you send me a note ...
Of course I have my own story and when you have time and a lovely drink, it's at the bottom of the page.
Otherwise, head to the page links that interest you and go from there.
Life is always challenging: our world is dealing with COVID, politics, wars, threats, anger and angst. But there is goodness and kindness out there, so share your kindness, smile with your eyes and look out for each other while you find joy in your garden - or even in someone else's.
No matter what else is cancelled,
gardening is not.
Plan and play in your garden; plant some seeds and keep dreaming. The sun always rises - spring always comes and we always feel better in the garden.
Whatever is wrong in the world, gardening always makes things more joyful.
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so...here's my story..
I still don't like getting my hands dirty so I had never considered myself a gardener. "Garden Design" was about re-arranging flower pots on the deck.
But life threw me a few curves and digging in the dirt was therapy for patching up a broken heart and tattered soul -except I was still just moving those pots around the deck.
Then the gardening bug bit me hard and the reason I am here. I started digging a few flower beds and made a lot of blunders. But there were also a few successes and they gave me much joy which is why I am still going strong.
Why gardening?
Gardening proves hope and faith are still alive. When you plant a dry little seed in a handful of dirt, you just KNOW it will grow and bloom into something divine.
We all do - and we keep doing it.
"They" say gardening is good for us.
It's not why I started, but once I did, I was intoxicated by that elixir of dirt, water and sun. It is magic for me and I always want more.
As a single working mom with two (fabulous) children, there was never enough time for digging and planting flowers, so our spring outings consisted of racing off to the greenhouse, piling pretty annuals into my convertible and hauling them home.
All I had to do was plop them into pots, arrange them on the deck or walkway and
...Voila - instant garden.
I still hate getting dirt under my nails...so every Spring I treat myself to a few pairs of gloves in delicious colours, like lavender, blue or peach. With rubber-like palms and fingers and a nice cool mesh on the upper...they are thin enough to pick up a tiny seedling, or protect me from sharp thorns.
I wash them often.Who wants to put on wet, dirty or gritty gloves? And if an offer of a little help comes along, I can offer a clean pair of gloves...But I digress.
One day, the wind blew a big old tree onto my sad little yard and when it was all cleared away, there was a big ole stump and the cost to remove it covered lots of plants. I stuck a pot on top; threw some soil around it and planted some flowers. behold a "garden" with a little joy.
It turns out, any kind of gardening was a pretty and healthy way to deal with some life problems and I fell in love again.... with gardening, that is.
I carved out some curvy beds along the fence and filled them with wild daisies and phlox from the side of the road and along the railroad track. I haunted yard and plant sales, farmers' markets and asked a lot of questions.
...then, I thought a Rose Garden would be nice.
But that's a whole other story here..ROSES
I bought more plants and made bigger beds: less grass and more garden. I poured heart, soul and dollars into that space I started calling my garden- but I got a bit cocky.
My 3rd summer, I was easily persuaded to enter our city's "Communities in Bloom" Garden contest...
I came in third... well, goodie for me.
By then, I was addicted and before the next competition, I hired some muscle and we dug up the patchy grass under the Maple tree in the front yard and planted whatever I could find.
See how that went here: Grass-to Garden
Soon I was gardening like a madwoman,wanting even more plants. Each spring, it was a giddy challenge to choose colours when the greenhouses were full of 50 shades of the same colour.
Colour can be fun.... see how here: colour.
Life was settling and my sad little yard became a garden.
The following year I entered the competition again...
and WON FIRST...ooh la la.
so... Keep reading and I'll share what worked or didn't along with some shortcuts, successes and some dismal failures of course.
If you want to grow veggies instead of flowers,
look here: (stevenbiggs.ca)
Steve and Emma Biggs have it covered. Young Emma grows BIG tomatoes and they will show you how.
