My gardens now.
My garden is a hybrid between landscaping and a garden. I planted a lot of purple and blue flowers and anchor them with lime foliage. This combination suits me in all seasons and lights. My favorite lime foliage plant is the golden version of dead nettle.
How I share my love of gardening with others?
My family enjoys the garden so much! We spend more time at home because we like it here. Also, after a fierce winter storm blew a fence down a neighbor said "I never knew this was here!"
Who or what inspired me to garden.
I have always wanted to plant things! I was fascinated by rose cuttings under pickle jars in our own and neighbors yards. I also had a wonderful science teacher who would allow us to buy exotic (to me) tomato seeds like cherry and pear. We would get a few seeds, peat pots and soil. I still remember us all making a small dent in the top of the soil for the seeds. There was a nice sized green house attached to the classroom and he would spray the plants daily. I remember proudly carrying them home in June. I planted them in the garden and when they were ripe I would take a salt shaker out to the garden eat them.
How I learned to garden.
As a child my parents weren't too interested in gardening and we had hard clay soil but that didn't stop me from trying! I grew a lot of radishes and zinnias. Then I saw my Aunt's terraced garden! She made it herself (with help from her son) with railroad ties. Then she filled it in with good soil. She would take us on a tour after a barbeque. The highlight was when my cousin held a lighter to a gas plant! The small explosion impressed me so much (I was 8). She grew castor plants and cleomes if I remember right. I'm sure lots of other things too. The thing that I came away with was: gardens don't have to be flat and you can create raised planting beds if you don't have good soil.
Lessons learned
- When I was a young married woman with my first house and large yard I tried to make a raised bed garden by throwing down a few sacks of supersoil in a long rectangle and lined the sides with rocks. Some neighborhood children watched with big eyes and asked "Who's buried there"! That's when I learn that a bed looks better if it's curved.
- After a visit to Hawaii I wanted a tropical garden with plumeria trees and gardenias (what was I thinking!, we have much too cold a climate for that). Mediterranean plants work well for us. we have Pride of Madera, spanish lavender, Mexican sage and lots of others.
