Mid-Spring Garden Tour

I love to garden. I find it to be both a grounding and a creative process. The creative process in its many shapes and forms invites my interest and my passion. Every single thing in my garden is something either I planted or something that grew wild after I created the gardens. I once had 3 big trees (an elm, a huge oak, and a hackberry) that I inherited but the developer to the south of me killed all of them. I am left with the fruits of my labors (and mother nature’s). I find many things to be sacred— gardening is one of them. I do not use pesticides and I limit fertilizing to an occasional organic-based feeding of the roses. I got turned off from mulch delivered from open piles, so I do it myself one bag at a time— this year, I bought 250-300 bags of mostly mulch and some soil. It’s a lot! The project takes about 2 months, which I do in the winter, and it connects me to the garden, what’s going on, and where I might want to nurture a change. I have no grass in the front (dug it all up myself!) and a small area in the back which serves as a swale for drainage (there is a drain in the swale that funnels water to the ditch out front). I think of it as a bee and butterfly garden, and I see them flitting around most days of the year. Other creatures like to hang out like lizards and spiders, and I encounter earth worms pretty much wherever I dig. I get surprisingly few ants but too many wasps (it’s mother nature!), but I’ve never been stung.

• Early on, I say I like to run my hands through oregano— it’s rosemary :).

• YouTube game me 15 minutes so I had to be a bit fast.

I hope you enjoy!