The garden is the poor man's apothecary. ~German Proverb

The Garden Layout
I tend to go way overboard with everything I do. So of course my first garden is about a ½ acre long and 6 ft deep. I’m not a patient person. I want the entire Garden done the way I want it and I want it done yesterday.
So Michael has been more than tolerant and supportive. He let me tear out his beautiful Grass with a Sod Cutter. Well I guess I shouldn’t say me. He tore out the grass with a manual sod cutter... for me. Then we sodded some of our splochy spots. Then I started to till the ground…. Tilling sux. So my neighbor let Michael use his tiller. So he tilled the ground for me…. sound like I have been doing a Lot of work doesn’t it?? 20 man hours later we are left with this. A pile of dirt!


















I just had to add how Teton feels about the mud hole. She just rolls in it.















These are my Peonies. They are absolutly huge. They are the size of my head and they smell like roses.

One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. ~W.E. Johns, The Passing Show

I seeded on the evening of 5.5.08
I ran out and seeded the moment I got home. It only took me about 30 minutes to put all the money I shouldn’t have spent on seeds, in the ground. All that money is just sitting in dirt, waiting. And then it rained for two days straight. That sounds like a good thing but It’s not. My seeds are swimming in water. They could be rotting away. It’s humid, hot and rainy. You would think this the ideal for germination… but I find myself stressing about these stupid seeds sitting in the dirt. These pictures inculed are simply informative. I'm sure you don't speek the crazy garden language yet. Now keep in mind that these are of flowers that have been around for at least 3 years. It takes years to get most flowers to bloom this well.

Seeded :

Zinnias

Moonflower

Lilly

Cannas

African daisy’s

Asstible

Hydrangea

Sun Flowers

Holly Hocks

Sweet pea

Watermelon, Cucumber, Tomato , Green Pepper, Red Pepper, Pepperchiny’s, Squash, Lettucel, Pumpkins an many more flowers.

Arlene and Roses

"By the time one is eighty, it is said, there is no longer a tug of war in the garden with the May flowers hauling like mad against the claims of the other months. All is at last in balance and all is serene. The gardener is usually dead, of course." ~Henry Mitchell, The Essential Earthman, 1981

I’ve always been a little to interest in flowers. When I was a little girl my grandma would let me help her water the roses.Of corse I always over watered them. She had at least 30 rose bushes.

Then after a long day of gardening on the ranch she would let me sleep in the princess bed. Each morning she would bring me a freshly cut rose in a tiny rose bud vase and put it by the bed while I slept. There is nothing better than waking up to the smell of roses.

I love my grandma … I guess gardening is a peace of her… and I want it to be a peace of me. Her name is Arlene. I have been begging Michael for years to let us name our first girl after her… but her name Arlene is not the most modern… or cute. But when I here her name I think of an absolute saint and the smell of roses in the morning. And I hope my daughter is just like her some day.