And so it begins...

I want to tell you a story...

Once upon a time there was a girl who had a lovely smallish-sort of garden nestled around a cottage on a quaint little street. For hours each day, she poured her heart and soul into the smallish garden and beautiful things would appear. She was an artist and the beds were her canvas. She used a trowel like a painter uses a brush. Instead of paint she used seeds, tender starts and soil. The little garden was a place of solace in troubled times and a space filled with laughter and joy when nothing much needed celebrating. Roses climbed the walls and filled the air with perfume. Pots spilled over with geraniums. It was filled with the color of sunshine in the spring. Ripples of rainbows washed over it in summer. And in the autumn it used every last bit of energy it had to burst forth in crimsons, golds and rust.  Finally when winter came, it would rest covered in a blanket of snow. It was a little piece of heaven on earth.  One day the girl went away on an adventure. The garden had a new caretaker. The flowers still bloomed, the roses climbed. And always there was a smallish part of the girl blooming in the little garden.

Gardening, planting, creating is all a part of me. Somewhere over the years it became a force that defined me. I could fill my soul while on my hands and knees in the dirt. It was a time I could talk with my maker and hear him communicate through my surroundings. It is who I am. When I left my garden and moved to the city, I told myself I could take a break. I thought how wonderful it would be to spend a summer with fingernails not full of soil. I imagined how much more time I would have to read good books, go swimming, play at the park. And just think of the money I would save by not buying beautiful, glorious, delicious plants. It didn't work. I can't shut that girl away. She is in there waiting for the chance to get her hands dirty. 

This is my solution. This blog is going to be my soil. I am thinking about plants, gardening, designing, arranging all the time, so I am going to plant my ideas, thought, tips, whatever here. Hopefully it will appease the garden-girl in me enough to get me through a summer without a yard. I hope that something I say will help you try something new in your yard or gain the confidence to tackle a project or just keep your tomatoes from having blossom-end rot. 

I don't know about you but I am itching to get my hands dirty and start planting.

Ciao!