I love green….luscious growing green things.  The green things with flowers are an extra bonus!  For many years we lived in the Southern California Mojave Desert.  If you’re familiar with this area you know it is very difficult to grow much and even harder to keep anything alive as the temperature climbs to as high as 118 degrees in the summer.  At that temperature you’re trying to keep yourself and your loved ones alive!  I can remember my husband Mike attempting to dig a hole with a pickax and sparks actually flying as the ground was so hard.  We always tended to vacation to an area that was “green” and suffered from what we referred to as “green withdrawals” when we returned home.  In all honesty the desert has a beauty of its own…the night sky has more stars than you can imagine and the sunsets are breathtakingly beautiful.

When we chose our new home on the Olympic Peninsula Mike and I were so excited to have our very own one acre filled with green grass & shrubs, trees and flowers.   We have since learned just how much work all of that green can be.  Someday it will be too much for us but we’re not at that point yet!  We continue to work on ways to reduce the amount of maintenance that is required.

Every year I look forward to July and the first dahlia blossoms. read more….

Working in the garden is healing to the mind and soul!

I am 60 years old and I have never had a vegetable garden, until now.   When I was a child my grandparents always had a large garden. My sisters and I were sometimes allowed to pick out our very own little watermelon. We loved that. I can remember eating watermelon and having the juice run down our arms and drip off our elbows!

Our mom worked most of the time as we were growing up so vegetable gardening was not something she felt she had time to do. So I didn’t grow up accustomed to having one, or learning how to garden. Now more and more I want to eat and live more naturally and healthy so a veggie garden was on my agenda. read more….