Gardening

After growing up in the Midwest (Zone 5 for the initiated - just plain cold for the uninitiated) and cutting my "growing" teeth on midwestern clay, cold-wet springs, summer drought, and sub-zero winters, gardening became a passion for me in my grandmother's immense flower garden and the family vegetable garden and home orchard. The landscape of northern Illinois is varied, to say the least.

Gardening and forming a landscape in all areas is a thrilling, and sometimes humbling, experience. The home garden, filled with flowers, fruits, tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, corn, peas, snappy green beans, and all manner of root vegetables, brings to the table all the goodness of nature at its best!

And you can do this too.

I'm not one to swear off all forms of modern-age fertilizers and other helpers, but I now know that it can be done. Compost is your friend. It will break that hard clay into a friable landscaper's and gardener's friend. It will add moisture-retaining humus to that sandy soil, and help give a gravelly plot something for a plant to sink its roots into.

Now in central Florida, I've forgone the bitter, biting winters for a subtropical paradise that includes hurricanes (!), nematodes, daily afternoon deluges, sand, sand, sand, and even more sand. Oh, and did I mention sand? Landscaping and gardening in sand is a daunting task, but it can be done. And I find I REALLY DIG IT!

As a certified master gardener in Florida, I find that even those flowers, fruits, and vegetables that everyone has told me, "will not grow in Florida!," CAN be grown in the home garden and landscape successfully.

I have the proof and I'll post the pictures of my hollyhocks, delphiniums, foxgloves, and such here as they come in. I have the neighbors ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the sweet peas and zinnias. Oh yes, the obligatory citrus trees are along the back fence bordering the neighbor's bland, green landscape, but there are blackberries on another part of the fence, and grapes grow on yet another section. Figs, loquats, bananas, and pineapple join to make this an edible landscape, all on just an acre of land; and that acre includes the house, garage, and pool! You don't need oodles of space to grow your ornamental and edible landscape.

Now, join me as I help you, too, find the magic in your own backyard and turn it in to Garden Gold!