SPRING, and Yes we emptied the Compost Bin

Spring is nature's way of saying

"Lets Party!"

...Robin Williams

My whole life had been spent waiting for an epiphany,

a manifestation of God's presence, the kind of transcendent, magical

experience that lets you see your place in the big picture, and that is what

I had with my first compost heap.

.......Bette Midler

IT'S JUST SO WRONG !

IN THE GARDEN ('S)

This is week 4 of the Farm Girl Blog A Thon and I can actually do this one easily- unlike last week's. I really do have 3 gardens.

Garden where I live spring and fall. I have about 600 tulips for spring and I plant marigolds and blooming flowers that I can enjoy late summer and fall. The rest of the time the neighbors have to look at 50 rose bushes develop rose hips because nobody is deadheading them.

My Summer Garden at 8900 feet in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Gardening at that altitude is a whole different ball game. Took me about 6 years to decide that the garden was going to only do what IT wanted to.

I also have a 10x10 garden in our little tourist town that I volunteer to plant and care for. They are spaced 4 to a block, both sides of the street on the little main street of our town. We provide plants, water and care for them. I love working on it during the tourist season because the nicest people stop and talk to me.

I just threw this one in so you'll know I'm not a wanna-be Farm Girl-- Several years I helped my Dad get the peach crop off in September. I miss him.

To share with other Farm Girls and learn the Farm Girl way of life visit:
http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

Why would a sane lady (o.k. the vote is still out on that one) tear out a fairly low maintenance yard 18 years ago and plant an extremely high maintenance one. One reason is that it was really good Therapy. Not cheaper than therapy considering the money we have spent on plants and everything that goes with them but alot more fun. My husband came home from work one summer day in 1990 and discovered I had taken a chain saw to the shrubs in the back yard. I did enough damage that we could only go forward. Re-did the entire N.E.S.W. of the yard and loved it. It gave me joy and good times to say nothing of aches and pains for several years. I don't think I once gave a thought to the fact that I was getting older each year and this was just going to get harder. For the past 4 years I have been trying to get it back to a managable amount of work. I have 500 bulbs for the spring and I plant things that will bloom in the fall-- because did I mention that we don't live here in the summer. Go figure. Can you tell I spent the entire day in the yard and I'm now looking for the industrial strength Ibuprofen.

WAR OF THE ROSES

BEFORE

When I became interested in Gardening- O.K. obsessed might be a better word-
I read many articles and books about pruning rose bushes. I have about 40 in my yard and wanted to become an "expert" on the pruning thereof.

I used to practically take a sextant and compass into the garden with me and I would study each cane and precisely cut each one a certain way. It would take me days to do just the rose bushes in my spring clean-up. Low and behold people would see me taking such care and ask my advise, which I would freely give them--mistakenly thinking I actually knew something.

One year about 18 years ago I offered to prune my mothers rose bushes because my Daddy had pruned them in the past and just wacked them off all the same height and in my wisdom I thought they deserved the same care that I was giving mine. Mind you I was questioning my wonderful Dad who came from 6 generations of farmers and had pruned his 55 acre farm by himself most of his life.

He generously turned the job over to me (he was so busy he was probably glad I offered). Fast forward to a couple of years after Dad passed away. I was in a hurry and didn't have much time and decided to give Dad's approach a try.

Worked great, roses never looked better and I could accomplish in 1/2 day what had taken me several days in the past. Sorry Dad for questioning you. Should have taken your advise from the beginning----once again. The rose bushes on this post belong to mother-in-law's yard that we did last week.

AFTER

BETTE-- MY LONG LOST SISTER

This is the reason we left California early.

Good Hubby bought us tickets to the Bette Midler show in Las Vegas.

I know we were sisters in a past life.

She does not share well though---she got all the talent and can sing on

key and I was ask NOT to sing in a church choir and have "O" talent.

But we both have a love of Gardening and New York City.

"In 1994 I returned to New York to live and found a city under a pile of garbage. Her parks were abandoned, her highways filthy. I can only describe my feeling with a word that hasn't been used since the turn of the century: I swooned. When I came to I realized something had to be done and I founded the New York Restoration Project. Now I always say, "Get the trash off the streets and back on the stage where it belongs!" So we began by cleaning up.

Well, that was 12 years ago, and since then we've moved over 800 tons of garbage from the city's most neglected sites. Imagine, we've handled more trash than a security guard on the Jerry Springer Show! Presently, besides maintaining six parks and countless public spaces, NYRP owns and manages 60 community gardens throughout the five boroughs of New York City, each with its own personality, reflecting the traditions and flavor of the community in which it's located. This year, we began our newest, tallest order, planting one milliion trees in the asphalt jungle. All contributions are welcome. www.nyrp.com." Bette Midler

When we win the Lottery-- Bette and her gardens will get a bundle