| kTalia wants you to know: |
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"We had several homes in the Pacific Northwest as I was growing up and what I remember most distinctly about them all is the large trees (or forests), blankets of Ivy’s, the most beautiful Lilacs, Rhododendrons and Azaleas. Around all of that were countless varieties of the most beautiful flowers in all colors. I know as children we were often in the garden with my mother getting our little fingers dirty. As an adult, there is very little I could tell you about how to grow flowers and plant seeds despite my love of my mothers beautiful gardens as a child. Somehow along the way the “how” was either not imparted or forgotten.
As an adult, once I had my own residence, I often longed and attempted to recreate that type of beauty. First around my apartment balconies in pots, which I was never able to keep alive for more than a few weeks. Then in my first town home in the small plot of soil around our patio. I had mixed success, but we didn’t live there long enough to really see any of the plants mature. And finally in my own home, with it’s own yard but sadly covered completely in grass and rock. I wisely chose to find a small area in the front of the house to embrace and make my own. That was five years ago, and I still fight with that first little bed, never really liking it.
This spring I have finally managed, after five years, to reduce the rock on my property to a few small decorative beds mostly around shrubs and Daylily’s or in areas needed for property drainage. I’ve finished putting in patios, arbors, walls, walks, raised beds, trees, shrubs and a play structure for my three boys. Most of this I’ve done with my own hands (and my poor husbands), through pregnancies and nursing, and all of which I’ve designed on my own. Finally this year I get to really see if all this hard work and waiting will pay off. Although through the process I’ve had the pleasure of putting in a few annuals and perennials, this will really be the first year that I can really start to make my “secret garden” become a reality and hopefully start enjoying the fruits of my labor.
In closing I would just like to say thank you and give a very big hug to all the Dave’s Garden members who don’t even know how much they’ve helped inspire and educate me over the past two years before I set out on this last portion of my journey. I thank my dear mother for her inspiration, if not her knowledge, of gardening as a child and my husband for his support and encouragement. I have every confidence now, after the hours I’ve spent reading and researching here, that while I may still make some bad decisions, I believe my garden is going to be a place I will love and grow with. I hope that someday in the near future it will rival even the beautiful gardens that I remember from my homes growing up as a child. Oh, and I have been very carefully involving my boys in every seed, seedling, flower and bug as I go. : ) " |
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"Me with my wonderful family. I tried to find something more casual, but apparently I'm always the one behind the camera." |
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| kTalia signed up on Sep 25, 2007 |
