Always something to look at.

See ya next year

Tulips are one of the first signs of spring, but they bloom for only a couple of weeks. Then they are gone.

Something new to see everyday.

I garden for a half an hour or so every day when I get home from work. Usually it's just pulling weeds and thinking about what we can add or move next. I carry my pocket camera around with me in one pocket. I got a weed puller and a shovel in the other. There's something new to see every day. The myrtle's in full bloom. The quince is starting to bloom. The ferns are unrolling and some of the hosta are unfurling. There's still more mud around than green stuff, but every day it gets greener.

My annual turf grass rant

I am not a fan of turf grass. Pat and I have worked very hard at ridding the back yard of most of it. The front yard continues to stymie us. It may be that we don't have a plan. And as anybody who's a fan of Fred Thompson (as an actor only) knows, "the Russians (substitute gardener) don't take a dump (substitute tear up the yard) without a plan." Maybe we don't have a vision. Pat and I sit on the terrace and wonder what we're going to do. The conversation normally involves a list of plants that'll grow in the front yard. Last weekend we went to a seminar telling us that we need to control the gardener in us and become a designer for a couple of minutes. So the quest continues.

Until we can figure out what to do, we're going to have the best looking turf grass around. I mean look how green and flat it looks.

Random flowers and plants from the last few days

Pat and I have the coolest tulips in the neighborhood. Thanks Katie and Sean.

Wilmot Nature Center

Pat and I found out about the Wilmot Nature center from some people we met at a gardening seminar at the library. The nature center is about an hour and a half southeast of us. I don't know if the locals think of this area as southern Ohio, but I do. I mean we drove for miles and miles and never saw a curb or a sidewalk. Cows, sheeps and horsies outnumbered the houses. If it's not southern Ohio, its gotta be considered down state.

The reason we ventured into the hinterland was for a native plant sale and some seminars. The seminars were wonderful. One was about butterflies and how to attract them. The other was obout thinking like a landscape designer. It was conducted by a professor from the OSU ag campus on Wooster. Boy did she have us gardeners pegged. I thought she was talking to me. We got a bunch of good ideas from both seminars. Pat and I kept our plant purchasing under control. We got a bunch of plants whose names I don't remember, but I know where to plant them. What a great day.

This place has ongoing programs for both Boy and Girl Scouts. The path in the picture seems to be a neverending source of Eagle projects. Six different scouts extended the path for their projects.

If there is an historical angle anywhere near our little trips I seem to find it. On our way home I spotted a classic Civil War memorial. Boy was I suprised when I read the plaque and lo and behold, I knew about the incident. I never knew the characters, but I knew about the "General".