06/05/2008 - 2:17 p.m. EST
-- by Lise Cutshaw
It's summer and gardening fanatics have dirty fingernails. Mine, I am proud to say, won't come truly clean again until October.
Please don't imagine that I think I'm a master gardener, but I do love playing in the dirt.
I
love mixing humus, top soil, peat moss and maybe a little sand or
changing my soil mixes to suit the plants and location. I love putting
the layer of mowed leaves on the beds in fall and in spring, seeing
that the leaves have broken down and become a dark, loamy humus.
I
am compelled to spend money, not on shoes, but on plants. Perennials
that return each year and blooming annuals that fill in the fallow
times with color -- after the fear of frost is gone.
Last year, I
didn't plant much because I put my house on the market and I didn't
want to fill up the garden with flowers I would have to leave.
This year, since my house has STILL not sold, I am planting not lavishly, but pretty steadily.
Ecclesiastes
says there's a t... [Read More]