The butterfly bushes have been magnificent this summer, and the butterflies agree wholeheartedly.

I'm having an Andy Rooney moment ... Have you ever wondered why it sometimes takes 1,000 seeds to get one plant to grow?

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]