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I have been gardening since we bought our house in 1972.
Started with a few flowers and a small garden. All of which grew and I became very enthusiastic immediately! I love being outside and I love gardening b/c justifies being outside most of the time! Altho that doesn't seem to include mowing the grass and we rake our leaves with the lawn mower and dump them on the garden, behind bushes, etc.

At the height of my "Truck Garden" days I had a fairly large garden behind the house and another one on a lot we bought nearby. Enjoyed the fruits of my labor and did a Lot of Canning also. I grew 99% annuals; starting most 'in situ' and starting some in front of the patio doors in the basement.

Since I was able to stay at home with my children, I had very little money to spend on perennials. And since most of what I bought died, I didn't buy many. Never really looked into why. I saved all the yard and garden and kitchen waste and put it back on the garden trying to improve the hard clay soil. Decided that the clay wasn't so bad after all since it held moisture which friends had a problem with their loose black soil in other parts of town. in recent times I've added a lot of peat and compost and terraced it using cement blocks.

When divorced in 1982, my life changed dramatically. I went to work full time and also to college. Pretty much quit gardening and did a minimal amount -- tomatoes and a few flowers, mostly what I bought.

In 1997 I was 'between jobs' and very tired of all the office work I had been doing. One fine spring day I stopped by a local garden center and it occurred to me that I might like to work there! Filled out an application and started a few days later. I loved it and was fascinated by the wonderful selection of perennials!! I began dragging one home every few days! I simply dug holes and plopped them in. After a couple years of amending my soil by the "gallon," I have been trying to dig in as much compost and sand as I could between what has managed to survive in the 'virgin' clay soil. Recently, I've dug some new beds and am tryhing to do them properly by digging down a couple feet and amending my heavy clay soil with bales of peat and compost.

I have no real goals exactly. Just buy a sample of everything, mostly fairly common things. I mostly buy things on clearance. For example, last year I bought a dozen hardy hibiscus (Disco Belle mostly) and planted them along the back of the lot along a weedy/grassy creekbank. They are gorgeous in the fall. A couple years ago I discovered Lowe's and Wal-Mart guarantee all their perennials for a year so I haver been buying more gallon size plants.

I have been trying to grow perennials from seed. I've set up steel shelves with shop lights in the basement. In the past I've a lot of my seedlings to fungus gnats. This year I am running a fan and watering with a little BT added. Hope it works.

I took the Master Gardner training in 1978 but feel so dumb compared to all the others. For several years I did all the planting around a local nursing home. I enjoy doing it b/c the residents and their families enjoy the flowers. It is so sad to see it close fall of 2004.

In June, 2003, we bought a 100 gal pond kit with watercourse and have become addicted. Last year we added another prefab pond and watercourse between the 2 and using a Fido Fence around the lower one to keep out the coons. We did lose a couple last summer - think it was an owl who got our largest fantail. We have been wintering our fish indoors and this winter we left a few outside with the pump running.