I admired her very much. She was the epitome of wisdom, tolerance, acceptance, kindness. A true appreciation for all of lifes gifts, the big and the small, always came across in her words here and always filled me with a sense of serenity and certainty. I didnt know her as well or as long as most of you, but I feel privileged to have had the chance to get to know her, to have shared our moments. I was reminded today of the beautiful poem her granddaughter wrote and how it moved me and I remember how tickled she was to know that I had read her granddaughter's poem and enjoyed it so much. Her pride and love for her family was always evident. Whenever I think of her, I see that picture of her lounging on her purple chair, a noble, serene, peace-filled, wise smile on her face...I will always think of her that way.... I too wish we could all be together right now... And Marian...Taryn & T are right...please don't feel bad. Your heart is filled with love as are your actions...we know that. Hugs Marian. I'm so glad that you have that picture to remember her...it was a beautiful picture. Hugs to all... Ei

Mary and Brandon, I have to agree with both of you. Mary, I can understand your love of gardening, and don't want to take the love out of it to make it science. I am a gardener too, but I used to be a scientist, but then I guess there's never a "used to be" - I always will be a scientist whether or not that's what I do for a living. When I was working at it I was a botanist and worked in several different labs, both at universities for scientists on faculty and at medical centers for doctors/medical school professors. I used to be the one doing those studies, and like Brandon, I firmly believe in them. The journals where my work was published are very careful and have other scientists review the papers before they are accepted for publication. I remember one time when I observed something and repeated the experiment over and over always with the same result- like you said, Mary, - seeing is believing. I spent mind-boggling hours and hours, days and days, on the microscope counting and measuring to get sufficient numbers to be able to run statistics on. We called in the professor who taught the university Biometry course (biometry = the science of using statistics in life sciences). She worked on the numbers for a couple of weeks then told us she couldn't back up our findings. There was some missing data we had no way of obtaining. We were so disappointed, and that study was never published. I suppose we could have bent the rules as Mary said she observed, but we were ethical and just kept of working trying to fill in the blanks so we could eventually report our findings. Yes, there are disreputable people who publish studies that are questionable. Some have actually "padded their data" and reported findings that were false. Some of those people have been caught too and have lost their jobs and reputations! I still believe what I observed is true, but nobody in the scientific community will ever hear about it because my boss and I had more integrity than the people Mary described. A few posts back I mentioned a guy in Memphis who did an experiment with coffee grounds in his garden. If I had said he did a study that included statistics, Mary, would you have believed what he observed? Scientists actually DO garden and get dirt under their nails and mud on their gloves.Alan Armitage and Michael Dirr (you are probably familiar with those names) established studies at the University of Georgia on garden plants. Those studies find varieties that are best suited for our Southeastern US hot, humid, climate. Please check the link below that describes that they started and how it effects our gardening. You have to believe those "studies". Your gardens probably include some of those plants Drs. Armitage and Dirr found to be ideal for us to grow. I know I check the The Gardens at UGA to learn about new plants that can be counted on to grow well for me because they're suited for out climate and the UGA studies prove it. Looking at the results of those studies saves me a lot of money and time too. Time I can be enjoying my garden instead of worrying about this and that plant that I never should have planted in the first place. I hope to still be digging in the dirt when I'm in my 80's and 90's. Maybe by then some scientist will have come up with a foolproof way to eradicate slugs from our gardens.

How nice of you all to comment on my bed after all this time! I am actually in the process of redoing it. As I am sure you all know.......fighting weeds is a full time job. This is a square bed that is in back of my horse barn - one side backs up against the barn, and you can barely see the boards for the horse pen at the back - one side faces the concrete area back of barn and the fourth side is edged in big rocks. I am keeping the same look, but tired of fighting weeds behind the birdbath, so am edging all that with metal edging and am edging it with giant lirope then putting in river rock in the middle. Am enclosing the front of the bed, that has the flowers, in the metal edging and the flowering look will remain pretty much the same. I have alot of areas to garden in, and have had alot more responsibilities the last several years - aging parent who broke a hip a year ago and who passed away in May, grandchildren, and dealing with 2 other homes [one which will close soon], and all my horses, dogs/cats and chickens, and have found it harder to keep up with the weeding. So......to maintain the neat look I desire - figured the smart thing to do was not try to do the huge beds I had been keeping up with - landscape with easier "fixes" like greenery, rocks, while still maintaining the look I love. Since that photo in 2018 I had alot of work done around the place including my 70th birthday gift to myself - a garden cottage. I just adore it, and am having so much fun with it. I have a raised bed and other narrow beds and the cottage is surrounded by small river rock which is super easy to keep - very, very few weeds pop up. Always looks neat because I dont have large expanses of flower beds. Dont have any photos of it right now, but am decorating it for fall and will post some, as well as of the other bed when I get it completed. Thank you for asking about it! Judith

June was hot and dry but July gave us a lot of rain (and hail). The roses did great though! The calendula looks great. In the background is a wildflower I have been trying to identify. I think it is a type of sunflower and there are fields of it right now. I think it is causing my allergy problems. One of my favorites called red birds in a tree: Cosmos under the cabbage leaves: And this area has agastache, May knight sage and catmint(among others).