Glenda, Brenda & Janie, et al: Glad you took the tour. Thank you for being so kind. Come over for a stroll any time! I went out about an hour ago and pulled weeds that had taken over one of my new paths. All that nice loose, cultivated soil was a perfect bed for airborne seeds and those that had escaped from other areas via wind, water or bird droppings. There were Sunflowers, Dayflowers, Phlox, Coreopsis, various kinds of thistle type plants, & wild grasses, but most of it was Lamb's Quarters. Sheesh! They had run amok when we had all that rain. I sheared it back first with my ling handled hedge sheers so I could see there were no snakes hiding in it, and then began pulling it all out. Phew! What a job. I filled a wheel barrow full - heaping! The cats frolicked in and out, delighted with the new play area Marmie made for them. :] Earlier this morning, I wet down the lawns and the weed and feed was spread. Haven't done that in many years, but the weeds had taken over, especially the Goathead stickers, so it had to be done. It makes the prettiest clover like leaves and THEN, the dainty little yellow blooms turn into those horrible stickers! So painful. So, be gone demons! I don't have my roses all in one area, so it doesn't always show that I have as many as I actually do, but I am continuously adding more to the garden. Yes, I grow my flowers, herbs, and vegetables from seeds, starts (slips), and cuttings, including roses and shrubs. I bought this place in August 1996. It was just Bermuda grass, weeds, poison ivy and a few big elm trees and 2 ancient oak trees. There was one large clump of old-fashioned lilacs in the front yard and two small Colorado Aspens along the driveway. (the former owner was originally from Colorado). That's why I refer to this place as my "little house on the prairie", because that's what it was back then. Hot and dry and definitely NOT ME. The soil here is sandy with a dense under-layer of hard, red sandstone rock. In many places the pitiful soil was only 4 to 6 inches deep before I hit rock. What was here was struggling to survive. A few areas have red clay under the sand. The soil was so shallow that I had to use a maddox and pick-axe to chop out the rock deep enough to plant things. Not the best growing conditions. I began piling on oak leaves and manures from the neighbor's pasture to build up the soil level. Jeez! I got a wood chipper two years later, and that added a lot of chopped leaves and branches to the soil building, but I can't operate it anymore and it needs a new bag besides. I am an avid composter. I have a rabbit and that is great stuff - you can add that directly without fear of it burning. I have to compost the chicken manure for a year before it can be used. I use to hop the barbed wire fence to the neighboring pasture and collect buckets and buckets of horse and cow manure, then composted it all summer and added that in the fall. Can't hop the fence anymore. (Waaah). Then I started getting manure hay from 4-H barns and the county fair barns where they piled it outside for anyone to get. I even cleaned out someone's barn one summer for the hay manure. Never again! They hadn't cleaned it out in years. It was good stuff, but what a hot, itchy chore. And the snakes! Yikes! I also found a dandy place where a nearby city dumped all their wood chips and it was free for the taking, so I was able to go there and get loads in my little pick-up. They closed it two years later. Then I found a supply at a little garden nursery about three years ago and got one big load, but I cannot do that kind of work anymore. I did get a huge pile of wood chips from the electric co-op one year when they were out here clearing trees away from the power lines. That was great stuff too. I used it in my paths too. The next year I called and they said I had to sign up for it because there were so many people requesting it. So, I did, but it has been two years. I called them to see if they had forgotten me, but no, I was still on the list...moving up, but not to the top yet. Good grief! Two years ago I started adding peat to the soil so I could grow more varieties of plants and boy did that help. Great stuff Maynard! Now I mostly fight the weeds and grasses, but I have to continuously add to the soil as it depletes very quickly. This sandy soil leaches out fast, so I have to water every day unless it rains a lot. Even with all the rains we got this spring, I still had to go out and water. The topsoil would be dry within a few hours after the rain stopped. It has been a lot of hard work, but I love the results. ~Annie

I actually came into irises "back-side-first". It was the idea of hybridising them that turned me into an addict. We don't see them so much in gardens here in Australia, so my first experience was with one from a nursery, in bloom, in a pot. A plain blue/purple TB. I "knew" they grew in damp soil, so of course it didn't last very long, and I didn't bother trying again for some time. When a friend moved house, and was renting, she begged me to grow a few rhizomes of each of hers, so she could get them back later. I bunged them all in together, and only a blue and a white flowered. The next year I had a blue and white iris - white in the middle, blue round the edges. I figured it must be a cross between the blue and white one:-) I wondered how this happened, so I spent some time looking up iris genetics on the internet, found Iris-L - the old iris list, and got far more information than I had bargained for. I started cross pollenating with those first irises, but never followed those first clumsy crosses through to bloom, as I had by then moved on to bigger and better thing. Well smaller actually, as it was the SDB's and IB's that really captured my heart. Incidentally the irises I grew in that first batch for my friend included Helen Collingwood, Elisabeth Noble, Choir Girl, Indiglo, Eleanor's Pride and Frontier Marshall. All excellent irises and all still growing around the district where I used to live, mostly having been long seperated from their names. The local Nurseryman used to boast that he had imported them from the US, so they were very special and had 'very special' price tags to match. This when Barry Blyth of Tempo Two was importing far newer irises, and producing his own quality stock. That was only 15 years back, and I think that people here are becoming far more aware of irises these days.

I started out by helping Grampa with his garden. As I was growing up Mom had a garden as well. I helped out with that as well. Several years ago when I lived in the eastern part of the state I was working for a cattle ranch. I mentioned my love of gardening to the owner's wife. The next day I was given orders to make her the nicest garden in the county. I did just that. It took two weeks of work to the get the 1 acre fenced garden for row crops done. As well as the 12 raised beds near the house done. A landscape company did the work for installing the irrigation system with timers for everything. I planted lots of different things throughout all of the beds. Two were for peppers. One bed of sweet peppers, one bad of hot peppers. I also did 6 large planters (Half wine barrels on rollers that could be taken into the garage for cold snaps.) The large planters were planted with jalapeno, pablano, bell, gypsy, and one habanero.) The ones in planters lived for 4 years. The hab plant wound up looking like a tree. They said they had to use a t post to support it when it started setting fruit. Fast forward a couple of years to the house I moved into, and still live in. Two years ago my wife wanted a garden. Her attempts just were no working so I stepped in to help out. I then added one for myself. The next season I go to have it all for me. She just helps out with harvesting. This past season I had a way better than expected harvest of everything. Last year my heat level for growing was Mexibell, jalapeno, and pablano. I picked up a couple of super hots at grocery store that I stumbled into. They are inside now. And have pods ripening now. I was in on the holiday seed swap here. I now have a heat mat, and thermostat with 20 seeds started. As those sprout they will be taken off of the heat, and others placed there to replace them. I will continue with this as long as I have room. I am bad enough I have even given thought to renting a community garden plot from the city to have a little more space to plant some more peppers.

I also wonder about a lot of people who posted on this thread that I have not heard from in many years, but I also noticed that I never posted on this thread, and I can't imagine why. Anyway, I can try to make a list now. I'll number them, but this is just the order in which they come to my mind. 1. seafood gumbo 2. king crab legs (I don't care for lobster and much prefer crab) 3. cherimoya / guanabana (They are very similar to me.) 4. fried okra 5. fried alligator tail 6. fresh coconut or mamey ice cream (my two favorite flavors) 7. chocolate hazelnut Bavarian cream pie 8. chocolate turtles, with caramel made with cream instead of milk 9. Eggplant Parmigiana 10. dragon fruit / pitaya, especially in juice form I am also surprised at how many sweet items I named, since I do not eat many sweets, but maybe that is why they made my list. I have not eaten any of the things on my list in the past month😢, but I hope that will change soon. I don't eat candy as a rule, but it still has to make my list. As an honorable mention, I would like to add the chocolate croissants I got at a French bakery in Copacabana. I especially liked that bakery for breakfast because I could order in French instead of Portuguese.