The Beginning

I am new to this whole blog thing...but I thought it would be fun to share my trials and tribulations of being a Southern Gardener. My love....well its more like an obsession with growing things began about 2 years ago. My mother and grandmother's always gardened. I however didn't care much for it until recently. My mother had the most beautiful yard, and was always out working in it. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer my senior year of college. She often will tell people that digging in the dirt kept her mind off of the cancer. She was always out in the yard, no matter what. As I have gotten older I understand. Digging in the dirt helps ease ones mind. I got married 3-1/2 years ago and we bought our first home. The yard was not much to look at, but it had good bones and hidden treasures. Now my next door neighbor's yard is unreal. I have had to learn that they are retired, and have time to keep it looking the way it does. They used to live in my house some 15+ years ago. I would come home everyday and look at their yard, and then look at mine and think how pathetic mine looked. So I decided to do something about it. Now let me be the first to tell you...I did not know a THING about gardening. I didn't know what an annual or perennial was. Didn't know a zinnia from a lily....it was really sad. So I enlisted the help of my mom. We soon noticed massive amounts of daylilies and amaryllis in my beds. I discovered that these were left by my neighbors when they moved next door. So that was my first gardening task....dividing bulbs and planting them. Two years later....I am addicted to gardening. I have found that finding flowers at old homesteads is my favorite. I have found so many different flowers at some of our hunting camps, and various other places. Those being crinum lilies, daffodils ( 6 or 7 different types), irises, amaryllis, crysanthemums, dwarf wild irises, and some that I am probably forgetting. I am a cheap gardener...I don't like to spend money. I love to share plants with other people as well as receive them. I prefer to root something or grow it from seed. I don't care much for annuals. If I am going to have them, I will grow them from seed. I don't like to pay for a plant that is only going to bloom and few months and die. I love junk....one mans junk is another mans treasure. I will take anything and make it into something to put into my yard. Gardening in South Alabama has not yet started for me....it is 50 degrees here today. I have a few more weeks left before I can actually start getting things going in the yard. I have tons of seeds that I am going to be growing. I do however have several daffodils and irises that need to put in the ground now. I will work on that this weekend.