Hi y'all! I'm a few days late, but I am keeping to my promise to blog once a week. It's funny how I started this blog to sell books (which I still hope to do), but I find the evolution of my newest blogging plan from my journey as a writer to all the other things I've discussed as refreshing. This week I'm going to share my thoughts on "art".
So many people consider art to be painting, drawing, and sculpting...some may consider writing an art, but what about architecture? What about development planners (business, housing, society)? And what about my thoughts for today...gardeners? Gardeners are most certainly artists. We start with a blank pallet or an over-whelming picture of too many colors and shapes that make no sense.
When I first moved to my home (19 years ago) I made sure to keep the small wooded area behind the lawn in tact. HOWEVER, it was overgrown with vines and saplings and other growth. But I had a vision (one my husband could not see, but let me go about my business). I spent a few months clearing out the undergrowth with my lawnmower. FYI, lawnmower blades are powerful, but when they meet large stones and stumps and small trees they get very, VERY dull. I hope you have someone or the knowledge to replace the blade or sharpen it (my husband likes to use his Dremel on the blade). Anyway, after I had mowed down the growth, I had to kill off the poison ivy and poison oak, which had quite a foothold. A wonderful weed killer called "Brush Be Gone" (which you cannot buy anymore) took out those hard to kill vines and left me with a clear area full of cedar trees--lovely (or was it?)
With inspiration from a local arboretum, I decided to use the fallen trees we had cut up as path boarders, and put down weed barrier and pea gravel. Another helpful hint--don't use pea gravel on a path that get lots of water run off. Use a larger stone (which I realized after my pea gravel washed down into my neighbor's yard) which will hold up to erosion caused by rain. The pathway was and is beautiful, but I soon realized that the empty space had to be filled. If I had just left some of the native plants I wouldn't have had to buy things to fill it...but I did, most of which died due to the cedar trees sucking up all the water. Now the empty areas are filled with planters and columbine and periwinkle and a few native bushes that managed to replant. After 19 years it is lovely to enjoy as an outdoor room.
This week has been LOVELY weather, so instead of writing the blog, I chose to get out and do some digging to prepare the vegetable gardens. Yesterday I hand tilled the soil waiting for pea seeds (covered with metal mesh to keep the rascally squirrels from digging them up), and the larger lower garden area that will host beans and cucumbers and zucchinis this year. Thankfully I have a massive dandelion patch in the middle of the pea/tomato garden area which will serve as a walking path...and since bees love dandelions it will help with pollination. I look at my gardens and see art. The plans for architecture on which the vining plants will grow; the tomato area; the beans; and a future plan for large vining plants like watermellon and squash at the very bottom of the gardens where grass currently grows. 
Of course my many flower gardens are art, and this year I filled them with fairies that I painted twoweeks ago. As we've heard "art is in the eye of the beholder". Well, I think gardening is most definitely an art and to all my writer friends and other indoor professionals when you get out in the garden let it be your art...let it ignite your imagination and try different ideas. A garden is an empty pallet waiting to be painted and sculpted and written into existence. I think I do most of my imagining for my stories in the garden. And I hope this blog encourages you to enjoy the time you have, even if it's just pots with plants or rock gardens...let your imagination run wild and have fun with it all.
And while I know it's bad form to try and sell books all the time in blogs, it is my art. Writing pictures with words is my vocation, and I love it. I love sharing it. I love the world and characters that I have created and I hope you might want to purchase a copy and jump into the world I created. Have a blessed day and remember to always be the RESISITANCE to just existing...go out and LIVE!
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