Hi everyone. According to the random number generator, Linda Belcher won the power tools. I'm excited for Linda, and I hope she enjoys her new tools. Now, I have another giveaway. So Much Sky, written my friend and former editor, Karen Weir-Jimerson, is a series of essays about living in the country, a topic near and dear to my heart. Karen is as witty and humorous in her book as she is in life, and she blogs at Cat Crossing Farm. Many of the essays were originally published in Karen's "Slow Lane" column in Country Home magazine between 2003 and 2009. She currently writes the same column for Country Gardens magazine so you may be familiar with her. The book is warm and friendly as a speckled pup, and I think you'll like it. Karen lives with her family on three acres in rural Iowa where they raise vegetables, flowers, sheep and chickens...

Caught this bumblebee taking in the sights and nectar of  Baptisia sphaerocarpa in my garden. Nature never ceases to amaze me, but instead, wows me again and again. I grow several baptisias after seeing them grown so well in Chicago when I went there for the Garden Bloggers' Fling in 2009. In my garden, it's taken three years for the false indigos to take off. I believe this is the fourth spring for this false indigo. Since then, I've added a blue one from Song Sparrow Farm and Nursery, B. Midnite Prairieblues™. It is a lovely shade of dark blue, but is taking a very long time to thrive here. I don't know why. After seeing a huge clump of 'Purple Smoke' in a friend's garden, I planted a four inch pot two years ago. It is very pretty and beginning to bloom in earnest this spring. It's really much more purple than...

Oh, how I wish you could visit this spring. We could stroll through my garden with clippers in hand, and I would cut you a bouquet. You would smell roses, peonies and iris, along with the heady, clove scent of the dianthus because I grow several kinds. Never have the roses been lovelier. Even a little blackspot can't mar the view. Because the spring temperatures have been so cooperative without too much heat, I've sprayed a bit of EcoSmart Organic fungicide I bought somewhere. It has rosemary oil as the fungicide with insecticidal soap as the sticking agent, and I'm not sure it will be effective, but I'm willing to give it a try. I could also spray some Neem oil which might help as a bit of fungicide and a natural miticide for those nasty beasties. I rarely spray because horticultural oils are generally a problem in our hot...

Of the Fiskars family of garden helpers, the PowerGear® tools are my favorites. When Fiskars gave me the opportunity to give away anything I wanted from the PowerGear® line, I chose the following: Item: 377363-1002, UltraBlade® PowerGear® Bypass Pruner; I don't have these, but I'd enjoy them. Hint, hint Fiskars! Item 7937, PowerGear® Bypass Pruner; I use a pair of these everyday; Item 9619, PowerGear® 17 Inch Bypass Loppers; okay, this is my best tool for getting into those tricky rose pruning jobs. They are just the right size, and I don't get scratched as often. For bigger jobs, I like Item 9632, the 27-inch,PowerGear® Bypass loppers; and Finally, Item 9619,PowerGear® Hedge Shears, which are new to me this year, but I use them for trimming decorative grasses and cutting back perennial herbs among other things. At retail, this prize package is worth approximately $178.00. To win these cool tools,...