Once, I saved dish towels and aprons in a hope chest and fantasized about my future home. Nothing fancy. Instead, it was always a cottage adorned by fragrant, climbing roses. Not very original I know . . . . How many girls who read Regency romances don't dream of a rose-covered cottage and picket fence with two cats in the yard. Books have been written, and songs composed about such. So many that some girlish fantasies come with a heady aroma tinged in rosey hue. Mine did anyway. In Oklahoma, the land of prairie and sun, this dream of mine was not very practical, and my personal exterior displays a very practical girl usually clad in blue jeans, t-shirt and tennis shoes. If you met me, you would wonder where the dreamy artist is, but my inner life is full of fanciful notions. On an ill-fated vacation in Missouri when...

If my garden could talk, she'd probably say, "Don't hate me because I'm English cottage garden style." Unlike the woman at the center of the recent outrage in the press, my lovely English cottage style garden, isn't being coy. She is always lovely, but the weather has conspired to give us great temperatures and just the right amount of rain. When I started thinking about this post, I was actually remembering an old Pantene commercial from the 1980s not recent headlines. I was out planting a few new perennials, and I thought back to a conversation I had the other day with a garden designer/friend. He's elderly and can't visit my garden. He'd asked me about it before, and since the club had some copies of Oklahoma Gardener magazine from last year that featured my garden, I showed them to him before the meeting. He gave them a passing glance...

In between rain showers and sky-pounding thunder, I went out to explore and take some photographs. There is nothing prettier than a plant with raindrops etched across its surface. While walking around, the gravel crunching under my feet, I considered what to write about this morning. I'm in the midst of my fifth year of writing Red Dirt Ramblings. Plus, I already write regularly for Fiskars, Lowe's, Oklahoma Gardener magazine and Proven Winners so there's a lot of "me" out there. I don't want to bore you. One difference between writing this blog and writing for other publications and companies is that they have specified parameters, categories and content. There are also schedules, so I may be writing about vines and tools in the middle of winter. RDR, on the other hand, is all about the "now." The present, or indeed, what's happening at any given moment. Today, the lilacs...

Helen Weis, a landscape designer who is my awesome friend, came over yesterday to bring me more Back to Nature compost. She and I exchange plants and BTN like baseball trading cards. While she was here, she took photos of my garden. Just so you know . . . she uses a Nikon COOLPIX L120 camera. We're both big fans of the Nikkor lenses. I have the Nikon D90. She sent me several photos, and said I could share them with you. It's always interesting to see your garden through another person's eyes. Because she and her daughter didn't stay very long, she only took pics of the front beds and the one next to the garage. She asked me how many bulbs I planted last year, and off the top of my head, I said 600 or so. Later, I looked back at Get Your Bulb on parts I...