One of our sets of bookshelves. I think we have seven altogether. Before I wrote for magazines, I wrote novels, and nope, you can't buy one. They didn't sell. I have the prerequisite three bad books in my desk drawer. Perhaps, one day, I'll write another once the publishing industry calms down, but maybe not. I like writing online for Fiskars and Lowe's and for magazines like Oklahoma Gardener, and I'm grateful I have a steady paycheck. (Thanks Patsy Bell for your words of encouragement years ago). Still, what I learned in the School of Journalism at Oklahoma University, holds true no matter whom I write for, nor the subject. As I worked today on a complicated garden article on color, several writing tips came to mind, and I thought I'd share them with you. Gardeners and gluten free eaters, if you're bored, please come back later, and I'll have...

Sugar Snaps and Strawberries is the cutest title I've seen for a gardening book in a long time. It bucks a marketing idea which floats regularly around the web:  you must always mention your brand everywhere, in your book title, in every conversation, etc. Although a good concept, such repetition can also be boring. I'm glad Adrea Bellamy bucked the trend. You go girl. Andrea covers the basics in her first effort, and it is a good read for those just getting into gardening. I think I'll pass my copy on to my NGBF Aimee because she says she's going to garden this spring. She's all fired up about it in fact. She'll need a good book to help her. I also dig the rock n roll vibe Andrea creates with her talk of guerilla gardening, but what else would you expect of someone who named her blog, Heavy Petal? ...

July was all about food and travel. I made a divine fresh cherry pie from my tart 'Montmorency' cherry tree.  Stephen and Laurie from my daylily club finally convinced me to attend my first daylily regional. If you've ever wanted to see what happens when people are passionate (obsessed) about a flower, join a club and get yourself to a regional or national tour. I came home with lots of flowers, design ideas and plans for more even daylilies. Wherever will I put them? On to Buffalo where I got to see the most beautiful and creative, small, urban gardens and Niagara Falls. What a fair city, my friend Elizabeth from Gardening While Intoxicated and Garden Rant lives in. She and Jim from Art of Gardening worked very hard to make sure all of the bloggers had a wonderful time, and we did. Did you hear? This summer we're going...

It's been a year of changes at the Red Dirt Ranch. I am calling it a ranch these days because we have twenty-eight chickens, a bunny, three dogs and five cats (three in the garage and two in he house). We also sport field fencing and split rail, so it's a very small ranch. In the past, I've had horses and goats. My dream was once for a Jersey cow, but since I can't eat dairy, that's one dream which needs to blow blissfully away. Last year, for Christmas we had the blizzard everyone else in the country seems to be having this year. People still talk about those fourteen inches of the white stuff with a kind of awe. It is Oklahoma after all. January was much more quiet. I answered gardening questions from a reader moving to Oklahoma. To keep busy while it was cold, I forced bulbs,...