With winter creeping this way, have you considered why you garden?  Winter is a time of rest, renewal and review.  Why do we shovel load after load of manure and leaf mold?  Why do we keep trying to grow a particular plant even when it would be much easier to throw in the trowel?  After all, much of the world's population never even sticks its hands into the local dirt, while others garden no matter where they live.  Think of balcony container gardens, green walls and green roofs.  Even city life can't keep true gardeners down. While you're thinking on this, my friend, Mary Ann of Idaho Gardener fame, is holding a little contest over at her place on why you garden.  She assures me the prizes are splendid, so why not join in the fun? Why do I garden? The question brings a smile to my face.  You might...

Compost piles, the backbone of all good gardens. Compost that is.  What did you think I was talking about?  At my suggestion in a recent comment, Carol at  May Dreams Gardens asked if we would show our compost bins. I've shown RDR's dirty underbelly before, and I'll be glad to do it again if only to impress upon everyone that compost is the most important, basic structure to good soil. If your native soil looks something like mine above, you need compost and lots of it.  Compost is easy to make.  You can work very, very hard at it if you want, or you can take the laissez-faire approach.  I do a bit of both, but first, let's talk about why that nasty red clay and sandstone needs compost.  It's as simple as nature.  In forests, leaves fall to the ground and decay bringing nutrients to the forest's understory, the...

In my garden, it feels like June.  Today's high temperature was 78F.  All the doors are open to the warm breeze.  You would think it was spring, except that the trees have lost their leaves, and the spiders and other insects are slowing down like time worn clocks.  The sun goes down earlier, and that's when you feel the slight chill of winter's embrace. The roses are beautiful, blooming in twos and threes, but the plants, except for the Knockouts, are unsightly and leggy with ink spotted leaves. The spiders are still doing their thing though, just a bit more slowly.  The cooler nighttime temperatures make them slow enough for even me to photograph.  This one was leisurely doing her thing today.  At least, I think she is a "she." The lake is beautiful and calm, but storm clouds approach letting us know Mother Nature is still in control no...