Dear Carol, Mary Ann and all of our other gardening friends, This morning, after breakfast, I walked six times around our property (five acres of it) which took approximately thirty minutes. What does that have to do with gardening? Just this . . . as I walked out my back door, the crunch of the river rock met my ears, and my nose was enticed by . . . the essence of cloves from the Dianthus, the intense perfume of the Phlox paniculata, and an intoxicating tea scent from the shrub roses.  My fingers itched to play, but my feet told me to get walking, so I did.  I am gaining weight, and it's probably because I have no vegetables to eat. About the produce, what can I say?  If this summer were my first to grow vegetables, I would throw up my hands and quit.  Out of the thirteen...

'Persian Carpet' Zinnias Because we've had so much rain in the last three days (two inches) and such fine weather, today was a big-time work day in the red dirt.  The photo, above, is from some Zinnia haageana seed I received from Botanical Interests. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed these little zinnias.  Each plant is a bit different, with some blooms yellow and others like the red ones above.  I'll be buying them again next year. Willowleaf aster The Aster praealtus, willowleaf aster, was taking over a small triangular bed and shutting out the Salvia greggii, autumn sage, and choking out the daylilies planted nearby.  When I removed it, I discovered why.  It has an underground runner root system.  Still, I love the look of its airy foliage so I moved it to the meadow garden where it can reach its full potential.  I replaced it with...

Dear Carol, Mary Ann and our other wonderful friends, Sorry about missing last week.  My hands were full of maternal and daughterly duties. This summer has been hard on vegetable plants.  While the annual and perennial flowers either bloomed with abandon or hunkered down in the over 100F heat, the veggies were stifled.  Our high summer temperatures don't normally start until the end of July, but this year, the sun decided to spread its warmth a bit earlier.  June is usually a month of moderate rainfall (for Oklahoma) and temperatures in the 80s and 90s, but you know the story from my earlier letters. I'm frustrated with tomato plants that bloom and then drop their withered blossoms as though they're embarrassed.  I have beautiful plants, but very few tomatoes.  I did eat two 'Pink Brandywine' and several handfuls of 'Sungold', but that's it.  Cucumbers are the same way, along with...

Books have always been my salvation. So much so that when I learned to read in the first grade, I felt an empathy . . . no, more than that, a oneness with Helen Keller when she finally linked words to the pictures in her mind. That moment when Anne Sullivan pumped cool, clear water over Keller's fingertips and pressed the letters for water over and over into her hand, I held my breath. I, for the first time, felt the tug of the storyteller upon my soul, and I never looked back.  I was seven years old. I read that biography over and over until its spine broke, and Keller and Sullivan became my role models.  The first, for her tenacity to understand the human language, then read (in Braille) and finally speak (all without the ability to see or hear).  With Sullivan's help, Keller graduated from college and...