If New Mexico is the "Land of Enchantment," then, today, my garden became  the "Land of Surprises." This is what greeted me this afternoon after a long morning's work clearing out the winter weeds in the vegetable garden.  It was so cheerful, so bright that I nearly plunked myself down in the grass to observe it all day. Purple so dark that this sweet, little crocus was named 'Negro Boy' a very long time ago (1910).  Despite the rather demeaning name, this beauty is still worthy of planting.   I got my bulbs at Old House Gardens.  They were pricey, but now that they've bloomed, they are priceless, and I have many more waiting in the wings. With two 80F plus degree days, everything around the garden began to open.  The weather was glorious.  Sunny.  Little wind.  It was a perfect day to garden.  I worked so hard that I was...

March by William Wordsworth "The cock is crowing, The stream is flowing, The small birds twitter, The lake doth glitter, The green field sleeps in the sun; The oldest and youngest Are at work with the strongest; The cattle are grazing, Their heads never raising; There are forty feeding like one! Like an army defeated The snow hath retreated, And now doth fare ill On the top of the bare hill; The Plowboy is whooping-anon-anon: There's joy in the mountains; There's life in the fountains; Small clouds are sailing, The rain is over and gone! I awoke to 17 degrees F. this morning, and that is unbelievably cold even for March.  My blood was warm from the two weeks before when we had unseasonably warm weather.  Today, I hope to plant some cool crop seeds outdoors, but only if it warms up some.  Happy March everyone!  For more musing, please...

For the past two weeks, hungry for some summer color, I immersed myself in English garden videos of all sizes and stripes.  One thirty minute episode of A Gardener's Diary a week is not enough to survive the ups and downs of winter. On Netflix, I ordered  The Art & Practice of Gardening with Penelope Hobhouse.  Although I enjoyed this show, I still like A Gardener's Diary better, which is kind of an American version of the televised British garden visit.  When I ran out of the first disc of Ms. Hobhouse, I went to Amazon in search of more. As an aside, why doesn't HGTV put A Gardener's Diary on DVD?  I would be first in line to buy it.  I'd love to take notes on the one gardener who had all of the Japanese maples.  I know I could record it, but the teens in this house keep...

"Old garden roses have a lot of nuances of fragrance and diversity of  form.  This gives you, the artist and gardener, a palette of plants to grow," said Mike Shoup, owner of Antique Rose Emporium,  "Fragrance is the emotional tie you will have to that plant forever." Sunday, Shoup spoke as part of the Oklahoma Horticulture Society's Annual Winter Lecture Series.  I thought I would share some of what I found most interesting. Shoup told a story about a friend who used a film empty camera to capture his small daughter as she smelled roses in his garden.   The idea was to have her sniff blossom after blossom and retain the memory of her father and his flowers.   He knew that whenever she smelled the same scent it would bring her back to him.  (For the young people reading this blog, this was before the days of digital cameras...