Bustani, which I'm told means garden in Swahili, is the name Steve and Ruth Owens gave to their small farm just south of Stillwater, Oklahoma. Steve is the former host of the popular PBS gardening show, Oklahoma Gardening. After he spoke at the Oklahoma Horticulture Society meeting last month, I decided I needed to make the trek north. My garden friend, Katie, who is the brains behind Sister B.J.'s Pantry garden in Oklahoma City, came with me. There is no one more fun to travel to plant sales with. Katie is at least as enthusiastic about plants as I am. She was buying for both her own garden and that of Sister's. Warned by a friend to get there early, Katie arrived at my house at 7:45 a.m. We grabbed a couple of hot teas and bottled water and headed out map in hand. We got lost once, but after...

Louise @ Home Is Where the Heart Is chose me for a book tag. I decided to make mine garden themed. I like this book tag because of the randomness of it, and you all know how random I am. The rules are: Pick up a book of at least 123 pages Open the book to page 123 Find the fifth sentence Post the next three sentences Tag five people Because I enjoyed it, and I met the author at the Spring Fling, I am choosing People With Dirty Hands, by Robin Chotzinoff. It also appears that Robin has started her own blog under the same name. "Besides, I'd been told by then that you can't plant tomatoes from seed in Colorado, especially not in April, before the last frost. Imagine my surprise in late September when I discovered a massive crop of medium round tomatoes crowded under a mat...

Every morning, during the school year, I drive down a certain highway. From the road, for about a month every spring, I see the top of a large tree clothed in nothing but light, buttercup, yellow blossoms, the color and texture of the finest cream. This spring, I decided to see the tree up close. I wanted to touch those petals which looked so delicate, but were actually tough and thick. I took only my camera and cell phone, but I also brought some questions. 'Butterflies' magnolia What else remained on this property, which was, twenty years ago, a garden nursery? What happened if the closure were final and quick like a death, and the plants remained? When HH and I first married, I bought plants from this nursery. I was a garden neophyte, and I still remember the young woman who took me around, trying to help me find...

Bloom wise, not much happening here yet. The tulips are all faded, but they had a really good spring. With weather that's been cool and kind of rainy, they've thrived. Someone should tell these red tulips that their time is over. Standing tall in the bed amongst the fading purple ones, they don't seem to know. The daffodils are nearly done too, and we're in the in-between stage. The roses are storing up their energy for next month's GBBD, and they want you to be sure and come back then. Poor dears, they get their feelings hurt if no one comes to visit. In the meantime, here are the few things actually blooming at my house that I didn't buy already blooming from the nursery. On the left is the front garden from a different angle. When she moved to Anacortes, WA, Wanda gave me this sweet, Hypertufa birdbath she...