I was impressed by the size of this hydrangea. Rebecca is planning to remove her front, circular lawnette just beyond the hydrangea. I'm fond of a bit of lawn, but in California, I can see why she might want remove it. There is nothing like visiting the garden of a friend, especially when that friend is one you don't get to hang out with all the time. It was a thrill to finally see Rebecca Sweet's garden a couple of weeks ago while at Garden Bloggers' Fling in San Francisco. I've been traveling for two weeks, and I didn't take my laptop with me to Fling. I decided just to use my ipad. It worked for everything except posting on the blog. I have a complicated password to the blog's dashboard, and I'd forgotten it. Ah, life in 2013. Little touches abound throughout Rebecca's garden. I love how she groups similar...

A week or so ago, I gave a speech on how social media platforms like Pinterest changed the gardener in me. Social media is also always in flux, so I did some research especially for photo sharing services like Picasa/Google+, Photobucket and Flickr. I don't use the last two very often because I am already overstretched social media-wise, but other gardeners certainly can. I think Flickr's platform is beautiful. My Flickr photostream I'm still on Facebook, along with Twitter and Sulia, but Pinterest is one of my favorite ways to unwind after a long day of critical thinking. When pondering Pinterest and how much it has changed since its beginnings, I thought you might like to hear how it influenced my thinking and my garden. I am a writer, speaker and garden coach. One way I've used Pinterest is to send garden coaching clients over to my boards for ideas...

The entire garden is dancing a spring jig for the rains have come again to much of Oklahoma. Because it is Oklahoma, we are getting too much of course--everything in extremes is our motto--but for most of us, the water is still a blessing. All but the most western edges of the state are no longer in drought, and the central part of the state already exceeded its yearly total. The large pond behind my house beyond the lower pasture is full again. It was very low the last two years. The back garden in June 2013. Last night, another storm hit with a mighty wind. Most of my sunflowers that line the vegetable garden are down, but I over-planted on purpose. A lot of creatures like to eat sunflowers, so I always do a staggered planting. I'm glad they weren't blooming, or I would have mourned their loss more....

Have you heard of Vine? For once, I'm talking about something other than the garden. Vine is a smartphone app brought to you by the good folks at Twitter, who are all billionaires for good reason. Two of my children like Vine very much, and one makes videos all the time. They are wry, cynical and mercilessly funny. I remember being twenty when I was just as cynical. Twenty is a time when you're frightened by all of life's possibilities, but you can't let the world know. You must always appear as if you have the world by the tail even when it looks like a tiger. https://vine.co/v/blBIEnFbu1P I love tech. Give me a new app or gadget, and I'm excited to play. I began using Vine when it was first released. While videos aren't my media of choice--I like still photos better--I find it fun to share a six-second...