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...

There was a time when I feared vibrant color. Although I painted during college, I worried about adding color accents to my garden. So many rules about what goes with what. No fuchsia. No orange. No school bus yellow. No fun.

I've been outside the last three days. In between stints of writing, gardening clears my mind of the spider webs of exhaustion. 'Forever Susan' Asiatic lily, the first to bloom of the new lilies. It's a bright thing for sure. While outside, I thought of several things I wanted to share with you. I'm including them in this potpourri of gardening tips and ideas. Here we go: Amend your soil with compost, either that which you've made or buy some. Nothing will help your garden more. Not even mulch. You can mulch with compost too. I use shredded leaves in early spring. Later, I add Back to Nature and finely ground cedar mulch. I don't mix the cedar into the compost because it will take up nitrogen as it decomposes. I just place it on top and not very thick. As it decomposes over the season, you get a fine,...