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,...

A tree probably killed in a previous tornado. These abound throughout Oklahoma. Two days after the storm, I feel like I can write without crying. First, for those of you who don't use Twitter or Facebook, we are fine. The entire extended family is great, and none of us were hurt in the recent tornadoes. We don't live in Moore. We do live between Edmond and Carney which were both hit by smaller tornadoes on Sunday night. So was Shawnee. Last Sunday and Monday were full of tornado outbreaks, but the Moore tornado, with its EF-5 fury, has been on the news 24/7. As it should be. A two-mile wide debris cloud took out the center of Moore, a southern Oklahoma City suburb. Twenty-four people died. Ten of them were children. As I write that sentence, I cry. I have children. I have friends who are teachers. Teachers were true heroes...