Dixie Chicks

[Amberjem]

Gardening is something I can do with no thoughts of anything else clouding my mind

thats why I love doing it first thing in the morning I dont have to think or talk just enjoy a new day and growing stuff it rocks to start my day off that way!

 

[hennible]

Sure does

 

[Amberjem]

Heya, Amber. Thanks for the "genesis of my gardening passion" question.

My folks had nice formal gardens at their house and so we kids pitched in with weekend garden chores at a young age. Dad was into begonias and hanging fuschias and always had a competition going with his brother (who got his gardening smarts working as a florist...his yard always looked like some fantabulous spread out of a gardening magazine). Later in years I was in charge of the veggie garden terrace at the folks' place and the fishpond.

I went to UC Davis (ag school, among other things) and gardened in the house I lived in there...also was able to keep chickens for the first time!

Got married and the first house we bought after a few years of apartment life was a 5-acre stud farm with pastures. We put in veggie terraces and fruit trees. The neighbor had an orchard. Learned A LOT while living at the ranch (landscaping, pasture management) and also completed the Master Gardeners program while there. Divorce. And then various moves (most places with yards) until finally current DH and I are here in New Mexico. The yard here has formal gardens, lots of lawns, vegetable yard, orchard... Plenty to keep my hands dirty, so to speak. Spent the better part of last year rehabbing the place (abandoned for nearly two years) and saving the neglected trees, pruning errant shrubs and bushes, getting the irrigation back on track and just yard management.

My favorite plant? Anything that gives back edibles. Love my apple trees right now. Favorite flower would be tulips (which the rabbits seem to get before I do), gladiolas, roses (at present 52 bushes) and I am never without a lavender bush or two.

Gardening is very affirming, enjoyable and relaxing to me even with all the physical labor. Kind of like hatching eggs...full of hope and promise. Kind of like horse training as it seems I'm always correcting the previous owner's mistakes. Kind of like positive zen philosophy because out of the worst of manures beautiful things will grow. And it's always an adventure dealing with assorted States' environments (coastal, desert, mountain)... with each move it's like landing on another planet with all the diverse flora.

awesome!! growing up mom did some gardening but was mostly yard maintenance.. I was the one nagged to put in a huge veggie garden and did a huge mothers day rose garden for my mom one mothers day.....weeding is my least favorite thing but I am liking it more now get to give them to the chickens lol makes it more fun...I started a whole sale nursery when I was younger did that for a while then got out of it... one thing or another have always done gardening where I lived it if was spruding it up or doing a veggie garden or some landscaping ect,,,,Last several years been very sick and lives in a small aprtment I was still gardening n stuff but after buying few hundrd dollars in roses and tree's and the neighbors destroying it and being ill I tossed my hands up and just stuck to my house plants and container gardening.....this year gardening has been very healing for me as I have been doing lots of gardening with my mother passing dealing with living things hands in the dirt everything has helped me reaffirm life and living......Now with my own house and everything can do it the way I want and do it right and revel in the gardening journey. My grandmothers both of them were huge gardeners I rememebr as a tiny kid going into their backyards which was totally gardened out to the 9th degree veggies flowers everything... it wasnt a backyard it was a garden adventure!... I dont recall either one hving a spec of lawn in the back yard just garden.... is there a region you liked more then another?

 

[Amberjem]

x3. I love gardening. Last year's garden got fed to the chickens after all the weeds took over. Because right after I planted it, I had MOHS surgery and I was told "The sun is NOT your friend". Too bad I wasn't told that 40years ago..... My poor daughter is not allowed in the sun unless she is slathered in sunscreen.

This year, I am gardening at dusk and dawn. But we will have a garden

with the grow lights in my greenhouse it lights up my whole raised garden area.. I have been out there gardening at 3am in the morning lol what kinds of things do you like to grow?

 

[NotAFarm]

Quote: Your incubator will never be empty now that you have your own fertile eggs!

Love the cobalt blue glass in the window! Nice job on the gate @Sharps Big 50

 

[Beer can]

The wife and I plant flowers every year on a bunch of different dead people.

 

[Amberjem]

harvested somemore duckweed today and gave it to the gang with some yogurt

 

[Amberjem]

Your incubator will never be empty now that you have your own fertile eggs!

Love the cobalt blue glass in the window! Nice job on the gate @Sharps Big 50

hahahaha maybe huh least will have a grow out pen with the chicken tractor I started...lol how are you doing today?

 

[Amberjem]

The wife and I plant flowers every year on a bunch of different dead people.

is it dead ppl you knew or she knew?

 

[Beer can]

is it dead ppl you knew or she knew?

Yeah, our Grandparents and other relatives, fresh flowers every year. Put some nice Mums on them this fall, sometimes they come back, the Mums that is.