Category: Virtual Garden

This is a Zone 5 Hybrid Tea Rose. Fragrance: medium. Once established, it’s very hardy in Zone 5. It must be sprayed with horticultural Neem Oil every two weeks to control fungus and bugs. It’s an American Rose Society award-winner.

My garden is a cottage style and therefore ever changing. My advice for new gardeners is that a little bit of planning goes a long way. But don’t worry so much about making it perfect. Give yourself permission to make mistakes. Start small, keep learning, keep observing and build from there.

My favorite gardening advice is to learn from the Monarch Butterfly. Appreciate pollinator plants, warm yourself in the sunshine, enjoy the wind on your wings, and share your beauty. As with gardening with youth, experience the outdoors, as if for the first time!! Just breathe!!

Honestly, it’s the journey. Gardening done well is a prayer. Communication in the original languages of soil and wind and growth. And peace.

My gardening mother always said that one cup of water in a planting hole is worth three on top—as told to her by her gardening mother over 90 years ago!

Hummingbird moth—always a welcome visitor!

This was my last rose bloom before winter.

Plant true natives for pollinators and other wildlife! True native plants provide nectar, pollen, and seeds for butterflies, insects, birds and other animals. We can be good role models for other gardeners and show how to improve our ecosystem!

Gardens can be vertical, too! I’m always tweaking my garden, and getting good exercise, too. I’ve loved seeing this change through the seasons and years.

This is my perfect spot to relax after a long, busy day…sharing the chores is what makes it all come together.