I just find something so therapeutic about digging in the dirt. How I got through last winter was telling myself I was prepping for spring’s digging by ‘digging’ that snow. I just love to dig. I’m not the sort of person who thinks ahead of time what a spot should look like, I just decide I’m going to go dig it up and will sort it out later. I’ll move a little of this and a little of that there and just see how it goes. Because that is how happy digging makes me. My dear husband has finally figured this out I think, as he now points out where he thinks we should focus next time I feel like digging.

When I dig up a spot, I generally don’t think too hard about what is going in it. I dug up the front bed last spring and I can say, it has since become a catch all. It has yet to develop a definite plan, but it does have some anchor plants with the oakleaf hydrangea (it’s growing thank you very much) and the rose bush and some ferns in the shady corner. I like to move things around. I rearrange alot.

Most of my plants have been gifts. We’ve bought some good stuff, but being the sort of person who digs a spot and then has to fill it in, I tend to try to notice what does well (and where) in other people’s gardens. And when I meet fellow gardeners, I ask alot of questions. Take alot of mental notes. And sometimes get lucky enough to be handed something they just rip out something extra of and say, “Here, try this”. This year has been a banner year for gift plants. Both the vegetable and flower gardens have benefited from friends. I’ve gotten any number of good things and I must admit, I’ve improved my gardening knowledge a great deal along the way.

I got to visit one of my most favorite and inspirational gardening friends recently, and came home with a most glorious haul. I stuck some of her red bee balm among my pink. I also stuck some russian sage near my pink yarrow that I moved (It was getting choked out by the red echinacea. Which really isn’t red, but more orange. And I think that’s getting choked out by the daisies, so I’ll be moving that soon no doubt. I like to rearrange.). And some chocolate joe pye weed I put near the ferns in the shady half of the front bed catch all.

I think what I like the most about my gift garden is that I remember fondly when I acquired each plant – I have some of my most favorite people growing out there. I love that I have hostas from Andoreda, mint that was on the table at Jamie & Laura’s wedding, Anna’s bee balm, tomatillos from William & Sally and pepper seedlings from seeds that Kevin sent me. We have trees that were our Christmas tree the month before Edie was born, when it was just the two of us, and the tree we had for her first Christmas. We have azaleas and blueberry bushes and hydrangeas and rhododendrons that were Mother’s day gifts. There’s a peach tree to celebrate a wedding anniversary and for the life of me, I cannot remember what the cherry tree was for, but it marked some occasion.

Come to think of it, what I think I like the most about my garden is the amount of love planted in it.