How I Got Started Gardening

Well this is my first blog ever, and my first post for my gardening blog. I'm new to this so bear with me.

In the past, most of my gardening had been limited to houseplants. One year I planted a very small flower bed in the front of my duplex. Only one year. I discovered annuals don't last (or at least they don't come back the next year) and I gave up on gardening after that.

After my divorce, I found what I call my 'forever' house. I could live in this house the rest of my life. It has hundreds of trees, a side garage with a long driveway, the closets are huge, the rooms are the perfect size, and it has a screened porch and swing in the backyard. I fell in love and thanks to a great realtor, Jim Umstead, I was able to get in it. It was a close call, but he made sure all the fixes from the inspection report were done and negotiated the closing costs (on closing day) so I could get into the house. He also found financing that worked for me. He was amazing!

I digress.

Anyway, I didn't do much gardening the first four years. I was not making enough money to afford that luxury. I started gardening about a year before my husband moved in. My paltry legal assistant salary didn't go very far, therefore progress was slow going. When my husband proposed, he said go ahead and get the garden in shape for the wedding. I was in heaven!

I had a LOT of work to do! The garden had a good foundation -- hundreds of live oaks, a few cherry laurels and camphor trees (Camphophenique is made from these trees) and the previous owner planted hundreds of azaleas with Boston fern and impatiens as under dressing. My mail carrier calls our neighborhood Impatien Lane. However, it really got out-of-shape with four years of neglect.

To be continued . . . I'll post some photos when I figure out how.