Five | Small Garden Abundance
Chapter Seven | Ornamental Trees and Shrubs
Chapter Eight | The Flow of Water
Chapter Nine | Tend, Don’t Toil
Chapter Ten | Weed Out the Weeds
Chapter Eleven | Unwanted Lawn?
Chapter Twelve | Veggies, Fruit and Herbs
Chapter Thirteen | Perfectly Imperfect
Organic Garden Remedies from My Online Friends
INTRODUCTION
I am a second-half-of-life gardener. I truly believe that this is the time in life when we can experience our greatest gardening enjoyment. Maybe you are a second-halfer too, and that’s why you’ve picked up this book. Or maybe you just want to tune into some words of hard-won wisdom from a gardener who has “been there,” made mistakes, learned from them, and figured out what’s really important and what’s not – and evolved a way of gardening for the pure joy of it.
If you’re curious to know what’s so different about gardening in this “half,” I’d say it’s all about a shift in perspective. Instead of a drive to completion and outcome and control, it’s now about a more deeply soul-pleasing way of gardening, defined by words like these:
One of the many loads of mulch I’ve worked with!
I began gardening in 1991, when my husband and I purchased our first home. Yes, I am a late bloomer. I had no prior gardening history or experience, but that did not stop me. I adorned every inch of our love shack, season after season, with all the wrong plants in all the wrong places. I was that person who insisted that sun-loving plants would grow wonderfully in dense shade, and vice-versa. I spent tons of money at my favorite garden center each weekend and hauled in truckloads of compost and mulch. Clueless, I forged on until years later when I miraculously developed a deep spiritual connection with Mother Earth. I look back lovingly at those memorable (and hysterical) days gone by. I have learned a great deal since then about gardening and life, but will never forget how I got my roots!
Today, I garden for many different reasons and outcomes that extend beyond my personal needs and desires. This shift in thinking began after the sudden death of my brother, Michael, in 2006. To say that we had been close doesn’t adequately describe our loving and mutually supportive relationship. His death shook me to the core and had a profound impact on my future. It was a call to deep evaluation of my path and goals. I asked myself, What am I doing with my life? How much time do any of us have? And, most importantly: What will make me feel happy and fulfilled?
Michael and me in the yard
The absence of my dear brother influenced me to switch careers and start Two Women and a Hoe®, do something I truly loved, and start a small gardening business in southeast Michigan. I replaced my corporate high heels for Wellies and never looked back. Each day I am blessed to mix business with pleasure. But more importantly, my true passion in this second half of life is to give more than I take – in and out of the garden. I am discovering that the fine art of gardening is ultimately giving back to the earth, wildlife, nature… and us. Gardening is the fine art of soul to soil. If there is a Late Bloomer’s credo, it would go something like this:
I believe the work of a gardener and an artist is synonymous: both create masterpieces with their hands. Here and there in this book I mention famous artists whose lives and work inspire me. Many of them have not concerned themselves with words like “perfection,” but have painted to please
