Today is the 1000th episode of Focus on Flowers, so will be personal.
My own garden was started in 1987 and has brought me a lot of pleasure. Gardening has connected me to many other gardeners who have enriched my life and from whom I've learned a great deal.
My garden has many benefits. For example, if I can't sleep at night, I let my mind go from garden bed to garden bed, imagining the flowers I have or could have. When I worked, I took my work problems out into the garden on weekends and frequently either found solutions as I dug and pruned, or just let the anxieties go to ground.
There is magic associated with flowers. How can it be, I wonder, that there are so many different shapes, colors, and sizes to delight the senses?
I struggled for years to always have something in bloom. The idea is to have lots of spring bulbs, starting with winter aconite, snowdrops, and crocus, and many hellebores that like the cold. Then plant as many perennials as you can find that provide a succession of bloom from spring through fall. Fill in with shrubs that bloom at different times. Use annual flowers in pots to move around the garden for color. Every type of flower has something to contribute.
Remember that flowers double the joy and halve the sorrow.
This is Moya Andrews, and today we focused on my own garden.
