My home and garden…I want them both to reflect not only me but also the places I have been and the places I lived over the many years of my life…so here I am, surrounded by all the things from my travels that make me happy.
Make an entrance…It’s all in the details…the little things that make a garden and home a welcome place to be. 
Close your eyes for a few seconds, envision the perfect entry to your home, to your garden…What do you see? Whatever you imagined, it probably felt comfortable, charming and just plain welcoming. As in the photo, right, the blooming garden invites and the stone path pulls you in deeper towards the front door.
Here, the blue gate opens to a winding used brick path that beckons a visitor to wander and enjoy the garden before reaching the front door. A charming cottage garden with a blissful place to roost.
Some may like a more formal, boxwood edged brick path entry to a home with an entry porch for sitting.
I enjoy creating vignettes that make a visitor want to stop for a few moments to appreciate an ‘off the beaten path’ approach to an entry.
A gravel path, a colorful bench, a number of blooming containers welcome and awaken your inspiration. Planting in pots gives gardeners the advantage of being able to enjoy many different colors, textures and scents as well as being able to move their pots around as blooms begin to fade…switch out with pots of evergreens and autumn blooms as the season changes to fall and winter. Remember to be consistent with watering and feeding containers…
The cottage, right, shows another long blooming garden option that makes one want to linger outside enjoying the perennial display. So much more interesting than just GRASS!!
The entry path to my little house, below, is a mix of gravel and slate stones, pots of lavender, my lemon trees a gardenia for fragrance and 2 red chairs to bring attention to it all…Planted around the stones is thyme that creates even more fragrance as a visitor brushes past. Solar lights twinkle throughout the evening bringing attention to containers…
“I GO TO
NATURE TO BE SOOTHED AND HEALED AND TO HAVE MY SENSES PUT IN ORDER”
‘Heart to Heart’…your heart is a muscle and needs a regular workout or it becomes unfit as we age…Regular exercise, such as aerobic, is essential for your heart health…at least 30 minutes a day. To make it easy, break it into 10 minute chunks and do it at a pace that leaves you warm [sweaty] and breathless! Unless you’re in really great shape! Another aspect of exercising is going outdoors…take a BRISK walk for 10 minutes, walk with your dog for even longer if you can. Give your garden extra attention…working outside for at least 45 minutes to an hour several days a week helps to reduce the risk of high blood pressure. Especially the sweating part! Walking up to 3000 steps a day will help with joint pain and improved physical function. So get moving and please, drink plenty of water.
Boost Your Bones…A calcium-rich diet is essential for strong bones. Continue to exercise, get out in the sun for 10 minutes [with no sunscreen] for added source of Vitamin D, and include plenty of milk, yogurt and cheese in your diet.
Skin Deep...Toxins, alcohol, and UV rays as we know add to aging…wrinkles and saggy skin. UGGG!
Good nutrition helps skin stay firm…Salmon and citrus and fruits & green vegetables are key ingredients to healthy skin…’course a really nice organic moisturizer can also help!! Especially rose hip oil applied on the beginnings of wrinkle spots.
IT’S MIND OVER MATTER!
My mind over plenty of garden matter…
The illustration shows my favorite way of making compost piles…for all that garden matter that should be recycled! It’s so simple using wire fencing and posts. A stone path leads to the spot and I choose to plant rosemary as an evergreen accent and comfrey to take in all the nutrients from the compost liquids that seep into the ground. The comfrey leaves are an excellent source for garden care as well as having great healing aspects! Colorful vines and/or crawling vegetables could also claim the fence as support.
Do the White Thing…I love my ‘Moon Garden’…years ago I started designing white and silver gardens for clients after studying the white garden planted by Vita Sackville-West at her home in England during the 1930’s.
A white garden, with accents of silver plants exudes a dreamy quality on long summer nights. O
n a night with a full moon, the silvery light shines and makes the white garden sparkle…
Celebrate Summer…with summer and sparkling wines: Sauvigon Blanc, Prosecco, Rose’, and Champagne! These wines are quite refreshing and pair well with lighter summer meals. 
Another way to use blackberries…pastry wrapped over fresh blueberries, a bit of sugar and some
butter…top with cream!!
Look closely at the back of the photo near the
woods, 2 fawns, still with spots, came for dinner tonight…
From Holly and me, enjoy a glass!
My days are spent between inside and out, between sunlight and shade. Lived in rhythm with the seasons, nature, ever present, determines the nuances of colors and fragrance as the weeks go by…The hours spent during spring and summer eating outside becomes a ritual in the flowery shade of an arbor, beneath a trellis, a blooming tree, or vine covered veranda. Here, food is experienced as a way of better appreciating the wonders of nature…free of showy luxury!
anorganicgardenershome 