GARDEN BLOGGERS' BLOOM DAY-THE IDES OF MARCH

An Arrangement for Mia by Yours truly

Carol at Maydreamgardens the creator of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is pretty generous when it comes to what can be included so I'm sure that she won't mind if I post my painting of tulips until my real ones bloom.

Right now the only thing blooming in my indoor garden are the same plants I've already shown you back in December and January and I'm sure you don't want to see them again.

Maybe by the next GBBD we'll have real tulips ?!

60 in Chicago

Spring 2007

Being able to look at last year's Spring photos is one thing that's great about blogging. Yesterday was a balmy 60 degrees and of course I got the fever and spent the entire afternoon in my garden.

Not a lot is up yet and I don't want it to be because , lesson learned, freezes in April can quickly kill. I raked up excessive build-up of leaves, leaving a light layer to cover emerging bulbs.

I started formulating plans for the new season and found extra space in my small urban back 40 to add more containers for growing veggies and herbs. There's an unused space between me and the neighbors that I want to spruce up with colorful potted plants.

I can hardly wait until my garden looks like the photo above.

SIX WEEKS TO A GARDENING READY BOD

Attention all you winter-weary gardeners awaiting Spring and ready to jump out into the garden . HALT ! Listen up, couch potatoes or tied-to-the-computer internet surfers. You can't just go out and garden all day without being prepared or at the end of the day you'll be groaning and moaning about the aches and pains.

We all know that gardening is healthy and that just a half hour or more a day will improve fitness.

So here's the program all set up and ready for you , prepared by a certified personal trainer and broken down into six one-week sessions, with illustrations to show exactly how the routine is done.

No more excuses! Go to Gardenfitness.com where Kimberly Ridout , a gardener herself, has laid out the perfect garden body fitness plan designed especially for gardeners. A big thank-you to Kimberly !

BLOTANICAL IS WHERE GARDEN BLOGGERS BLOOM !

Just as America is the greatest country in the world, Blotanical is the world's greatest garden blog directory :). Geez what some people will say to get a star ! All kidding aside, since I've become a member last December I have watched Blotanical grow and my blog along with it.

Blotanical has opened up a whole new world filled with bloggers from all walks of life and interests, all unique in their perspectives . I have made a lot of " virtual " friends as the younger generation dubs them and even got to meet Joyce from Muum'smusings when she visited Chicago recently.

In all honesty the one thing I don't like about Blotanical is the most popular user feature. You may have noticed that I was at the top of the list for quite some time but dropped out. The reason why is that I was just mindlessly picking every single post and loggin in and out to rack up points. Stuart has written about this issue on the News feature of Blotanical and while his reasoning may be logical to his way of thinking, it isn't to mine. As for me , the old saw " It's not whether you win or lose it's how you play the game " will be my motto from now on.

Even picking favorite posts is difficult because we have such a selection of professional writers, celebrities, amateurs and just plain passionate gardeners that love to write . It's almost like being a judge at a beauty contest and having to select one of the beauties.

I do want to thank Stuart for all the tremendous work he's done in putting up Blotanical and I know that he has a lot more brilliant ideas in store for us as it grows.

So can I get my star now, Stuart ?

THE GARDENER OF THE WORLD

Gardener of the World by Moi

..." Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true
To please the child, to paint the rose
The Gardener of the World, he goes.

...excerpted from Summer Sun by Robert Louis Stevenson

Setting the clocks forward one hour always reminds me that Spring is just around the corner and how nice it is to have the sun rise earlier and set later.

I often marvel at the sun and the moon and their importance in my daily life. I feel cheerful when the sun rises to greet me and gloomy when it doesn't. Of course we all know the stories about how the full moon affects our moods.

The sun has been a source of reverence and worship in many ancient cultures -Greece, Persia, Egypt, India, Japan, North America and Mexico. Growing up on a farm I learned the ancient wisdom of our ancestors who observed the sun and moon phases for growing crops and gardens. Amazingly, research shows that this method of planting potatoes by the phases of the moon resulted in an increase of up to 45 per cent.

If you want to know the best times to plant vegetables and flowers visit the Old Farmer's Almanac and put in your zip code for a personalized chart.

I've done a series of paintings I call Sun and Moonscapes in which I've tried to capture the meaning and importance of these two orbs. Gardener of the World, above was done alla prima, the Italian expression translated as " all at once", which speak of the artist's emotions at that moment.

BLOGS OF NOTE HAS FINALLY FEATURED ANOTHER GARDEN BLOGGER !

The Gardener
by Moi

Hey Blots ( members of Blotanical ) and garden bloggers everywhere check out Blogger's Blogs of Note. They've finally featured the second gardening blog ( Jodi at Bloomingwriter was the first ). I don't know if I can take any credit or not but I've been writing to them to pay attention to the very active and large gardening blog world.

Check out Sharon's The Chutney Garden and send her a big congratulations on being featured.