I love to garden.  No, I don’t grow tomatoes and corn.  Rather, I like to garden for the sake of beauty. Luckily for me, I have 15 acres of land.  So, I have a pretty extensive canvass upon which I get to work.  As a result, I have gardens all over my property.  Each one has been named according to some feature, such as the pond garden, the doghouse garden, the bench garden, the shed garden and more. 

For me, having gardens serves several purposes.  First, I live in Indiana.  So, seeing those first blooms pushing up as the winter comes to an end brings a great deal of joy to me.  In fact, I have purposely planted early-blooming flowers such as crocuses simply because they push through the ground so early.  Admittedly, there have been many years when I didn’t see them at all because the ground was still covered with snow.  Nonetheless, it makes me happier to know they are there.

My gardens also provide me with a great place to sit and relax or to watch my children as they play.  The bench garden, for example, contains a bench swing that faces the trampoline and swing set so I can sit outside and watch the kids.  In fact, most of my garden areas have some sort of sitting area where I can relax and enjoy watching nature at her best.

My favorite garden is probably the pond garden, which contains two small garden ponds.  The picture below, which was taken a few years ago, shows part of the pond garden.  The garden is actually much fuller now, as the plants have all matured and filled in. In addition, the pond in the picture is filled with lily pads and flowers, which is one reason I love this garden so much - it is always filled with life as frogs hop in and out of the bond and butterflies, dragonflies and hummingbirds flitter from one flower to the next.

A young pond garden

There is also something special about watching the kids as they race along the walking path inside the garden.  There is something that is truly sweet and innocent as they laugh and play with the flowers all around them.

Of course, despite my love for my gardens, I will admit that they can be a real pain to maintain.  The pond garden in the picture is actually much larger than what is in the picture and contains another pond - and this is just one of the many gardens I have.  This season, I didn’t take care of my gardens nearly as well as I should.  The pond garden is quite overrun by weeds and, quite frankly, looks horrible this year.  So, maybe you will get to see a more current picture of the garden NEXT year after I have had a chance to clean it back up.  Ahh….the joys of homeownership - sometimes, things just don’t go as planned!