(A slideshow will load above in a few seconds.)  If you are looking here for the secrets to the perfect garden, I'm afraid I don't have 'em! There are no perfect gardens, just as there are no flawless blooms. Some of those photos in the seed catalogs and horticulture books are--let me clue you--as touched up as the models who decorate the covers of fashion magazines!

I won't knock a little judicious amending, however, since I'm very fond of my own photo editing program. As for my garden, it's a lot like me--disheveled, disorganized, and in imminent danger of running to seed! In it, as in life, I never have enough room for everything I want to try. Nor enough time to root up the uninvited stuff!

I do have fun, though, and that's why so many of us like to play in the dirt. The unfurling buds always give us something to look forward to, even when the rest of the world seems to be going to perdition at a very determined pace!

And, even though the blooms we produce are sometimes ravaged by bugs or the weather, they remind us that there is great potential for beauty in all of God's creations. Even in such sin and folly blasted beings as ourselves. Unfortunately, there isn't any computer program out there that can clean us up! But our Creator is even more forgiving than us gardeners--and also dotes proudly on blooms that are far from perfect.

I'm currently in the process of posting a gallery of my photos at the following site: gardenphotographs.net . If any of you magazine editors or web site designers need any download-able flower pictures, I will shortly have scads there that I would be happy to sell to you. And you flower enthusiasts can order prints, if you like. (At least it would help justify the many happy hours I spend tinkering with that photo editor!)

I will also consider allowing nonprofit organizations to use some of the photos for free. You can contact me via the feedback form here with details of which organization you are representing and which images you want to use.

Perhaps the extra time I should have over the winter months will allow me to publish some pages of garden tips as well. Once I figure out how to evict the chipmunk who has moved indoors with the potted plants, and persistently stashes things in the soil. (I've already tried playing recordings of a hawk's screams. But, although they make my ears ring, they don't seem to bother chippie at all. Sigh.) On second thought, my gardening tips might not help at all since I have the sneaking suspicion that--in my case--the pests are winning!