Plan, Prepare, and Protect = A Metaphor for Life

Cover and Care Yesterday, Jordan and I raked leaves in our backyard to cover and care for our tulips bulbs! Planting 100 Tulip Bulbs A few weeks ago, before the leaves turned and the autumn chill was in the air, I was thrilled to plant 100 tulip bulbs in our pollinator gardens. There were spaces…

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Brain Color Personalities and Garden Preparations for Winter

Winter Preparation Last weekend, my husband and I enjoyed a beautiful autumn day to prepare our home for the winter season. Yearly Ritual It is a yearly ritual that we empty all our flower pots and store all our summer garden decorations in our shed. We take out our winter decorations and the snow blower.…

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The Joy of Planting Two Colossal Pollinator Gardens!

UFOs Landed In Our Backyard We had to remove 2 dead trees from our backyard. For 2 years we could not decide what to plant in the 2 circular spaces where the Blue Spruce Fat Alberts had graced our back yard. The empty circles looked like 2 UFOs  had landed in our backyard. Gardener One…

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Don’t Let the “Weeds” Ruin Your Garden and Your Relationships!

Spring Clean-up It’s Spring Clean-up in my yard and gardens. My Yellow Organized Brain has already begun feeding, water and nurturing my trees, shrubs and perennial flower beds. Amongst all the beauty of new growth are the fast growing dandilions, weeds, thistle, and unwanted grass, which grow everywhere I do not want them to grow. It is…

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How Would You Feel If You Were Uprooted and Transplanted?

A gardener will tell you that working in the dirt is soothing to the soul. As I wrote in my April 30th blog post, I decided to edit my garden to increase my pleasure and and decrease the stress from the plant eating deer! Today, I finally completed all the editing chores on my Yellow…

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Weed Your Own Garden & Relationships

It’s Spring Clean-up in my yard and gardens. My Yellow Organized Brain has already begun feeding, water and nurturing my trees, shrubs and perennial flower beds. Amongst all the beauty of new growth are the fast growing weeds, thistle and unwanted grass, which grow everywhere I don not want them to grow. It is amazing how they grow without any special…

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Does Your Personality Change with the Weather?

My Brain Color Personality definitely changes with the weather! Now, that we are having an early Spring, my Yellow Winter Brain that wanted checked everything off my To-Do List during the cold weather has quickly changed with the warm and sunny weather. My Blue Garden’s Brain has taken over my personality. I want to be outside enjoying the sunshine and…

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Garden Tending, Preparing and Protecting for Winter

All weekend, my husband and I prepared and protected our yard and gardens for the gifts of winter. It was so chilly in Chicago that I wore my heavy alpaca socks, a wool sweater over my overalls and my fleece baseball cap that has ear flaps. We prepared our perennial gardens by removing all the ornaments and…

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Mother Nature’s Gift of Change – A Pair of Pears

This morning, I returned from a meeting and was greeted by our lovely chanticleer (pyrus caleryana) pear trees in one of our perennial gardens. Jordan and I planted both trees 4 1/2  years ago. One to celebrate our 40th anniversary and the other to celebrate our granddaughter Yasmin’s birth. In fact, the burlap that was wrapped around the ball of roots of one of…

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