Summer's Sizzle

Jul 1

I hope you are doing well and are keeping cool. So many of you are already suffering in lingering heat. I am so sorry! Here’s hoping for a respite soon!

I can FINALLY tell you about our huge gardening project — if you don’t already know. Last winter I took a garden-planning class with garden designer Kelly D. Norris. It was a wonderful experience, and I am now putting all of his ideas — and a lot of my own — to work in our front yard. This huge transformation which we are calling the Wildlife Garden will ultimately involve more than 1000 plants, nearly 50 species, trees, borders, and more.

My goal: creating a wildlife-friendly habitat for birds, bees, bugs, microbes, fungi, and more. I’ve been gardening for wildlife for years now, but this is the biggest, most ambitious project I have ever taken on.

Those before photos are pretty bleak. Our yard has been a blank slate — just weeds and more weeds and barren soil — for the last six years (and probably a lot longer). But with the help of my sponsor, High Country Gardens, this yard will, over the next three years, be transformed. This isn’t a quick fix. I’m focused on planting native North American plants, and they will take some time to grow in and mature. But I’ll be sharing the whole journey with you both here and on Instagram. So I hope you will follow along!