My little piece of Mother Earth consists of about 3/4 of an acre....0.72 acre to be exact. Half of the yard is high,

the other half is near river level. I have several gardens and I usually try to plant something different

in them each year. There are a few things I grow every year, those being Moonflowers (they bloom at night)

and Morning Glories. That way I have flowers both closing and opening at sunrise....there's a kind of

"balance" to that cycle.

Two of my gardens are raised. One has a 55 gallon pond in it. I built that garden (with the help of my brother

and his wife) under the front windows. There had been a garden there years ago, but I had stopped using

it and let the grass grow there. Six or 7 years ago, I decided to put in a small garden pond and stock it

with a few goldfish and whatever else decided to move in. I bought the railroad ties and lots of top soil,

built the walls and backfilled with top soil. There was already a well established lilac bush behind the

pond, and I just added a few more plants. You'll see pictures of the pond and the critters who

hang around it if you follow the links below.

The other raised garden is my tranquility/meditation garden. It's a raised garden that my brother originally

built back in the early 80's or so. The garden eventually became overgrown with weeds and wasn't being used.

 One day I decided to clear it out and over the years it's evolved into the garden you'll see if you follow the

 appropriate link below. As the name implies, it's become a garden where I can go to just do some heavy thinking

or watch the sun or moonrise. The garden is open towards the south over the marsh, so when the moon is south

and there's mist floating over the marsh there's something magickal about the view. I would imagine at some point

I'll describe it in my "Random Thoughts" section.

I have one other large garden that anchors the side of the yard that faces the road. It's decorative and is planted with

azaleas, lilac bushes and liatris so it doesn't really vary from year to year. Those 3 gardens are the major ones

that are in the yard.

The others are more like flower beds because of their sizes, and I tend to plant annuals in them so I can vary things from

 year to year. I usually plant a few tomato plants every year to have something to "harvest" in the fall. Next year I'm

planning on building a bigger raised garden for growing vegetables. Being raised, the soil will warm up earlier in the

spring and give me a longer growing season. It'll also be easier to protect from marauding groundhogs!

Follow the links below to see pictures of my yard and gardens.