Let's get our fingers dirty!

Even though it is soooo cold here in Mesa AZ, it is time to get a garden going if you want some great spring and early summer vegetables. Technically, you can garden year round here but I like to take a couple of months off in the summer, but I will explaine that later in the year.

There are many veges you can grow and the best place to find out what grows is by calling the County Cooperative Extension Service. You will find the number in your phonebook or better yet, look it up on the computer. TheExtension Service has a great web-site where you can find all the answers to your gardening questions.

This is my crazy blackberry bush. It grows the best berries! YUM!

The Roses are hiding the vegetables but they are there! Notice the cute sign made by my friend Dee McSherry.

Now if you don't like to garden, may I suggest 2 books about gardening. They are both great books. First is entitled : "Seedfolks". This is a sweet and very short book about a community garden started in the city on a vacant lot. Each chapter is another persons story, told in their words about how they became involved with the garden. I love this book and you can get it finished in an hour or two.

The other book is "Down the Garden Path" by Beverley Nichols. This is a very funny book (true story) about how the author bought his first home because of a "memory" of the place from a previous visit several years earlier. Of course, things are never how we really remember them so we follow him through his work in bringing the garden back to the way he originally remembered it being, but it turned out better than he ever expected. Mr. Nichols is a beautiful writer. I loved reading this book. I think of it as a relaxing read, if that makes sense to anyone besides me.

Anyway, whether you are going to get your own hands dirty or read about others doing it, take some time and enjoy a graden. That is one of the perks of living in Arizona!