As the Garden Grows

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My garden is one of the things I hold important to me

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This weeks theme is Important

This weeks photo hunter theme is important and I decided to show you what’s important to me as far as gardening goes.

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It’s no secret to anyone that reads this blog or any of my other blogs that my garden is important to me. Gardening is a great hobby and activity. I’m passionate about gardening.

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The act of planting new plants each year and maintaining my garden helps keep me fit and gets me outdoors for some much needed fresh air. My garden is also a source of comfort and peace. It’s where I go to relax.

I’m off work due to Crohn’s Disease, but when I’d come home from a hectic shift in the ER, no matter how tired I was, I’d often head straight to the garden. Either to simple enjoy my plants and flowers or perhaps not so surprisingly to do some work! Just a few minutes in my garden would erase the stress of an ER shift.

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lucious strawberry I’m an organic gardener. I don’t use any chemicals in my garden beds or on my plants at all. Everything is natural and my garden is fertilized with manure, leaf mulch, and alfalfa tea.

cherrytomatos I mainly post photos of my flowers on this site and others that I maintain, but I also grow a fair amount of veggies and fruit. Some of the veggies, particularly the leafy greens, are grown in large balcony planters beside my back porch.

Other fruit and vegetables such as Tiny Tom tomatoes and beans are grown in planters on the patio, while plants such as peppers, carrots, raspberries and strawberries are grown right in the garden beds among the flowers.

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Now wouldn’t a nice bowl of fresh raspberries be great right now?






Vibrant plants – gorgeous colors

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I have so many great photos of flowers and plants that I took last week that it was really hard to come up with just one for this weeks GTS.

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These leafs are Canna Tropicana leaves. My cannas never did flower this year. It’s been a strange year for a few of my plants. It did however produce the colorful leaves that it’s known for and I think I can forgive the dear plant for not flowering since it has such vibrant leaves.

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This photo is of a black Hollyhock.

My hollyhocks did well this summer. No rust on the leaves and as you can see they produced lovely flowers. This hollyhocks blooms are such a deep purplish red that they appear to be black. It’s blooms look as glossy and vibrant in the garden beside my ever producing raspberry bushes as they do in this photograph.

If you’d like to see one of the most gorgeous rose photos I’ve ever taken please stop by Breath of Life Photography. It’s a delight!

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Does your garden contain medicinal plants and herbs?

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I’ve always found it fascinating how most herbs and a number of plants have been used throughout history to cure what ails us.

I actually have a number of books about herbs and their medicinal uses. I should dig them out and write about some of the more commonly found herbs from time to time. As I said, I’ve always had an interest in this, just as when I find that plants that we’ve always thought of as being ornamental turn out to actually be edible too.

Well, until I begin writing some articles about herbs you might be interested in visiting a site that I found that’s called Natural Herbalism. This site has articles that discuss various herbs, their uses, chemistry, the history of herbs, how to grow them, how to prepare them, herbal recipes and herbs that have specific uses for men, women, children and even pets.

It’s quite an informative site.

Take for example the article about Bayberry. Most of us think of Bayberry as an ornamental shrub, but it actually has medicinal properties. Did you know that you can make a tea by boiling the bark and root and that when the tea is drank it has stimulant properties that are effective against diarrhea. The root bark also contains a natural antibiotic and can be used to treat skin wounds or even used in a mouthwash to freshen breath and fight gum disorders such as gingivitis.

Many of us grow celery in the garden, and if we don’t grow it we often buy it in the grocery store. Did you know that celery is a diuretic and that oils from the seeds were thought in the past to relive the pain of arthritis and rheumatism. Celery has also been used to treat anxiety disorders and insomnia.

If you are curious about the medicinal uses of some of the other plants that you might grow in your garden visit Natural Herbalism and look them up. I found the articles quite interesting.

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