My love for gardening

I gained a love for gardening from my mom. She comes from a long line of gardeners. I loved going to my grandpa's house to pick raspberries. He had several long rows of them and we would go and pick raspberries and then eat them up or make them into jam. He also always had a beautiful yard with flowers lining all the beds. When I was 9 or 10 my parents bought a house with 2 acres and my mom began creating her beautiful flower beds. I didn't appreciate gardening then. I hated weeding and when you have flower beds all over the place---weeding is a nightmare. I spent a lot of hours complaining about weeding those garden beds. I was all too happy when I could finally start mowing the lawn and it took me away from the weeding. I didn't appreciate weeding but I did love all the beautiful flowers in our yard. I would often go outside with a vase full of water and a pair of sheers and create a bouquet to put in my room. I loved that. My love for all that gardening encompassed came when I got married and BJ and I had our own little house with a sweet little yard to take care of. My yard became a canvas and I had all sorts of ideas on how to make it beautiful. I didn't mind weeding then--it was just a part of the beautification process. After a few years we moved to a slightly larger home with a much bigger yard and my love for gardening grew. I planted fruit trees, bulbs and perennials, had herb gardens and roses growing up trellises and deliciously scented lilac trees wafting its scent in though the windows. I continued cutting flowers to put in my home every chance I could get. I would go for runs with my friends early in the morning and come back and put on my garden shoes so that I could do some work before the kids woke up. I loved every bit of it. When I moved to Arizona it was too hot to do much gardening and we had a very small yard. I loved the bougainvillea and lemons from my lemon tree but that was the extent of gardening for me. I lost my love for a few years. Now that I'm in Kansas and have been here for a few years my creative juices have begun to flow freely again and my love has returned. This spring BJ and I put in raised beds to create a garden and I tore out a bunch of plants so that I could plant a perennial garden for cutting flowers for our home. It's been a joy for me to work the earth and get creative. So, it will only get better in time but here are

a few pictures of it now.