"Who loves a garden still his Eden keeps" -- Amos Bronson Alcott

Gardening is my #1 Hobby. I love to plant a seed and watch it grow or to harvest my own vegetables and serve them up for dinner. In the summer I start each day with a cup of tea and a stroll through my garden. I know every newly bloomed flower, each plant that is struggling and any newly germinated seeds. Nothing escapes my notice. Gardening is a VERY rewarding hobby.

Do you want to know what I'm doing in my garden this year? OK....I'll tell you. This is my third year in this house and I'm still adding veggie gardens and digging new flower beds. We're fencing the back yard and you know what that means. More places to dig for flowers!! YAAAY! My hanging baskets and railing planters are planted. This year I'm going for sunshine impatients, bidens, bacopa, licorice helichrysum, a lovely dark purple coleus and purple sweet potato vine. I can't wait until the fill in. When they do I'll take some pictures and post them here for you to enjoy. Be sure to come back soon to see if they are up! The pictures you see here now are from a couple of years ago.

The flower boxes are made up of licorice helichrysum, bidens, white bacopa, pink petunias, coleus and swan river daisies (which were a disappointment).

	The tall white flowers in the back are nicotiana "Only the Lonely". They are very unusual looking and have a lovely fragrance in the evening. Gailardia, Achillea, Blue festuca and pink petunias make up the bulk of this bed along with the nicotiana.

My kids had a lot of fun starting some of these plants indoors in the winter and we were all thrilled with how tall the sunflowers grew to. The tallest was over 10' tall! We can't wait to harvest the seed.

	Here's a better shot of the sunflowers. Beautiful, eh?

Here are a couple of my more functional gardens. They are 4'x7' raised beds. I plan to have lots of these little gardens. The back garden has tomatoes, cucumbers, celeriac, leeks, lettuce, fennel, chives and carrots. The front garden has chamomile, stevia, lemon grass, sage, parsley, summer savory and calendula.

I am always happy to find natural solutions to pest problems in the garden. If possible I try to share my garden with the local wildlife but if it gets to the point where I just can't take it anymore I like to use the gentlest approach to the problem. Here are some of the natural solutions I have found:

Natural Recipes For a Pest Free Garden

All-Purpose insect spray

1 garlic bulb
1 litre water
1 small onion
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp liquid soap

Chop or grind garlic and onion, add cayenne and mix with water. Let steep 1 hour, then add liquid soap. Store in a covered jar in the refrigerator up to one week. use as a spray wherever insects are causing a problem.

Aphid Trap Paint a 10"x10" piece of stiff material like masonite a bright yellow. Coat it with petroleum jelly and place near susceptible plants.

Squirrel Repelent

14 ml (½ oz) Tabasco sauce
1 tsp chili powder
.5 litres (1 pint) water
Dash of dish soap

Mix together and spray on the area where the squirrels are giving you a problem.

White fly spray Steep 1 part mashed mullein leaves with 5 parts water. Spray on the affected plants. Aphid trap Paint some pieces of masonite or other stiff material yellow and coat it with petroleum jelly. Place them near the susceptible plants.

As I have more time I will add to this list. I hope one of these recipes comes in handy for you.

Here are some of my favorite gardening links:

The Garden Web -My favorite gardening/herb forums.

The Garden Escape

Mother Earth News

The Ontario Horticultural Association

The Time Life Gardening Library

The Weekend Gardener

Canadian Gardens

Buds

Calgary Horticultural Society

Cyberspace Garden