I grew up helping my gram in her large garden mostly pulling weeds. Except ever Sunday after church we would cut flowers and go to the cemetery to put flowers on graves and pray for all those she loved and lost.

It wasn't till I had a home of my own that I really got bitten by the garden bug. I had large flower beds and trees all around the house both in and out. I would spend hours every day working on the beds. Even though we lived on a dead end cars would come down all summer long just to see what I had done to my garden that yr. Some would even get out of the car and ask to walk around and I loved to have them come in and talk to them about my garden.

Then 8 yrs ago I got very sick and could no longer work. We lost the house after 2 yrs. I was lucky though and found an apt that the landlord allowed me to put in a garden in my back yard. I have a picture of how the back looked before I moved in. I look at that picture and I can't believe how once again I've taken nothing and turned it into a wonderful place to relax and recover.

There is a small woods behind my apt that has a wonderful trail through it and a man made waterfall that belongs to my church. A yr after we joined the church I volunteered to take over the church courtyard. No one had taken care of it for almost 5 yrs it was over grown and bare. I would work all day almost every day, mostly on my own clearing and finding plants and flowers long lost. The courtyard is after 3 yrs of hard labor become a wonderful place for gatherings, weddings and our Ice Cream Social.

In the last year I have gotten physically much worse. The pain and fatigue has increased to the point that gardening is all but impossible. I finally had to give up working in the church courtyard. Now I can only handle the small garden in my back yard. I really miss working in my wonderful courtyard. My helpers are working hard to keep up the gardens, but they tell me they just don't have my vision or time to keep the garden like I did. So the garden is just being maintained as it is, projects I didn't' complete have been left incomplete. I don't even have the energy to supervise.

My days are filled now with my stain glass painting and when I can I work in the little garden out back. I miss being a creative gardener working in God's house.