Garden Party: Who I Am As A Gardener

To get a picture of who I am as a gardener,

I live in deep South Texas in the Rio Grande Valley,

about 13 miles from the Mexico border.

I grew up on a ranch about 80 miles from where I live now, and how I garden

is because of my mother and watching her in her yard of about 2 acres.
My mother worked hard in her garden, all with a smile and sense of satisfaction on her face.

When she had the opportunity to have someone help her in the garden,

she taught me that I needed to work with them and not instead of them.

She taught me about the importance of watering and finding just the right balance.

She accepted that there were going to be times in the year living on a ranch when there just wasn’t much

you could do to make things look better.

She also taught me that sometimes, if your schedule permits, it’s a good idea to stay home in your gown all

day working around the house.

That is one of my favorite lessons.

There was another gardener in the family though-

the kind who does things on a larger scale.

I was greatly influenced by my father too and his love of big projects.

He farmed as many as 4000 acres throughout his farming life,

and in his 80’s he

was farming 640 acres of grain on his farm El Perdido.

He also grew zinnias and we had lots of discussions about

the ‘right’ way to do that.

I miss those talks.

He’s telling me how to do it better in this picture.

I have referred to my style of gardening, as a result of these wonderful influences,

as

Rancho Landscaping.

Rancho means ranch of course, but it goes further than that in my thinking and heart.

Rancho landscaping means that there are times when I am working so hard in my yard that

I can barely walk at the end of the day, and I am smiling- just like my mother.

It means that I have made mistakes and planted things in all the wrong places.

It also means that they (my plants) seem to know I care, and they grow anyway bumping and twisting into

whatever I planted too close to them.

Rancho landscaping means things aren’t perfectly manicured, but in the early evening, at the end of a long

day of gardening , there is no better place to sit and have an iced cold drink.

The area where I live is Zone 9 and what that translates to

is heat, inconsistent rain (until this year), and a reliance on native plants.

There are special treasures in my garden that I just can’t do without.

Here are a few:

Talavera

Fountains

Lights

My tomatoes and zinnias are struggling right now, but they are

really trying.

I love that about gardening, and that is who I am as a gardener.

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