Make It Happen . . .

No, this is not my garden! In our newspaper there is a weekly article that I like to read, by Harvey Mackay. He writes about how to improve your business. Although I don't "work", I still like to see what I can learn and apply it to my life. Recently he asked a woman at a conference what she did for a living. She replied that it's what you do with your life that matters. Mr. Mackay then gave several little sayings to show that you have to do something to be able to get something--it doesn't magically appear just because you want it, "you have to make it happen." The one saying that fit this blog says: "Life is like a garden. Plant good seeds and tend them, and the bounty is plentiful." It's like what the Bible says, where you have to sow before you can harvest. My Dad always says you have to give, to get; meaning you have to give up something (like snoozing in a hammock) to get something else you want (like a bountiful garden). Time passes by whether we are busy or not, so we should get ourselves in gear and make something happen!

Wild and Tame Plants

I went down the road, towards the main road, to get a picture of a garden that I saw each time we went to town. In front of the garden, there were wild snow berries and a red burning bush. It was a pretty combination.

The second picture is a close-up of the snow berries. They are all over this area. They are slightly sweet, but have no flavor. The snow berries are rather pithy and would not amount to much if cooked.

I went up to the front door of the house where the garden was and a dog came running up to me barking, but I ignored it like Caesar Milan, "Dog Whisperer", says to do and it worked! The dog sniffed me and then walked away! Whew!!

Anyway, no one was home so I went back out to the road and took this picture over the fence. They have two pumpkins growing on the fence (one is seen here), just hanging on. Like a lot of gardens at the end of the season, they have weeds--don't you feel better now? Almost everybody has weeds in their garden by the end of summer. There wasn't much left in this garden besides the pumpkins.

This year my Dad did not turn over his garden, but put a thick layer of mulch over the ground and planted through it. He was amazed that he has had very few weeds.

I found that removing the nutsedge and bermuda, then laying down thick layers of wet paper or cardboard, and putting thick layers of straw has been good enough that I have few weeds, too. I have had about 2 scraggly weeds per month in each of my new garden beds! That I can handle!