I have always loved plants. I used to help arrange the flowers for church on Sunday mornings... tend in my grandmother's gardens... help my mom and many others with their flower beds...

I LOVED biology class (and not just cuz my teacher was cute)... because we had to put together collections of plants and flowers. Later... I considered being a botanist... but then allergies reared up...

After marriage... we moved around alot... but I always tried to have gardens and raised beds... and things grew very well... until we moved here. When we first moved to ABQ... I had some pretty awesome flower beds... but over the years... with lots of travel (mainly in the summers) to PA... things slowly but surely died. And I think a bit of me did as well.

Now... things are looking much better. There are several clumps of decorative grass in the front yard, as well as some lovely potted plants on the patio... and the tree makes such a HUGE difference.. it is amazing.

All that's left in the front yard is to finish building the rock creek in the corner... and we are done there.

Almost time to move on to the back yard...

(About the photos for today's post: the top one is of a gorgeous plant down in Las Cruces...
and the ferns are from a walk in the woods back in PA)

*photos by Elaine A. Russell