Sometimes I surprise even myself……recently clicked the link to a twittering gardener’s blog and was surprised to discover I was logged in to Blogger as Garden Kim. Huh? I don’t have a blog. Then I remembered, I’d signed up over the winter in order to follow my son’s classroom blog. Had totally forgotten I’d chosen Garden Kim as my name.

I guess even then, I knew the garden bug was going to get me again. That I could not keep one of the primary passions in my life tucked away and forgotten. And as this re-awakens, I need to examine where it started, where it went, and then just sit back and enjoy the ride moving forward. Will I get back to the true hortaholic of the past? Do I have it in me to once again put heart and soul into creating a new garden while still grieving the ones before – especially as not one but two no longer exist, sodded over by new owners who either couldn’t appreciate their splendor or found them too hard to handle.

I’ve always been a gardener….I remember asking for a small plot in our yard to grow my favorite moss roses, and learning a hard lesson about putting sun lovers in shady places. In my 20’s as a renter in Lexington, KY, I had the coolest attic apartment in a historic home, and lined the fire escape with my first container garden. When I finally did get my own ground to build in, I quickly went from casual dabbler to fanatic. Much of this metamorphosis was fueled by connecting with on-line gardeners via CompuServe’s Garden forum, some through real life connections with local gardening clubs and the Mid-Tennessee Daylily Society.

I learned to use my garden as a creative outlet, painting with plants. I often thought of areas of my garden by color related names, the peaches and blueberries bed, the blue/yellow bed, the hot garden, the white garden. I spent hours poring over catalogs in the winter, planning and designing new beds, new combos. Spring brought that incredible rush of the boxes and boxes of all treasures ordered over the winter. Lunch hours were spent scouring garden centers for the perfect plant to fill a spot, or discovering the perfect plant to build a new spot around.

However, for the last couple of years, this passion of mine has been repressed. A variety of reasons, a change of jobs, a year of long distance commuting between the old home and a temporary one here in Milwaukee. The uncertainty of owning two homes, moving a family, getting both our careers in place, son settled in school and sports, it was not until this spring that I finally started feeling the bug again. Just little bits here and there. Accepting that while I built and lost two great gardens from blank slates, this new space, in its overgrown, shady, cooler climate will present new and unique challenges. But also new and unique opportunities.

And so in this blog, I’ll maybe spend a post or two remembering the past, mostly it will be about re-building the future. Uncovering the existing bones of the garden – as it is apparent there was an owner who had a garden, and beginning to put my own stamp on the spot. Who knows what names I’ll come up from the areas moving forward?