lystn

Thursday, Dec 27, 2018. I have an old friend from HS on the line, who is a little bit new to gardening, but has had some early success as a neighborhood gardener and a teacher as well! Tell us a little about yourself. I’m an elementary school teacher for 21 years on Long Island. I’ve always been a renter, love to rent!  I always say, I’m the best renter you could ever have! Then at 47 bought a house with my husband and my daughter. When we bought the house in our price range, we had to look really hard to make sure there were no structural problems. We wanted unusual things workshop shed shop skimming things in our price range. We weren’t looking, I thought funny in an ad, landscaping old growth plants I thought that was a funny thing to put in. Bought our house dec 31st never looked outside until the spring when my daughter went to kick a ball, and it landed in some kind of thorn bush and that’s how I got into gardening because we had to do land clearing first! I never expected to be doing land clearing in my forties! Shock! You were telling me a bit about it! Like you were joking about your husband getting a chain saw and you had to have 6 guys come in with machetes! Like this isn’t just a little project! Yes, there was an invasive vine that was killing trees It was so thick, some of the roots were thick as a leg very deep into the ground I had some friends come over who said things from you will never get rid of it to it will cost  $35k To get rid and I sometimes think that was the best thing they could have said to us was you’ll never get rid of it! Because my husband’s an irishman and we took it on as a challenge It took about 3 years to get all of it our neighbors were infected too! Community Neighborhood and Team Work and we worked together Got rid of the fence between us and we got rid of this invasive vine! bundle it take it to the garbage collectors It wasn’t easy to do! But we did it! However, once you clear land, then you have these big spaces and you have to put something in them, so then I had to figure out what plants to buy. It was a big project! And you have such a lovely tiered garden, when I was here in June we got to come over for your solstice party, it’s just gorgeous! my husband did it He was very clever, our backyard that is sloped put in stones! big stones to create these three tiers cement steps easy access the garden I think that is a big key to make sure that it is very easy to access stepping over the plants not gonna fall danger in those tiers I don’t think it would be as easy to access. And it looks lovely! thanks, thanks to him! Tell me about your first gardening experience? no garden scary home we had the home where we left the bicycles My mother was not a gardener, my father was not. I think I came into it very late in life! I think that will be inspiring that you did come late and are doing so well! You can do anything in your life if you really want to, you’re body might not work as well, but you can do it! I’m a big believer in that too! How did you learn how to garden organically? Well my husband just said no chemicals don’t want to put in any part of the lawn because they can run down to where we’re growing vegetables You have to do more weeding that way, it’s also cheaper so that appeals to me. I have a daughter I wanted her to see: how garden grows dormant period the excitement of spring the cycle of life I hadn’t really experienced myself That first year we started with tulips We just love that the colors that come up! Explaining to her! Planting the bulbs in the fall is a very good lesson One thing that gardening teaches to you is patience faith You’re not gonna get return on everything that you do, but whatever the percentage is, it’s very worth the effort learned pacing myself at first we were hoping we...