I began my gardening with vegetable gardening. It's pretty fulfilling, what with the food and all. However, my first veggie garden included a patch of rutabaga. Wow, they were really prolific. I was lured into planting them by the promise of rutabagas at Christmas time. Let me tell you, by Christmas, you never want to see another rutabaga.

Then I got my first house and there were plantings, but no real garden. That came when the couple next door decided they wanted nothing of the aged flower garden left in their back yard. The man next door said to me, "Come and get anything you want before we spray everything with 'agent orange.' "

So I procured shovel-full after shovel-full of peonies (not knowing what color they were, irises (all one color) and phlox. They all came up. So I decided that what I wanted was a perennial garden. I wanted to decide on something, put it in and watch it come up year after year. I was alos inspired by a visit to Miami with Maren to Lynn Applegate's house. She had done xeriscaping--all indigenous to South Florida. I liked the idea of not having to pamper my plantings.

So I picked out prairie plants, being that I lived in Northern Illinois. But what I have found after now having books and doing research on plants and garden planning, is that you can do all the research and gaining of knowledge, but then you go to your local nursery and you really just have to pick from what they have in that year--they don't always have that perfect color or species you are looking for.

So in 2 weeks, I am going a new direction. I am going to a plant sale in N Illinois held by a nursery that grows and sells ONLY indigenous plants. I am hoping for a better selection than the grocery store parking lot nursery, for sure. I plan on taking the last bit of grass out of my yard and installing a front yard garden that is bird and butterfly friendly.

This will be the best of everything garden. No more grass cutting, watering or fertilizing (or the dreaded application of Scott's turf builder!) And the increased traffic of birds and butterflies to the yard will, perhaps, encourage my neighbors to do some of the same and help to provide more habitat for indigenous bird and insect species.

Moral of the story--books are fine--but just go see what's out there. Pick the nurseryman's brain and get some suggestions there. You can't plan the garden until you know what you have to work with--then it's all on the fly. And if you're like me (and many of my gardener firends) you spend every year thereafter moving stuff around and 'perfecting' the look.

And I'm still adding plants every year and we've lived here 23 years.

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