Featured Garden: Prairie Garden

When I was little we moved into a new housing development. In those days no one around our area hired a landscaper. Everyone did their own landscaping. Every weekend the whole family was out digging around and planting things. The first year that we lived there my father plowed up the vacant lot next door and planted corn. He then turned the weeding and hoeing over to my brother and I. (It is amazing how big Mexican Sandburs can grow when left undisturbed.) I am still a bit lax about weeding but I love to see things coming up out of the ground. It still seems like magic.

I have always loved Peonys and Iris. They grow extremely well in this part of the country and they are almost bullet-proof. They come in an amazing diverse of colors. When I was a kid they usually bloomed around Memorial Day. We would cut huge armloads of flowers, load them into big buckets of water and take them to decorate the cemetery.

A few years ago I designed a small courtyard garden in the front of the house. I planted it with perennials: Peonys and Iris of course, as well as Purple Cone Flower, Blazing Star, Dictamnus, Daisys. Spiderwort and other favorites. It has become my favorite spot and developed into a small oasis on hot Kansas summer days

Time and tide. There never seems to be enough time to get things done before the weather moves in and the sun goes down.

Never put off things. The weather can change in a heart beat and if you don't do it today you may never get it done. I am bad about this.