Adventures In Gardening: Getting To Know You

First off I'd like to thank Brenda, @BG_Garden, for the exciting opportunity to be a part of and a writer for the #gardenchat blog! I'm truly appreciative of her friendship and support.

For those of you who don't know me from Twitter where I tweet as @BloominChick, I thought I would use my first post to introduce myself: I'm an eclectic & creative, happily married (late) 30-something who happens to be disabled with sero-negative arthritis & fibromyalgia, mother of an angel in heaven and a born & raised Jersey girl who joyfully gardens in Zone 7a on the coast and 6 in the mountains. (Yup, we have mountains!) I'm also a constipated writer (when it comes to fiction writing) and an avid reader, photo-taker & blogger. Autumn, Winter and Spring are my favorite seasons and I love, love, love a good snowfall.

I don't come from a long line of gardeners. My uncle always planted tomato's though from what I'm told. (And oddly enough, it seems my cousin and I both became interested in gardening around the same time, unbeknownst to one another). 2012 will usher in my 13th gardening season, which all started one April with two containers of large, cheery yellow pansies from the local supermarket that apparently wanted nothing more than to grow & prosper on my old front stoop. I had no idea tending to those little flowers would bring such joy & comfort and quickly lead to my full immersion into (and often obsession with) the world of gardening! Now I cannot imagine my life without gardening. It's something I can't not do and I won't let my frequently uncooperative body & unpredictable health (or the voles) keep me from it!

Those simple pansies lead me to dip my tow into the pool of container gardening. Later on, I was told I could use the small corner "plot" to the side of my old front stoop because none of the neighbors wanted it, so then I dipped my toe into the pool of in-ground gardening. When we finally moved from there in 2005, my few perennials potted up in the back of my husband's pickup truck, I stood in that tiny, secluded spot and cried. (Leaving my first garden behind broke my heart!) Our move gave me more outdoor space than I've ever had before, being a life-long apartment dweller, and has enabled me to have two gardens, full sun out front and partial shade throughout the back yard and now, 6 years later, I have more things growing than ever! I'm still gardening on a smaller scale than many who aren't apartment dwellers and I'm fairly restricted to container gardening (for reasons I'll share another time), but, to me, it's not the size of your garden, what you grow or where it is that matters! Just growing matters and gardens of all shapes, sizes, budgets, in-ground or in containers, etc. make our world a better place when they're tended to with love.

I learn more with every passing season; it's all about trying and seeing what happens. I love reading & writing about this wonderful journey that is gardening. There's so much we experience from dirt to bloom, in and out of the garden, whether it's our own space or anothers'.

I'm looking forward to sharing my Adventures In Gardening with you in the posts to come. Best Wishes for 2012 & a prosperous gardening season and a safe & Happy New Year to all!

~Jo
Diggin' Around
NewJerseyThroughMyEyes