In the meantime, feel free to browse the photo galleries and enjoy past posts.

As human illness may often be prevented by healthful conditions, so pests may be kept away by strict garden cleanliness. Heaps of waste make great breeding grounds for insects. I do not think a compost pile will do harm, but unkempt, uncared-for spots seem to invite trouble.

Keeping the soil aerated is helpful, and there’s a critter that can help with that — the lowly earthworm. They constantly stir up of the soil aiding in keeping it open to air and water. When I was in elementary school, I even had some pet earthworms. That was cool.

Birds can also be a garden’s friends. Many of our common birds feed upon insects. Sparrows, robins, chickadees, meadow larks and orioles are all examples of birds who help in this way.

There are also friendly insects that feed on other and harmful insects. Some kinds of ladybugs do this well, and they’re pretty, too. The ichneumon-fly helps, as well.

If you live in a humid area, some species of toad can be quite the heros with the number of insects they can consume in one meal. The toad deserves very kind treatment from all of us.

Gardeners should try to make their gardens attractive to birds and toads. A good birdhouse, grain sprinkled about in early spring, a water-place, are invitations for birds to stay a while in your garden.

If you wish toads, fix things up for them too. During a hot summer day a toad likes to rest in the shade. By night he is ready to go forth to eat. How can one “fix up” for toads? Well, one thing to do is to prepare a retreat, quiet, dark and damp. A few stones of some size underneath the shade of a shrub with perhaps a carpeting of damp leaves, would appear very fine to a toad.

It is said that yellow gemstones can promote the ability to express yourself. Therefore, they are excellent for writers and public speakers. They also stimulate movement and mental awareness, which can enhance decision making skills.

In the language of chakras, yellow deals with identity and is associated with the Solar Plexus Chakra.

Yellow is full of creative and intellectual energy. Which is why yellow note pads are good for working out your thoughts and ideas.

Some suggest that adding yellow to your life, whether in clothing or decor, can help you when you need:

• Clarity to make decisions,

• Relief from feelings of “burnout”, panic, nervousness and exhaustion,

• A sharper memory or better concentration skills, and

• Protection from lethargy and depression brought on by dull weather.

From “I watched a rosebud”
by Christina Rossetti

The color yellow is associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. Bright, pure yellow is an attention getter. In heraldry, yellow indicates honor and loyalty. Later the meaning of yellow was connected with cowardice.

Yellow is an unstable and spontaneous color, so avoid using yellow if you want to suggest stability and safety.

Queen of fragrance, lovely Rose,
The beauties of thy leaves disclose!
–But thou, fair Nymph, thyself survey
In this sweet offspring of a day.
That miracle of face must fail,
Thy charms are sweet, but charms are frail:
Swift as the short-lived flower they fly,
At morn they bloom, at evening die:
Though Sickness yet a while forbears,
Yet Time destroys what Sickness spares:
Now Helen lives alone in fame,
And Cleopatra’s but a name:
Time must indent that heavenly brow,
And thou must be what they are now.

I had a precious rosebud within my garden fair.
Everyday I watched it and gave it tenderest care!
It grew in grace and beauty till all who saw admired,
and of its exhaltation. Beholders never tired!
– From “My Rosebud”
by Anonymous�

Close your eyes and picture a house of natural color, that mellow gray of the weathered shingles. Now add to this old house a purple wisteria. Can you see the beauty of it?

The place for a flower garden is generally at the side or rear of the house. The backyard garden is a lovely idea, is it not? Who wishes to leave a beautiful looking front yard, turn the corner of a house, and find a dump heap? Not I. The flower garden may be laid out formally in neat little beds, or it may be more of a careless, hit-or-miss sort. Both have their good points. Great masses of bloom are attractive.

You should have in mind some notion of the blending of color. Nature appears not to consider this at all, and still gets wondrous effects. This is because of the tremendous amount of her perfect background of green, and the limitlessness of her space, while we are confined at the best to relatively small areas. So we should endeavor not to blind people’s eyes with clashes of colors which do not at close range blend well. In order to break up extremes of colors you can always use masses of white flowers, or something like mignonette, which is in effect green.