Tags
A Writer's Garden, Adventures in Gardening, Author Catherine Castle's garden blog, Gardening blog, gardening in Minnesota Colorado and Texas, Sandy Nadeau, Texas Bluebonnets
Sandy Nadeau is the featured gardener on today’s A Writer’s Garden blog. She’ll be talking about her garden adventures in several of the USA’s great states. Welcome, Sandy! And I have to say I love the field of Texas bluebonnets pictured below. Beautiful!
Adventures in gardening
By Sandy Nadeau
Being a native Minnesotan, I used to be able to grow anything. I spent the fall canning, freezing and admiring my bounty.
Then we moved to Colorado with all its magnificent beauty. We lived in the foothills and I foolishly thought I could still grow anything. I tried. Lord knows I tried. We tilled up an area behind the house that seemed to get most sun and planted everything from radishes to squash. Not even one little red wonder made it. And there was no way anything would grow from seed unless started in the house. Best to buy established plants, but even then at 7,000 feet in elevation, the growing season was short-lived.
I did have some luck with flowers. One just had to be picky about the variety. I had a beautiful forsythia bush, a gorgeous spread of Snow on the Mountain, irises, mint and daisies loved to make their home in my garden. Chives and table onions were successful every year as well.
Now I find myself living in Texas to be closer to our grandkids. I knew I was back in a place that could grow anything when the former owner of our new home showed up to see if I wanted “his guy” to till the garden plot. Dumbfounded, I reminded the elderly gentleman that it was February. February! That’s like winter.
He chuckled and said, “Yep. Gettin’ kind of late. You best hurry and get that garden in.”
Having only been here one month and hearing that bit of news, we thanked him and said clearly we had a lot to learn before taking on a huge garden like he used to have.
Now this February came along, and I needed to garden. I added some western charm to a garden ring around a tree with an old wagon wheel and driftwood and the pop of color of pansies. It turned out great. We’ll see how it holds up to the Texas heat.
We do enjoy a field full of bluebonnets that I don’t have to do a thing with.
I wasn’t quite ready for a full garden, but we dug some large pots out of the wooded area to the back of our property, filled them with dirt and planted some zucchini that I started from seed outdoors!
In February! I added some peas knowing how much my grandkids love peas. A basil plant and a red bell pepper. And then I planted some lettuce in some planter boxes. It’s pretty small-scale gardening, but still gets my hands dirty. Not finding good sweet pickles yet in the stores, I also planted cucumber in a back garden by the house. It’s all experimental so far.
Our purpose for moving here was to be a part of our grands lives and watch them grow. To be able to share with them the growth of veggies they’ll get to eat someday soon, is a real treat for this gardeners heart. I look forward to next February when maybe I’ll have a better plan to grow a bounty.
About the Gardener/Author
Sandy Nadeau has been writing for as long as she can remember. She’s also tried gardening in three different areas of the country. Minnesota, Colorado and Texas. All three providing interesting challenges. Sandy loves to write about adventurous things whether mystery or romance from a Christian perspective; good, clean stories with a Spiritual message. Enjoying life in Texas near her three grandchildren, she hopes to share her love of digging in the dirt with them. She has two published books out and can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Pelican Book Group.
Visit Sandy at her website http://www.sandynadeau.com/ 
See her books at:
http://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37_47&products_id=742
Catherine Castle 
Sandy, loved the photo of the bluebonnets. I felt like I was Gretel approaching a wonderful family’s house in the forest.
Sandy asked me to post her replies since she’s having trouble getting into wordpress. So here goes:
For Zoe’s: The bluebonnets were especially good this year. My mother-in-law was born and raised in Texas. If she were still alive, she’d be thrilled that we live here.
I’d love to know what part of Texas you live in. We lived north of Dallas/Ft Worth in Denton for two of the best years of my life. I miss it 😦 But I do remember the gardening-culture shock when my nice, plump green tomatoes shriveled into tomatilloes because I’d planted too late!!!
For Claire: We live in Waco. Yep, Chip and Joanna’s town. (Fixer Upper) lol I’ve met Chip, even had my picture taken with him. He’s all personality. We’re really happy here near our grandkids. Rather than 900 miles away, we get to be a part of their lives. The Denton area is beautiful.
Thanks for the gardening info. I had no clue elevation could have such a profound impact. My sister who moved to Georgia informed me no one could successfully grow a tomato plant down there. It’s hard not to grow tomatoes in the Midwest which often spring from seeds left by previous plants, and grow on their own.
Posting for Sandy who’s having trouble with WP For Morgan: Yes, elevation really cuts short that growing season. Flowers did wonderful. Vegies, not so much. lol
I know what it’s like moving and starting new gardens. I had a hard time getting anything to grow when we lived in Canada. Your gardens look beautiful.
Catherine posting for Sandy at her request. For Tina: Thank you. I imagine Canada is harder than the mountains of Colorado. We’ll see what next year can do for me and gardening.
Sandy, good to read this report on your gardening progress in the bluebonnet state. Or is that longhorns… anyway, I’d lost track of you, and was pleased to read your name again.