DawnZ

I live in Central Illinois in a small farming community. I grew up on 40 acres just 6 miles north of where I live now. My family always had a garden and my mom loved her flowers. I suppose it is a bit hereditary to want to play in the dirt because my grandparents and great-grandparents had the bug too. While I did travel with my previous job here and there my heart has always been "small town." I am married and have 3 girls. We have 2 lots right in town so that means no chickens.....bummer. We do have 1 Standard Poodle, 1 Miniature Poodle and 1 Miniature Dachshund. Also sharing the home are 2 parakeets and 1 hamster. I serve on the local library board, run my own home daycare and am a 4-H Co-Leader. My kids say that I need to join a support group for "Plantaholics". I say they are crazy....perhaps I am in denial. ;0) I do love my flowers though and have an 8ft. table downstairs full of flower and veggie starts keeping warm under the lights. When we moved here 9 years ago the lot had only 1 apple tree, 4 overgrown evergreen hedge under the front window and 1 rose bush. I have managed to plant crab apple trees, a purple leaf plumb, 2 redbuds, salix willows, lilacs, forsythia, pussywillow, several butterfly bushes, weigelia bushes, spirea and hydrangea bushes. There are beds with loads of varieties of perennials in them ranging from roses, to iris, to monarda, to daisies just to name a few. I also plant annuals in pots around the deck and front entrances. Every year I find more room for more plants and am always up to trying a new variety of something. HAPPY GARDENING!!