All the Dirt on Gardening

In our area, stones are a natural part of the landscape. In fact, it's impossible to plant anything here without removing rocks and stones of various shapes and sizes. On our slice of property in NE Oklahoma, we have made stacked walls, walkways and flower bed borders with the natural rocks we have unearthed and moved. There is a new, extremely worthwhile little book out called " The Spirit of Stone: 101 Practical and Creative Stonescaping Ideas for Your Garden " by Jan Johnsen. It's loaded with beautiful photographs will inspire your creative process. There are simple project designs that home owners can accomplish on their own or with friends and family pitching in In addition, Johnsen has plenty of more complex projects that you may want to hire a professional to do for your landscape. The photos include ideas you may want to use for a rock garden, steps, viewing spots, dry stream bed, walk, foundation, stacked rock art, edging, or art. There are char...

We discovered a metal artist studio in Hutchinson KS, called Three Doors North. We asked the owner to make a sign for us for our garden, "Garden of Cosmic Speculation" that we had heard about through a novel. The actual Garden of Cosmic Speculation is a 30 acre creation in Scotland. Our garden is named that out of pure whimsy. Jon painted the plain metal sign. Love Like a Rock  One of the first pieces we purchased is the metal heart she called "Love Like a Rock". We bought it in a garden gift shop in KS. You can check out Three Doors North at their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ThreeDoorsNorth/?fref=ts The owner is Heike Kirk-Ettwein. Here is her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/heike.kirkettwein?fref=ts The work is wonderfully creative and Heike is a delight to meet and talk with about her art and her methods. One of her other pieces, this metal butterfly is no longer being made so we love it twice as much.