Gleanings from the Editor

When you receive the next issue of Homegrown, there will be another picture above this column. We are moving from our well-loved old house in the country into another (we hope) well-loved home in a small town.

After fifteen years of fighting the gingerbread to keep it attached to the porch, battling the windows to keep them in their sills, and supporting the energy company to air-condition and heat our quarter of the county, we decided to make a change.

Of course, the main thing I hate to leave is my garden. Still it is exciting to think of creating a new garden - smaller, more compact and easier to care for, limited to the plants I really love.

I have a hard time murdering plants that seem to be doing well even if I don't particularly like them. So, in my current garden, I have several things I'd just as soon not have, but I don't have the nerve to dig them out.

In my new garden, I can pick the ones I know I want. I've already taken cuttings of my favorite roses, dug my favorite iris and lilies, and saved seeds from several plants. It's fun planning for a new beginning with old standbys. I was lucky that we've had enough rain to soften the soil enough to dig and keep the pots moist.

It has been a beautiful autumn so far, plenty of cooler weather and sunshine interspersed with some much-needed rain. Autumn is my favorite time of year in Central Texas. Everything seems to mellow out and the the horrible heat subsides at least a little. Sweet smelling favorites like Autumn Clematis make the yard into a perfumery and the roses get their second wind about the time the mums come into bloom. It's a great time and place to have a garden, and I'm glad that wherever I go, I'll always have a spot where I can dig in the dirt and enjoy the results.