One of the things I dearly love about a garden is having so many things to share – everything from food, herbs and flowers to excess plants and cuttings!

I can’t tell you how much of my garden exists because of the generous sharing of friends! One friend in particular, who lives on up our country road, often stops by on her way to town to visit for a while. She rarely does so without bringing me some small treasure from her garden! Her gifts have grown and multiplied and spread over the years, and now the garden has reached a point where I can finally begin to “Pay it forward”! It’s one of the great pleasures of gardening – sharing your bounty!

Sharing ideas and experiences and seeds and laughter over our shared frustrations and annoyances and joys is as lovely as sharing our harvest and plants! Gardeners always have a multitude of stories of experiments that didn’t work or the perfect crop of fruit that disappeared into furry bellies the night before harvest!

There’s nothing more fun for me than wandering the garden with a visitor sharing stories while we graze on ripe berries or cherry tomatoes! And in the end helping them load their car with some small treasure from the garden.

Or at Christmas/Solstice time being able to offer a jar of something made from the garden or a grape vine wreath or basket made with my own hands from things I grew myself.

Have a wonderful, peaceful, hopefilled holiday season, dear people – wherever in the world you are. Happy gardening in 2018!