Native Time

Each year, Rick and I participate in a tour of local native plant gardens: Rick showcases some of his work, usually including our own garden, and I exercise my design muscles by producing the booklet that each tour-goer receives. The tour is in early May, which means that our February, March and April are...nuts.

We are weeding. We are planting. We are ripping out whole sections of the garden because we have been inspired with some new fantastic vision that just has to be implemented. We are cursing ourselves for taking on too much. We are designing booklet pages. We are designing ads for the booklet. We are thinking of how to make Rick's gardens stand out. We are devising strategies to market our business to the 6000+ folks who register for the tour. We are handling ongoing garden projects that have nothing to do with the tour, for the sake of paying the bills.

Other things we are theoretically supposed to be doing during February, March, and April: Feeding children, bathing children, educating children, doing laundry, sweeping a floor every now and then, and sleeping. And showering. And eating. I think.

It's a truly crazy bats time of year around here.

If you are local (a wide net, inclusive of inland and bayside Contra Costa and Alameda counties), please check out the tour website and register to attend. There are 49 beautiful gardens featured this year (only two are ours), providing endless inspiration for other folks interested in native plants.

This year, we will have a tee-pee! And a lemonade stand, an art stand, and a cookie stand. Heck, I might even set up a Tallulah stand, and foist her off on some unsuspecting garden visitor.

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