by Midge Goeth

You can take the girl out of Kentucky, but you can't take Kentucky out of the girl. Especially when it is springtime in Kentucky.

Driving back from Florida the first week in April was a real treat. Leaving the green tropical vistas of Florida and heading into southern Georgia with rolling hills and the beginning of beautiful red buds in bloom and the occasional azalea and dogwood, I began thinking about my Old Kentucky Home. But between Chattanooga and Nashville, the real signs of spring as I know it, were everywhere. Lots of beautiful red buds in full bloom and clumps of azaleas growing in the wild with a dogwood here and there in the woods. Oh boy, now I set the cruise control a little higher and engaged the radar detector. Couldn't wait to see what was budding out in my own backyard. Well, except for grass that was a week over due to be cut, April 6th was still a bit premature for flowering trees and shrubs in Kentucky. However, all my deciduous and evergreen bonsai looked good and were just on the brink of showing some new life.

I have taken the time these last three weeks on good days out in the yard, weeding, cleaning up winter debris, getting the bonsai out of their winter home and cleaning them up, as well as contemplating the area of the yard I have decided to re-build. Oh yeah!! Always need a new project.

I have always wanted a bit of Asian infl uence in my yard, but other than the bonsai and water pond, I really could not come up with a landscape plan that made me feel like "this is it". I even wrote in one of my columns last year that I was beginning the process. It has been slow coming. Ideas and drawings just were not what I wanted......until now.

Part of my problem was a huge fir tree that is right in the corner of the yard where I want to re-build. The initial plans were designed around that tree. Once again, nothing just jumped off the page and said "this is it".

Well, most of you know that Mother Nature has a constant infl uence on our lives even when planning a new garden. That fir tree has been getting weaker and thinner for two years now, so I feel justified in taking it down. Yes, I will lose valuable shade for other parts of the yard, but that is all part of the challenge.

I have pulled together ideas from books and magazines with a few inspirations of my own stemming from a desire to plant some unusual trees and shrubs, and create a new setting for my bonsai. I once thought I wanted a meditative garden typical of the Japanese Zen or courtyard gardens. However, a bit more color and texture is more to my liking. So, I suppose you could say I will try to meld the EAST with the WEST. Because I already have a pond with fish and water plants, I do not want more running water. However, there will be a "creek" with a small arched bridge over it.

The tree felling should begin around the second week in May. I plan to use some of the trunk for bonsai stands and other parts for some garden decor. I figured if that tree decorated my yard for fifteen years, the least I could do was keep some of it and make it useful.

Our editor, George Buehler, took some "before" pictures last year when I began talking about this project. I informed him that this would not be a two or three month endeavor. In fact, it has been a year in the planning stage, but I am excited now that things are coming together. I am hopeful I will be one of the gardens on our tour next year. Wish me luck!

Editor's Note: We will be running articles highlighting the progress of Midge's garden in future issues of this newsletter. I hope to be able to document the changes as they occur and, of course, try to show changes to the designs and the reasons the changes occur. This should be an interesting endeavor for Midge and we will look forward to its development.