summertime rolls

 It's been four years (almost to the day) since I got the nerve to sign up for a blogger account. Considering how much has changed since then in terms of twitter, facebook, etc., I can't believe how bashful I was to open this thing up in August of '07.

Since then, I've gone from an aspiring garden writer with a day job at Duke...... to a business manager at Duke with an aspiring home garden. I am very happy with that formula.  Speaking of aspiration, that home garden of mine is doing its best to slow traffic without any supplemental watering right now. And except for the kitchenette garden, I can't complain.  What's doing really well in the dog days of summer? Ironweed, native grasses, blackberry lillies, and asiatic lillies are thriving with no care. Also, coneflowers have reseeded across the yard by the hundreds and I even have a chance at flouting a ginger lily bloom or two in the ditch by my road come September.

I also have two young kids who are now old enough to appreciate the garden. My six year old and four year old know the difference between camellias and gardenias. They can point to a zinnia by name and are more interested in this year's vegetables than I am. I am proud and hopeful that they will grow to love and appreciate both the cultivated and wild outdoors as they get older. 

So, I am pressing pause on piedmont plots and putting myself on a blogger diet for a few more months (or maybe longer)..... In the meantime, I will still cherish my daily commutes through Sarah P. Duke Gardens and my home "yarden" in southwest central Durham. But with my mind's eye open more than my iphone.

I want to thank  those handful of readers out there who have encouraged me over the years. I have had fun. And happy gardening to every single one of you.  Oh, and grow more chrysanthemums.  No, not that pincushion type outside Harris Teeter. You'll thank me later.

Victor Gordon / Durham, North Carolina
USDA zone 7 / Cape Fear River basin