Ten years ago, on April 3, 2009, I published my very first MulchMaid blog post.
It wasn't much of a post. I didn't have a lot to say. There were no pictures. I wanted to start blogging about the garden, so I just threw a virtual stone into the blog pond with a few sentences.
How little I realized what huge ripples in my life that beginning toss would yield. In the ensuing ten years, I have met the most wonderful group of gardeners, both locally and nationally. Some of them I'm lucky to call real friends. All of them have been generous with their encouragement, knowledge, camaraderie and plants.
Also in those ten years, the garden has grown, changed, frustrated and delighted me. Plants in the garden have come and gone. My interest in various plant groups has changed. My space for experimentation has shrunk as I filled up the garden. More beds have been carved out. Plant maturity and death have required new plans and new solutions.
Everything is still far from perfect in the garden. My other two original goals–teaching myself to write and learning to take better pictures–remain elusive. And I don't blog as often as I did in those first, heady years.
But I'm having a great time. I look forward to seeing gardening and blogging friends at open gardens, plant swaps, and the annual Garden Bloggers Fling.
Especially this time of year, I can't wait to be out in the garden doing something–anything–so I can breath in the earthy scent of the beds and the spring fragrance of flowering shrubs.
I can't wait to plant the next wonderful find from a nursery or a plant sale or swap.
Life is good at Longview Ranch. I wonder what the next ten years will bring?
It wasn't much of a post. I didn't have a lot to say. There were no pictures. I wanted to start blogging about the garden, so I just threw a virtual stone into the blog pond with a few sentences.
How little I realized what huge ripples in my life that beginning toss would yield. In the ensuing ten years, I have met the most wonderful group of gardeners, both locally and nationally. Some of them I'm lucky to call real friends. All of them have been generous with their encouragement, knowledge, camaraderie and plants.
Also in those ten years, the garden has grown, changed, frustrated and delighted me. Plants in the garden have come and gone. My interest in various plant groups has changed. My space for experimentation has shrunk as I filled up the garden. More beds have been carved out. Plant maturity and death have required new plans and new solutions.
But I'm having a great time. I look forward to seeing gardening and blogging friends at open gardens, plant swaps, and the annual Garden Bloggers Fling.
Especially this time of year, I can't wait to be out in the garden doing something–anything–so I can breath in the earthy scent of the beds and the spring fragrance of flowering shrubs. 
I can't wait to plant the next wonderful find from a nursery or a plant sale or swap.
