LITTLE OLD SOUTHERN GARDENERS

ONCE AGAIN---I AM WIDE AWAKE---AND CANNOT SLEEP---So I will just tell you about my day!

I road down---(you know any time in the South that we are going further South - we go down) to Natchitoches, LA today for their annual Master Gardener Symposium. NOW--I am NO Master Gardener-BUT they allow us novices to come garner some knowledge also.

We Southern Women garden--Don't You Know?----we are just supposed to do that! I learned my love for gardening from Mamaw James. She was a gardener extraordinaire! I still remember her beautiful flower garden on the North side of her house---a proverbial explosion of color in the Summer.

The first speaker of the day was a little old lady---well actually she was not so little---but I thought she was old--who owns one of the local nurseries in the middle of the state. She talked about container gardening with the fervor and excitement of Paula Dean for cooking----but with a sweet wispy Louisiana drawl---and not the brash style of Paula but more of an excited enthusiastic chatter of your sweet next door neighbor. She was a WEALTH of information and I cannot wait to do my next container after listening to her instructions.

The shock for the day though came when this sweet grandma of a lady told us her age. You could have knocked me over with a feather when she announced to the audience full of Belles With Dirt Under Their Nails that she was 66. OH MY GOSH--she is 4 years older than me. I AM OLDER THAN DIRT AFTER ALL!