DOVE Garden Walk in Clinton, IL

My best friend and neighbor, Becky, has one of the gardens that are featured in this year's garden tour. DOVE hosts the tour as its fund raiser every-other year. What a wonderful way to spend $10...you get an entire day of touring spectacular gardens (you can always steal ideas from the talented gardeners!), have a tasty free lunch, and give to a worthy cause.

I've spent a day or two helping Becky with some of the usual garden chores. The poor girl has two bulging discs in her neck and is limited in her activities. My gardens are overflowing with interesting hosta, so I've dug up clumps to replant down there.

Tomorrow morning I'll be dropping my resume off at a local business, then going to the movie theater with my niece and her three children. After that, I plan on spending the day helping Becky again. She is very talented with "extras" for the gardens. For example, she has a life-size wire frame dress form that we will stuff with moss and plant with pink impatiens. It will be a unique touch to her paradise.

In the meantime, money has gotten really REALLY tight around here, so I'm trying to sell clumps of daylilies and hosta. I've spent thousands of dollars and have hundreds of varieties of each, most of them named. (I have wonderful plant labels that I always put out.) No bites yet, but maybe once people see the flowers blooming they'll change their minds.

I'm tired, and need to rest up for my big day tomorrow. Sweet garden dreams, everyone.

shel