Pine Knot News - A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news

I am breaking the first rule of writers: "Write about what you know." Even though my husband and I have raised gardens for 50 years, my knowledge of the plant world remains quite incomplete. I come from a long line of gardeners, not Master Gardeners, mind you, but women who mastered gardening to feed their families and spruce up the yard with flowers if they had time or energy to spare.

It was understood that I would carry on this gardening tradition when I married and had children. We bought my family home in Douglas County, Wisconsin, complete with my Mom's large garden plot and an abunda...