And the Finalists are....


My nascent blog, born in the depths of winter a few months ago, has been nominated for 'Best New Garden Blog' by the Mouse and Trowel ....I am up for a 'Mousie'! (this is the 'Oscar' of the Garden blog world ) .

The Mouse & Trowel Awards, fondly referred to as 'Mousies', are the brainchild of garden blogger and writer Colleen Vanderlinden. She wanted to bring attention to garden bloggers in 2007 and this is the wonderful result!



What I love about this award is the recognition that many of us bloggers, as Colleen writes, “don’t just blog — we have to grow the gardens, too!" So true..here I am at 6:45 a.m. writing away..I have to leave soon to go to work at my landscape design / build firm...

(Johnsen Landscapes & Pools)

Why do I do it? Ah, there is the question....bleary eyed, staring at the screen, waiting for the garden blog muse to alight upon my shoulder in the 'rosy fingered dawn'....why, indeed.

For me, it is the need to connect and share a love of this glorious earth and her treasures with other like minded souls....


(Pots filled with petunias, angelonia, etc. - the evergreen backdrop helps!)

We are a unique bunch, as you know. We don't have concert halls the way music lovers do nor do we have world class museums as art lovers do...we have gardens, big and small, lush and spare, elegant and homey.....gardens that we show to each other or visit on garden tours.


(garden by Jan Johnsen - in the early fall)

I firmly believe that Francis Bacon was right when he wrote in the 17th century:

“... when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to build stately, sooner than to garden finely; as if gardening were the greater perfection.” 

I appplaud that ‘greater perfection’and urge you all to keep on perfecting that garden of yours....and please, if it suits you, Vote for Me. Go to the voting gadget on the upper right of this blog....

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