Kathryn and Nana in the high desert

On this last day of September, and synchronistically, a Friday, I am going to do a Flashback on the story of how I came to begin this blog and celebrate that it continues to this day! Now that I am more settled in my new home in New Mexico posts will be more frequent and I look forward to sharing all that I am learning about life in the high desert!

The Story

In the early 90’s I left my home in Mill Valley in Marin Co., and made my way up to the tiny town of Little River, on the coast of Mendocino Co. I simply wanted to “go to the country and get a dog.” So I did. Here I am with Moxie, my first Border Collie, whom I adored, in the woods, on our two acres, in front of our garage and guest cabin and our first little flower plot. Color us happy!

And there I planted a garden, the first in a long while, and this simple act became the inception of what was to become my book Plant Whatever Brings You Joy: Blessed Wisdom from the Garden. The path to publication involved more than one agent, more than one artist, more than one proposal, a sale and a deadline, and, a variety of other plans, and unexpected turns in the road, including a complete rewrite, and, finally, the decision to self-publish, as, ultimately the plan that worked involved my being able and willing to assemble the team of people who would get me across the finish line. Whew! It was, stunningly, an over twenty year process. When it was at last time to consider the marketing, I rang an agent in the City, an old trusted colleague of mine, updating him and asking for his input. “You need to start a blog,” he said. “What?” I replied, surprised. “I don’t have a book, yet. It’s not finished!” “Doesn’t matter,” he said. “You need a platform.” Apparently being a book publicist for over three decades was no longer enough. Things were changing. “Put on overalls,” he said. (Like that was going to happen.) “Put yourself out there. Now.” Huh. This was completely counterintuitive to my publicity beliefs, but I saw he was right. I took his advice, in my own style–I managed a hat–

— and began my blog, eventually finding the site Blotanical, a gathering of over 2500 gardening bloggers around the world, where Plant Whatever Brings You Joy became the #1 Most Popular Blog for over one year, was ranking in the Top Ten and Top Twenty Most Popular Gardening Blog lists, and was attracting a worldwide audience of over 40,000 people each month. It was on and through this blog that I met and developed friendships with gardening bloggers who to this day are a very treasured part of my life. Lifelong friendships have been formed, and I hold this network as one of the most precious gifts with which I am blessed.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Plant Whatever Brings You Joy did not just open up the door to meeting like minded gardening lovers around the world. It also served as the vehicle for two amazing social media events–first The Scarf Initiative, [for full story explore The Scarf Initiative category in right column] and later, I made a decision to use the blog as a focal point for helping to save the animals in the Tripoli Zoo in the middle of the Libyan revolution. Yes, seriously. It’s called Plant Whatever Brings You Joy. And as readers have learned over and over again, the book Plant Whatever Brings You Joy embraces a wide range of joyful topics, that might well have stemmed from a lesson learned in the garden, but the intention, always, was to apply those blessed lessons in our everyday lives. The tagline for this blog is Heart + Meaning =Joy. Each individual must define for himself or herself what has heart and meaning, that will ultimately lead to abundant joy.

I am deeply grateful this blog has for the last fifteen years been a place of inspiration to so many–myself included. Maintaining it has always motivated me to learn something new, to go on field trips to explore a new place I might share, to document the life in my garden, as a careful nature lover and observer, to share my favorite recipes. I have always turned away “advertising opportunities” and kept the blog as a sacred place, an oasis, where folks might come and be uplifted. And where they might be inspired. And where they might learn. I’ve included reviews of books I’ve appreciated. I’ve shared my photographs, sending them out into the world where many have a life of their own, moving around the globe unhindered. “It’s just light,” I have told folks. “If I’ve captured something that people want to send along and share, well, good.”

“Stuff your eyes with wonder.” ~Ray Bradbury

I am so grateful for these last fifteen years, and what has come forth, and I look forward to continued exchanges with you, dearest readers. Thank you for your comments, your readership, your subscriptions, your own blogs, your loyalty and love.

Recently I put together a board on Pinterest that is, essentially, a tribute to this blog and to the publishing of my book, and its journey as it continues to find readers around the world. Did I think I’d still be writing this blog after fifteen years, and promoting my book after twelve years? It never really crossed my mind. But the path is still beckoning, and as the meme says, “Don’t quit before the miracle!” Can’t wait to see what happens next. Thank you for being with me on this journey! You are each so appreciated, more than you could possibly know.

Love and garden blessings,
Kathryn xoxo

Posted on September 30th, 2022 by Kathryn
Filed under: People at Work | 2 Comments »

Way way way back when I first started my book publicity business I had an upstairs office in downtown Santa Rosa that looked out back on a courtyard and a parking lot, divided by heavy wire fencing. That was not the view I wanted and I decided to plant morning glories on the fence to transform that view. Those of you who have read my book Plant Whatever Brings You Joy might remember that when I went out to plant seeds I was crestfallen to discover that the dirt at the base of the fence was only one inch deep. Below was parking lot asphalt. Soon I was relaying this to a dear friend on the phone, while looking out the back window. “I would need jackhammers to plant anything back there, Justine!” I lamented. Unbelievably just beyond the fence were several men digging into the asphalt with jackhammers. I got off the phone, scurried down the staircase and spoke with the man in charge of those workers who kindly and miraculously agreed to have them dig holes for me along the fenceline, deep enough to accommodate a small seed, and within a couple of months that fence was transformed into a wall of purple beauty.

Fast forward decades to my current reality in the high desert where the east, south and west of this property is nearly all fashioned into broad patios. Deeper exploration and consideration allowed me to imagine the heretofore unthinkable. I could garden along the wooden fence line between me and my west of me neighbors, which is four inches deep and forty-five feet long. Yes, really. I said, “This is what I’ve been given, and this is what I will make use of.”

As it happens I brought a lot of seeds with me from California. I augmented my stash with four kinds of morning glory seeds from a big box store, put my judgments and whinging behind me and shifted to a creative whimsical mindset that this was not only possible, I had done it before–incredibly under worse circumstances. I put in my seeds. As luck would have it, I had brought with me from my California garden some wrought iron border fencing, that “just happened” to fit into the chosen allotted space. They had something to climb on! Knowing they would need something once they reached the top I strung twine and various colored wool yarns from the metal border to the tops of the wooden fencing along which I was planting. Perfect. Fortunately, as they gradually emerged from the earth, they thought so, too! They are off and running. This is the fun part where they seem to grow inches overnight!

This particular fencing is built in sections. Two panels over I decided to put in nasturtium, which, happily, has now also begun to grow. No flowers yet!

What is not lost on me as I begin to claim and improve and be creative with the blessings I have been given in the high desert, is that I am largely working from seed. Given that Plant Whatever Brings You Joy: Blessed Wisdom from the Garden is, in its entirety, a book based on metaphors from the garden [indeed, the working title for my book was Metaphors from the Garden!] is that if there were ever a time to be beginning a new garden from seeds, now would be that time. And so I am. It is both humble and humbling. It is also inspiring and enlivening. I am not, much as I am tempted, going into a nursery and buying ready made plants. I’d have to put them in pots, for starters. That does little to connect me with this new earth I am exploring, digesting, adapting to and learning about. Putting a teeny tiny seed in the ground and watching the miracle of a seed transforming itself into beauty and food is a far more important life exercise for me in this moment. I walked away from a garden I had developed over a fifteen year period. It has been shared literally with thousands of people over that decade and a half. I am, in so many ways, Starting Over.

Mind you, I did buy a bunch of petunias when I first got here, in winter, and left them in their original pot, which I placed in a big basket and kept them in the house until the weather changed. I took the time to harden them and then left them outside. I was rewarded with not only their stunning beauty, but also not one but two amazing opportunities to catch on video hummingbird moths visiting them! (I will feature those in an upcoming post!)

I also early on purchased a jasmine, now in a pot and doing well, and a breath of heaven, which was one of my very favorite plants in my California gardens, living in a very large pot. I could not resist buying a small one and planting in a pot. Those two plants along with one geranium and a few pansies are my entire collection of potted plants at the moment and they have served as soul and heart comfort as I get my grounding here in the desert.

Oh, hold on. There is one more. My daughter bought me a desert willow on Mother’s Day! So, yes, there is that. It was the bridge from familiar plants that comforted me to the leap to desert plants that thrilled me. There is one very established one that hangs over the wooden fence from the neighbor’s yard. Lucky me, as 3/4 of the tree is over here, not over there. I have pruned it and talked to it and I may or may not have watered it a wee bit while she is away at work, and the result is that it is the most nourished most beautiful I’ve seen since arriving. I simply love it. So I’m happy and grateful to have one of my own in a large pot on the eastern patio. Very.

Gardens in New Mexico cannot be separated or viewed apart from the overhead skies. Here’s one from this week. Stunning.

I do hope you will join me in this high desert adventure. I am learning so much, particularly about the birds who live and pass through here. I am grateful to have the many longtime subscribers to this blog and I look forward to your comments!

Love and garden blessings from the high desert of New Mexico!

Kathryn

Postscript, because I know some of you are wondering: this village is 4800 feet high!

Posted on June 7th, 2022 by Kathryn
Filed under: People at Life, Plants | 4 Comments »