Starting with definitions

Early January sunrise from my deck

Welcome to anyone who has stumbled upon this first post!

The verb 'mind' means to pay attention to, be careful of, to heed, take charge of and take care of. That's a nice definition of what I want to do with my garden.

My garden is a sunny suburban lot just south of Seattle, Washington, which is zone 8B. Most of the yard was lawn when we moved in years ago. We have converted portions to other uses, but without enough attention to what would work well, and there is still more lawn than I want. What I am now working toward is a sustainable yard that needs little weeding, limited watering, and gives me pleasure in every season.

Commonplace books were (and are) a way to collect quotes, ideas, observations - any information that the writer wanted to remember. They are not a list of chronological events such what the writer ate every day, but instead a collection of wisdom to be looked back upon later. This blog will be chronological by nature since a garden grows through time, but is intended as a way to collect information rather than a log of everything I do in my garden.