La Casa de Sueños
The House of Dreams

As I got older, one dream was to own a place of my own, a home to grow old in, surrounded by loved ones and family and friends. With the help of a awesome person and now friend, Dian Lewis, with Coldwell Banker Mountain West Real Estate, I used my VA Loan benefits and became a homeowner late 2000. It's a neat custom-built 3 bedroom, 2 bath ranch built in 1966 with 1580 sf, an L-shaped fireplace in the living room, a fireplace with a wood stove in the family room, lots of natural Douglas Fir wood trim and paneling, Milgard windows and vinyl siding, a heat pump with a gas furnace backup, and more than enough yard work to keep me busy.

Gardening to me is an escape from an unpredictable, often chaotic world where personality and politics come into play and mean people suck… and into a world of order and balance that I have some control over... for the most part. Give or take the occasional winter snow storm, freezing rain or ice storm, or an aphid attack of a favorite rose bush.

It gives me a feeling of security and stress relief, and satisfies that primitive need to create something beautiful, not just for myself, but to others who might happen to see what I have spent many weekends on… my heaven on earth, a refuge, if you will. My high school biology teacher, Mrs. Claypool, would be proud.

Some of the plants in my gardenyard include: Butterfly bushes (pink, purple, white, gold, Black Night, violet, and red), tropical plants including a Musa basjoo Bananna tree from Japan, a Trachycarpus fortunei Windmill Palm from China, a Araucaria araucana Monkey Puzzle tree from southern South America, a Cornus florida 'Cherokee Chief' red flowering Dogwood tree, scented Geraniums, Irises, a Philadelphus virginalis Mock Orange tree, Euphorbias including a Martini, and a beautiful varigated Canna Lily called Tropicana with orange blooms and striped varigated leaves of red, yellow and green.

Indoor plants I propagate to share include Peperomia obtusifolia 'Variegata' Peperomia, Hoya carnosa Wax Plant, and Streptocarpus gardenii 'Daisy Jane' Cape Primrose.