Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow? Organically.

I've spent the last few mornings working in my organic garden, mostly pulling weeds, as I neglected it during the hotter months.  We don't spray weedkiller or even harmful pesticides when aphids attack.  The most toxic chemical you'll find in our garden is a homemade pesticide: watered down Dr. Bronner's peppermint hemp-castile soap and a small amount of neem leaf.  We've only had to use it on our mint plant and our rose bush, both of which suffered attacks from aphids.

I've found pulling weeds and caring for plants to be better therapy than talking about my "issues" or drugging my emotions, both of which I have done plenty over the years.

Ah Nuprin.. little, yellow, different. Ex squeeze me?  Baking powder?

My nephew and his mama painted these awesome kindness rocks and gifted us this Wayne's World rock for our garden.  I think it adds a party element that was sorely missing from our garden. 😂

We have three different fruit trees in our yard: a citrus seedling sprouted from our compost, a young peach tree we bought from Magic Garden nursery and a pineapple guava tree we bought from the Trees for Tucson, an initiative from Tucson, Clean and Beautiful, Inc. that provides certain varieties of native fruit and shade trees at low-cost.

Our yard was a blank slate when we moved in, so our trees are young and none are producing fruit yet.

We also brought a mesquite seedling from our previous backyard and planted it in our new front yard that is bushing out and growing tall and will provide a great amount of shade.

We also have a garden of pollinator attractors, lovingly started by my mom at our previous house and uprooted when we moved.  It is home to a two different types of sage, bee balm and a healthy crop of aloe vera we brought from our previous house as well.  We can never have too much aloe for our skin.

Our strawberry patch is thriving, as usual.  We started with a hanging planter and have since relocated to the ground surrounded by pots for all the strawberry runners.

This one is too short to grow in any of our pots.  Hmm.

I planted this runner a couple days ago and it has sprouted into a healthy new strawberry plant.

This runner is only a couple days older than that and look at how much it has grown!

The children pay the most attention to the strawberry patch (hardly a wonder why) and so it's always thriving and even gives us a few berries now and then.

About a year ago, my husband saw a miniature pepper plant with purple, green and red peppers at the Santa Cruz River farmer's market and had to have it.  The peppers range from pale yellow, purple and green when young to deep oranges and reds when fully ripe.   It has been a prodigious producer, keeping us in spicy little multi-colored peppers for months, not to mention how lovely it is to witness the peppers as they turn color.

We rescued this little cactus from our compost and it's sprouted into this giant!  Still deciding where to locate it more permanently.

Our rose bush also got transplanted from our previous house, as it was a gift from one of my closest friends.  It now greets visitors by the front door with gorgeous pink and white blooms.  The white roses usually bloom first.

One of my favorite activities is taking photos as the roses bloom to document how they grow.  Which is why I always have lots of rose photos.  I recommend getting a rose bush to everyone who likes to garden or even anyone who needs a friend.  Yes, it doesn't produce food or shade, but its beauty continually lights my day and brings a smile to my face.