Thoughts for a good new year.....

I am trying to think of what would make this new year "good".

All the normal things that would make it good- good health, happy family, prosperity- that isn't what I am thinking about. Those things I pray for and wish for everybody. I am talking what will make this GOOD year GREAT!

A GREAT YEAR would mean that the weather will be so mild that I can plant tomatoes by the end of February, and enjoy firm, ripe tomatoes by May 15th (at the latest!).

A GREAT year will be one that yields onions like those in the grocery store. Great huge 1015s that are 8" across, and sweet as apples. (Our history has been onions on the smallish size, to the point that DH has sworn off growing onions.) DH's Mama has grown such wonderful onions. . . . . . .

We are not growing corn this year. Same reason as the onions. . . . . . . .

But I want wonderful peas (snow peas, sugar snap peas), so that I may graze in my garden. I do the same with green beans.

I want flowers in my garden, lots and lots of flowers; Zinnia and larkspurs, cosmos, Bells of Ireland, and poppies. Sweet peas are already on the arbor, and the peas are blooming- the ones to eat are blooming!

'Laura Bush' petunias grow in the herb bed, and they are up already. Lots of dill and cilantro, garlic, tansy are up, volunteers from the plants that came from reseeding the year before. Once you have them, you will always have them- my favorite kind of plants. The Mexican Mint Marigold are blooming, pretty little yellow blossoms that smell deliciously of licorice.

I want a RED bed. A real RED bed. One in which every flower is red. My red beds always turn into a multicolored bed, because the red is too orange or too blue. I have a weakness for RED in the garden, but with me, any RED is wonderful. How do I learn to discern which red is better than another?

I want a few things finished around here. The big porch project will be one of those things that we talk about and talk about, then one morning we just start on it, and in a couple of days, it will be almost finished. It will then take forever for the little last details to get done. I don't want that this year. I want things to be finished when we quit working on them.

I want more gardenias this year. We didn't run any air conditioning last year, and I don't expect we will this year either. I want to be able to smell those gardenias blooming from every room in my house. I just wish they bloomed all year. I can take cuttings from my own gardenia bushes this year. My friend shared rooted cuttings with me 2 or 3 years ago, and they have done very well.

Another bush that I want more of (I can't believe this!) is the white oleander. We have some pink ones and red ones that DH rooted and planted, and I have fussed and wished them gone for years. But the white oleander smells wonderfully of baby powder, and it blooms a lot during the year. I think I could line the back yard with it, create a great screen between us and the neighbors, and smell that fantastic fragrance in the evening.

I want so many flowers in my yard that a weed won't stand a chance! THAT would be great!