As an army brat, I never learned and really don't know the first thing about where you even start when you want to create beauty in the yard. I love checking out books on gardening from the library and reading them on my couch, while my yard goes neglected.

Recently, Shar and I were playing in the yard and she was delighted to find a stump that I'd thought was an unsightly mess. How do you find someone like that. In fact, I now understand that it's not about creating beauty, it's about revealing the beauty that's already there. I've long wanted to play with someone outside, someone who could teach me, but wasn't really uptight about how things should be. I really appreciate a beautiful garden.

I owe this new found wisdom to, Shar, my gardening mentor/tutor/teacher. How does a grown woman ask another grown up, "Wanna come over and play in my yard?" That's just what I did. After cleaning away the debris in the stump,.

And, Shar said, "yes." One of the things I've learned from her so far is how easy it is to create little pockets of beauty by "eliminating the negative." For example, I live in the woods, lots of shade and lots of tree debris.