Introducing Dee Nash - Central Garden Guru

Someone asked recently what I do when I’m not gardening. I stared for a moment before answering…because I’m always gardening. If I’m not planting outdoors, I’m thinking about design and what to plant where. I read a lot, but many are books about some aspect of gardening.

I live in a log cabin in the rural hillsides of Oklahoma between the Great American Prairie and the deciduous forest. My husband, Bill, and I own seven and a half acres, much of it wooded with blackjacks and other oaks, native redbuds and, of course, Juniperus virginiana or Eastern Red cedars. My garden is approximately an acre of raised beds with amended red soil. Yes, my soil is truly red and sandy, with pockets of the hardest, stickiest, red clay you can imagine. Bricks are made and shipped just south of me in Oklahoma City…with our soil, you can see why.

Since my early twenties, I’ve grown vegetables, tropicals--indoors and out, annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees. I have a special romance with roses and daylilies, but there are few plants I won’t try.

I’m excited to write for Proven Winners^® because I grow so many of their plants in my garden, and I have some special favorites which are must-haves each spring. One plant I always search for is Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum Petunia. With its dramatic growth and tough attitude toward adversity, this petunia edges many of my borders…such a beautiful shade of pink, too. Like a diamond solitaire, it enhances nearly everything. I noticed during our record-breaking, hot summer of 2011, tropicals--grown as annuals--like Supertunia^® Petunias were a success. They shrugged at the heat and just kept on blooming. So, this spring, I’m planting swathes of them.

See, I told you I’m always gardening. Passion has no season.

^© Proven Winners, Inc.