Every spring and summer I get really excited about planting flowers around my house. I come up with really creative ideas and break out my pair of Kate Spade gardening gloves, straw hat, hot pink kneeling pad and cute, little gardening-tools tote. I really look the part. Unfortunately, the more I think about digging through the dirt with creepy bugs crawling everywhere my enthusiasm leaves and I don’t get much gardening done.

It’s not like my house doesn’t look nice for the summer. We (and when I say we I really mean my husband, Bill) have planted tulips, impatiens, roses, sunflowers and bushes. Bill eagerly mows the lawn each week and also has a huge fruit and vegetable garden. (Although upon first glance, the garden kind of resembles four cemetery plots.)

The problem is I don’t know if our yard could ever look as beautiful as some of our neighbors’ yards. On one side of us we have Donna and Gary Thompson. They have perfectly manicured and scalloped landscaping and have just installed a three-season room.

Living kiddy-corner to our yard is a landscape architect who has already begun what will be a highlight of the neighborhood in the years ahead.

On the other side of us is Sis and Don Jones and let’s just say the Botanic Gardens could pick up a few pointers from them. Crossing over from our yard to theirs is like entering a completely different world. A dazzling array of bright purples, reds, yellows, pinks and greens is in mass abundance. Butterflies of all sizes and colors flitter about while birds are chirping and feeding their young. A fountain trickles down a berm near perfectly-placed stepping stones, benches and an ivy-laden tree.

On any given day, you will find Sis pruning, weeding, planting or even doing a project at her totally “Martha Stewart” wooden potting table. Don, who always wears his gardening hat, can usually be found up a ladder trimming a tree branch, painting a shutter, filling his hummingbird feeders or watering a plant.

But the Jones’ garden wasn’t always so picture-perfect. “The previous owners had a garden and I tore it out 22 years ago,” recalls Sis. “I had some flowers, but I was not into gardening. Then, about eight years ago, I cut out a small garden-spot in back and it kept growing.”

“It’s just a very simple garden,” says Sis, modestly. “It’s my therapy instead of sitting on someone’s couch. The garden is just for our pleasure. I love it.”

Actually, the Jones’ “very simple garden” boasts over 100 different perennials with loads of annuals “interspersed for color.”

Of course, a great deal of time is spent on making the Jones’ garden so spectacular. “In the spring, I put in 10 to 12 full days of work getting it going,” notes Sis. “Then, it’s one to two hours per day weeding, watering, keeping it up. From mid-June on it’s just maintenance and enjoyment. My goal is to have color and something blooming from April to the first of November.”

“We’ll put in a waterfall one of these years,” adds Don.

Some of Sis’ favorites are “my roses. I’ve been lucky with them because they’ve been very happy where they are. The stone wall we added around our patio gave the yard new dimension. And I can’t wait for the cone flowers to come out in July.”

Another highlight of the garden is the transformation of an old, metal swing set into a beautiful arbor with a rose trellis and southern country swing. Our living room window faces the back of it and the Joneses always make sure there are plants facing our direction. This year the arbor has white New Dawn roses, purple Clematis and various-colored annuals in hanging baskets.

Once, when looking out my window I saw my neighbor, Donna, watering Sis and Don’s garden when they were out of town. At first I wondered why they didn’t ask me to look after their plants. But after watching Donna water twice a day for at least 40 minutes each time I thought to myself, “Who needs that kind of pressure?!” I mean, what if their Annabelle Hydrangeas or Red-Osier Dogwood bushes looked a little wilted when they returned? I don’t think I could handle that.

So do green thumbs run in the Jones family? “Mom is in charge of most of it. Dad is in charge of the watering. I’m in charge of enjoying,” declares daughter Sarah Jones. “I’ve discovered that the love of gardening is not an inherited trait.”

And for those of you who are thinking of starting your own garden, Sis has a few tips for beginners:

In order to start, Sis says you only need a small trowel (which I just found out is a little hand shovel), gloves, garden shears, some good fertilizer and a little elbow grease.

Next, read different garden magazines and books to get ideas and go look at other people’s yards “There are so many glorious ones out there.”

“Talk to the garden experts at your local garden center and know how much sun and/or shade is in the designated area, so you can plant accordingly,” notes Sis. “Most plants are either ‘sun-loving’ or ‘shade-loving.’”

“It’s also very important to research what grows in this area. Plants have ‘zones’ listed on them and we’re zone 5.”

Finally, Sis says “just go out and buy what you like and try it. Gardening is a lot of trial and error.”

Well, although I don’t know a Lily-of-the-Valley from a Larkspur, I will definitely use some of Sis’ pointers and hopefully dig a little dirt sometime. If you have an idea for a future column, please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Have a wonderful and safe Independence Day.

© 2007 Susan Dubin, Buffalo Grove, Illinois