When Loxley resident Jennifer Kincaid was a little girl making her way toward home one day, she spotted a beautiful bed of flowers beckoning to her from a neighbor's garden. Since her family did not have any flowers in their yard at that time, little Jennifer just knew her mom would love a pretty bouquet and proceeded to yank the tulips up-- bulbs and all and carried the treasures home. Mom Rebecca Luck, was indeed thrilled with her sweet girl's gift; however, the neighbors were a bit upset when their realized that their cute little neighbor had wreaked havoc in their tulip bed.

"Right then, my grandfather began planting roses in our yard," Jennifer laughingly shares, "so we would have flowers of our own!"

 Jennifer, a Tennessee native and former resident of Canada, California, Arizona and now Alabama, has had plenty of practice growing and raising her own flowers--as well as herbs and vegetables in a broad variety of climates and growing conditions.

"In high school out in California," Jenn says, "I continued expanding my love of growing flowers. I attended a boarding school which stressed self-sufficiency-living successfully on your own. I lived in my own cabin there where I grew a flower patch and continued to learn."

Jennifer and mom Rebecca Luck moved to Loxley a little over a year ago into a lovely new home with a rather blank and bleak canvas of clay surrounding it. The results, after a year of digging, planting, amending soil and hauling rocks are impressive.

Under the early sun of the pending summer solstice, surrounded with colorful blooms, Jennifer and Rebecca relax in their shady backyard retreat-sitting around the comfortable patio-complete with cat in chair and enjoy the colors and fragrances that delight during this season of early summer.

The combination of Jenn's penchant for "creating things pretty and yummy-I love to cook!" Her current job at Flowerwood Nursery has served her well as she has established plantings that will thrive in our coastal hot climate.

"I love the longer growing season here," she says. "I can grow both cherries and citrus and I love tomatoes and gladiolas, which are both doing well."

This organic gardener, following Grandpa's sage advice, "always keeps feeding the plants. I use lots of compost," she says, "with fish emulsion for fertilizer. I have a compost bin into which I toss eggshells and coffee grounds, among other things. I work full time in the nursery and then come home to work an hour or so in the garden and as much as I can on the weekends."

All of this education and attention show up really well in the lure of Jennifer's rock-walled garden. In the front yard, beds filled with agapanthus, knockout roses and purple fountain grass hug the house's foundation. Drift roses, which spread out a few feet, sage, dogwood, Empress of China, citronella, five different varieties of Japanese maples along with hostas and azaleas surround the stone and pebble walkways and walls with the blooms and sure grace of summer.

Jennifer explains, "We have added all new shrubs here-some from nurseries and some treasured contributions from family and friends. We have knockout roses from my aunt's house, camellias garnered from Mom and my grandfather in Daphne and gladiolas and daffodils from Canada and North Dakota-all thrown into this garden canvas." Cassias, forsynthia, bougainvillia in planters, pink mandevilla, Indian hawthorns and Tiawan flowering cherry all contribute their unique delights of color and form into a charming mix.

Fruits and vegetables are certainly not ignored in Jennifer's landscape. She recites an impressive list, "We grow blueberries, cantaloupe, elderberries, husky cherries, strawberries, apples and peaches, lemon, lime and grapefruit. I grow tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, cabbage, zucchini, cucumbers, peas and beans, as well. I enjoy growing herbs such as stevia plant, borage because it attracts the good bugs with dill, basil and sage."

Taking care of the garden all through the summer means the difference between a weedy, neglected space and a productive, bountiful one. Jennifer's mom helps with the routine gardening chores such as watering and weeding, but also helps with design ideas. Both mother and daughter spent six months hauling and arranging rock and gravel walls and walkways throughout the garden—dividing the yard into pleasing raised beds and artful pathways.

As the back door of spring slams behind us, Jennifer relishes the long days of summer as she continues to indulge her love of creativity and flowers begun so long ago when she gathered tulips from a neighbor's bed. The love of dirt and what grows there is among our earliest passions. Think of the days of mud-pie making-our pure and primitive desire to feel the mud oozing between tiny fingers.

Fondness for the ground and what we can harvest from it comes back to us-after we have run the rounds of pleasures and business, sown the wild oats of youth and drifted about a bit in the world. The love of digging in the ground comes back to us until, at last, we go under the ground to remain. For many gardeners like Jennifer Kincaid, that passion came early and never went away.