I’ve got a problem. Strike that. I have a serious addiction.

I need to go to NA meetings as in Nurseries Anonymous.

Most people go to a nursery looking for a plant or two. I end up buying enough that I have a challenge getting them into my SUV.

One neighbor refers to my front yard as “the jungle” Another calls it the Winchester Mystery Garden. Since I’ve planted 85 trees and shrubs plus 112 geraniums and 30 assorted other types of plants so far and have re-arranged things on a major scale three times, they are both right.

The funny thing about this is my plan is to make the back yard - which is significantly larger - more intense.

I’ve barely started back there as I’ve only planted 79 trees and shrubs.

I’m at a loss to understand how I got to this point.

Growing up, I hated yard work. I didn’t have a plant in my first apartment. After I got married and we bought a house, I did get carried away but I stopped after 160 roses and 24 other trees and shrubs.

When I moved back into an apartment after the divorce I found myself with 30 geraniums and ferns on my front porch and balcony.

Still nothing explains why I’ve ripped out all of the grass, torn down two outbuildings, removed three cement slabs, taken out brick flowerbeds, and tore out yard sidewalk to try and create as much space for informal gardens as I can. I did leave the patio slab in place and the garage intact although I’ve toyed with the idea of removing them.

I’ll be the first to tell you my place - if it is ever finished - will never be a candidate for a garden tour. I don’t have any formal lines created by curbing, brick or lawn since I have none. The only thing besides trees and shrubs in my yards are brick paths set in sand as well as stepping stones.

I also am not wild about ground cover per se nor obviously grass. Bare dirt where there are no shrubs, trees, or plants is just fine with me.

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact you get as much out of a garden as you put into it. The more work, the more beauty. But then again, I’ve known people who turn yard work into a production. That’s not me.

I’m the type that is content to water by hand. It gives me a reason to not be on the run and to just think for awhile. It also gives me the opportunity to keep an eye on things. Subtle garden changes don’t slip by while at the same time I’m definitely not a slave to one of the Ten Commandments of Gardening that thou shall pull a weed the second you see it.

If I’m in the front yard, watering by hand gives me the opportunity to talk to neighbors and others who pass by.

Another clue is my reaction to the house when Carol Bragan first showed it to me. Normally I wouldn’t care much for 1950s flat tops. But this house was different. Unlike many other homes we looked at, half the yard wasn’t covered in concrete. It has a large floor-to-ceiling window that covers more than half of the front room wall allowing you to take in the entire front yard. Even the slider in the back does the same after I ripped down the patio awning

I even like the fact the laundry room is at the end of the carport. I have to step outside to access it.

Maybe it’s the idea I really don’t like being inside and I like the feeling of openness. It may explain why I took all the doors off inside my home save the bathroom door that I replaced with wood-framed glass door as I did the exterior doors.

I guess I don’t like being cooped up. And I prefer my jungles to be overgrown with vegetation and not concrete.

Besides there is no better way to cool off after a late morning run than to stand in a heavily shaded part of the yard and cool off while watering.

Life doesn’t get any better than that.