Our next door neighbors are a very sweet and wonderful couple. They are kind, fascinating, hard working people that I have tons of respect for. It’s a great thing to have good neighbors, you know it? We have lots of them. Mainly retired widows and retired lesbian couples.

But this particular non-lesbian couple have a love for gnomes. They collect them. There are gnomes of all shapes, sizes and expressions both in their home and in their yard. Ceramic ones, plastic ones, you name it. They’re cute little dudes that bring a smile to my face.

But, you see….the neighbors tell us there are other gnomes. Real, live gnomes. And they live in our two back yards. They tell us that they mainly protect us from bad spirits, sometimes they take off with toys and small items….and sometimes they leave surprises and do random kind acts.

This brings us to my garden. I had marked off the perimeter of my garden with the hoe. It isn’t enormous, but when you plan to turn the soil manually, the job can be very overwhelming. One evening, Shayne and I had begun shoveling and turning the soil and finished one small section before it was time to call it a night.

The next day, I went out to water the dirt and soften it up…..and what do I discover?

The area we had worked with the shovel was turned better. Deeper. And a larger area was done.

I convinced myself that I’m just crazy and that we either did more than we thought we did, or that Shayne had come back out and done more while I was busy with the kids.

Neither of these were the case.

Our neighbor saw me out there and said with a wink that he had seen gnomes in our garden and they were acting awfully suspicious! I told him what they had apparently been up to back there and he said that he really suspected that while we weren’t looking, the gnomes would be making another visit to finish off the job.

All the while, there’s a new, shiny tiller sitting about 10 feet behind him.

Hmmm….

I’ll just say….I really like having gnomes! They do good work! Just look…

While I was out taking pics of the gnomes’ handiwork, I thought I’d show you my baby zinnias, too. They are coming up beautifully. Zinnias are tough, tough flowers. They can survive the mean Texas heat and don’t need just a whole lot of water. These will be about 18 inches tall and just full of big gorgeous blooms…

And…my most producing little strawberry plant had a pretty little bloom on it this morning…blinding, really.

I’ve never been much of a green thumb, but I’m really giving it my best shot this time around. Wish me lots of luck, flowers, fruits and veggies!