From whence came New Dawn

New Dawn is the result of a lifetime of dreams, some tragic occurrences, happenstance, and the other oddities that one's life can toss at the you. 

Most rational people buy a lot in a neighborhood, do some landscaping, and if they are bitten by the garden bug, expand to something a little more special.  And so I did exactly that, in Gonzales, La.

But then some odd things happened and I would up in Jeanerette, La.  Now, this is where my in-laws are from and I have always envied their longer growing seasons and incredibly rich soils.  So, here I did the above a second time.  And the garden was fabulous.  Then in late 2002 came Hurricane Lili, and devastation came to the garden.

But by then I already began to have this fantasy of a house, on a bayou, in middle of a multi-acre botanical garden.   Now, bear in mind, I did not make the money to be able to afford this.  We kind of half heartedly looked at land, mostly too expensive land, and then one day we passed this piece of plywood nailed up on some 2x4s and hand painted "for sale."  It was 8 acres, but the owner was willing to subdivide.  That was good as we could not afford 8 acres, but we could afford 3.   We bought it, and named it New Dawn.  And at that time it did represent a "New Dawn" in our lives.

So, I began building the gardens at New Dawn 4 years ago, 3 years before we even had a house on the grounds.  At the time I thought it would be a 10 year plan.  We have had 2 droughts, and two near misses with hurricanes Katrina and Rita, so now it looks more like a 15 year plan, but as I look back at the old blogs, I see just how much we have accomplished.  Taking our non-existent budget into account, it is amazing.  No landscapers have been here.  Every hole dug by me, every plant planted by me.  And the plants have come from everywhere, you name it, and quite a few donations too. 

So, this is my Blog, a year at a time, with lots of failures, successes, and 10 years to go before the vision will be fulfilled. 

Oh, and about typos, there are lots.   

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