I started my garden in 2003 at the edge of a former cow pasture, with a couple of rows of about two dozen daylilies purchased from the Shooters' Marietta Gardens in North Carolina. I added a gazebo, and a few more daylilies every year until 2008 – when I discovered the Shooters' website with over 4000 cultivars, and became obsessed. I built new beds and probably planted nearly 200 new plants that year.

My garden is detached from our house, which is surrounded by oaks, maples, sweet gums, a hickory, tulip poplar, etc., creating too much shade for daylilies. The garden is surrounded by a six-foot-tall wooden fence, which has been successful in keeping out the deer. In addition to the gazebo, I have a small patio with an arbor, an Amish built shed, and a raised wooden walkway that leads from the garden gate to the shed. Most of my purchased daylilies (about 500) are in raised beds built of rock from the foundation of an old house, and also from a creek bed. My seedlings are in raised wooden beds. Although the garden was started in a pasture, it is now surrounded by volunteer trees.

In addition to daylilies, my garden contains a few small herb beds and crepe myrtles, redbuds, and a river birch. I have been adding native plants such as bee balm, black-eyed Susans, milkweed, coneflower, beardtongue, amsonia, pickerelweed, Joe Pye weed, and cup plant. I have added a few others; I'll have to see if they make it through the winter.

My newest hobby is making wooden "barn quilts", mainly 2 feet square, although I may try a 4 foot one for a friend who wants one for an actual barn. Mine are on my fence and I have also created some indoor ones on wooden art canvas.

I have been hybridizing for several years and have registered nearly 50 plants, about half of which are named for people, mostly relatives. I like interesting names, so some of my "people names" are Katherine the Not Lonely Goatherd, Frank the Cowbird Stalker, Hawkins' Habanero Pepper, Haywood's Red Raccoon, Katrina's Purple Hurricane, and Randy's Red Corvette.

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