HALIFAX (CP) -- Janice Wells has lived in 11 houses or apartments in three provinces at three different stages of life, single, married, and divorced, but in every home, at every stage, there was always a garden.
Wells, who describes herself as a "recovering compulsive gardener," is the author of The Gin and Tonic Gardener, a collection of columns about gardening and life first published in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald.
"A gin and tonic gardener is a person who likes to relax; obviously, a person who wants to have a nice garden -- but 'nice' is a very subjective word, of course -- a person who realizes that the garden is for relaxing and having fun in," said Wells.
"The garden should not become another chore, another responsibility. You're out there, reading your book and having a cold drink or whatever, and you don't want to feel guilty because something needs to be weeded."
Wells, who has had almost as many jobs as homes, lost 35 pounds during her first summer of working as a professional gardener, an experience that shaped her future gardening philosophy.
"It wasn't just ordinary gardening, I was gardening at a hotel and I moved seven tons of topsoil with a wheelbarrow," she said.
"There's no such thing as a no-maintenance garden, so it's partly knowing what to plant and it's also partly attitude, just not letting it bother you."
Wells was living in Halifax, recently separated, with almost no money and in an apartment she had furnished from yard sales for $179 with a garden on the fire escape, when she had the idea for her column.
The Gin and Tonic Gardener column began in 1998.
