Aloha Steemit and friends I have yet to meet.

My name is Judy, aka Witch Hazel (a N. American shrub with medicinal properties).
After 2 weeks waiting, I am anxious to participate in Steemit and share my love of creating outdoors spaces in which to reflect on life or simply just BE.

Not wanting to be left behind with the goings on in the world, I have been studying crypto-currency and when a friend introduced me to Steemit, I resonated with it immediately. My passion is watching things grow. That is people as well as plants. I have owned and run many businesses, started many websites and worked in the healing field.

My interests are many but my main passion is gardening and Koi ponds. My husband and I hand built a log home in the Pacific Northwest, USA. It was a massive undertaking that spanned nearly five years while we lived off the grid in a 24 ft. trailer with a cat and two dogs.

After completion of our home there remained a large pile of boulders in the backyard.
Since a wrap- around deck prevented large equipment from accessing them, I decided to transform it into a waterfall. I hand dug a pond 16’X20’ and 3 feet deep. After a season of chasing off heron that preyed on my fish, I dug an adjacent pond, 5 ft. deep to save my Koi from the heron.

After that, yet another business was born. I began building ponds and waterfalls for other people. It was a new found passion that I still love. However, now I only maintain and work with my own two ponds and water features.

My approach to gardening is quite different from mainstream. I have PLANNED NOTHING. It is my nature to allow my inner guidance to direct what I plant and what I build and when to do so. I am guided to where a path is necessary, what foliage is appropriate where.

I am fortunate to live on 8+ wooded acres. Therefore, I have access to many forms of nature. The curved limbs from cedar trees were the foundation of arbors and benches. The natural stones and rocks helped to decorate and build ponds and streams. I achieve great pleasure standing in the middle of the pond building stacked rocks, or playing with stones in the streams and waterfalls to create differing sounds as the water is redirected.

My entire backyard oasis began with a pile of boulders, and grew in steps to accommodate 2 patios, another deck and several seating areas. As a result I can move with the sun or the shade to sit anywhere during a day. I continue to listen and build out as the mood strikes me. With 8 acres, I am only restricted by the amount of activity and work I choose to spend.

Because not many people come to enjoy sitting in my oasis I hope to share many photos of my backyard with Steemians. I look forward to learning about gardening in other parts of the world and will share instructions on some of my projects. I look forward to sharing with the friends I have yet to meet and learning from all of you.

Here's to comments, upvotes and success to us all.

Judy