Mary McIntire is an organized and disciplined woman. Maybe that’s because she’s been a military wife; maybe it’s her nurses training. Most likely, it’s a combination.

She rises at 4:30 in the morning and her house is immaculate.

And she has lush, weed-free gardens, in perfect order, as well.

I visited Mary last week to tour her gardens and to figure out how she’s able to “do it all.”

She combines perennials and annuals with a modest amount of tasteful decorative pottery, rustic signs, and whimsical figures. On that hot August morning, there was not a sagging stem, not a drooping bloom to be found.

Mary says she always waters in the morning, using the hose and nozzle and taking her time to reach the base of each plant rather than relying on a sprinkler.

She uses the same care when planting new things.

“Whenever I plant anything,” said Mary, “I dig a hole three times the size of what I put in and backfill it with potting soil.”

She also incorporates ground up leaves and composted manure in the holes. After planting, Mary applies a slow release fertilizer. Once in a while, she will supplement with liquid fertilizer during the growing season.

Because of her husband’s position in the military, Mary has lived in many different places. But in each place, she has managed to adapt a garden to the area.

When the family lived in Saudi Arabia, she learned how to grow flowers that tolerated temperatures over 120 degrees. When in Virginia, they lived in a small apartment.

“All I had was the patio,” Mary said. “I had flowers and vegetables so that you couldn’t even see the fence around them. You make the most of what you have.”

She was influenced early on as a gardener by her mother, whose gardens were recently featured on PROP’s tour of the Secret Gardens of Portland.

“My mother’s always been a big gardener,” she said. “Even at 77 years old, her gardens are still going strong.”

As busy as she is with her own projects, Mary is an avid volunteer for Raymond’s Beautification Committee. She puts in many hours weeding and maintaining garden areas along Route 302.

She also was instrumental in revamping and upgrading the landscaping around Jordan Small Middle School, a task she undertook after hearing someone describe its exterior as looking like a prison.

Mary has two favorite gardening books. The “Readers Digest Illustrated Guide to Gardening” is a “good, all-around resource” that gives information and advice on all aspects of gardening. The “Color Dictionary of Flowers and Plants for Home and Garden” by Roy Hay and Patrick M. Synge has hundreds, maybe thousands, of color photographs. Mary finds it useful for identifying new plants.

Mary’s favorite piece of advice is to “plan ahead.” Ten years ago she sat down and made a plan based on color, height, and bloom time. She does the same today for new beds she creates.

Her other recommendation is to leave plenty of space when planting. Even though perennials look small at first, by the next year, they grow and fill in the space. She has designated areas she puts extras in – so if she divides and doesn’t know what to do with all the divisions or if she buys something and hasn’t yet decided where to plant it, it goes in an “extras area.”

Mary’s favorite flowers are roses because of “the way they look and smell.” She grows tea roses and floribundas, acknowledging that she usually loses one or two every year due to the cold.

“It doesn’t matter whether I buy the expensive Jackson Perkins’ roses or the cheap ones from Home Depot,” Mary said.

She mulches them heavily in winter with six inches of ground leaves, peat moss, and dirt. In mid-December, she tops them with loosely packed pine boughs.

“I have one rose that was my wedding rose,” Mary said. “It’s almost 27 years old.”

She received the rose as a wedding present and transplanted it whenever she moved. While they lived in Saudi Arabia, her mother kept it for her.

In addition to her beautiful flowers, Mary grows vegetables in containers. She finds that critters are less likely to bother them when they’re not directly in the ground. These vegetables are as lush and healthy-looking as her flowers. The tomato plants are loaded with ripening fruit. And her pepper plants are huge – I was as green as they were!

Well, we may be more than half way through August but I look forward to meeting more of you and seeing your wonderful gardens. I’d also love to share with other readers your ideas for using all that fresh produce you’re harvesting. Give me a call or send me an email: 892-1166 or peggylrw@adelphia.net.