The love life of slugs was not something I had ever thought about until Nancy Leavitt sent some photos of two amorous slugs on her front porch.

In all the photos, the slugs were wrapped around one another in graceful, most un-slug-like poses.

If only Joani had been home. "Oh, we love to sit out here," said Joani's husband, Tony Surace, his elbows on the wood railing of their deck in Chesapeake. He was looking out into the dappled shade of their backyard, a tropical oasis, and was excited about showing off his banana tree. But right now he was studying the pond, goldfish, ferns, moss and thinking of Joani, who was at work.

A BRIGHTLY PAINTED skeleton of a sun umbrella stands in Andy Friedman and Barbara Schaefer’s garden plot in Pungo .
Bean vines are being trained on string to grow from the ground up and twine around the umbrella spokes – a bean pole of sorts.

By Linda Lombardi

The fireflies on Denise Wade's property in Montgomery, Texas, are so magical that they remind her of a very different time of year.

"I can say safely that there are thousands," she says, "and they're at all levels and they're blinking like Christmas lights. It's awesome."

Diane Newbern always stops to smell the flowers at parties and restaurants. As she bends over to take a closer look, she might even spy a bud or bloom that she knows well. A lily, a sunflower, a spray of baptisia - sometimes local florists' bouquets include blossoms that she nurtured through sunshine, wind and water at her own flower farm in Ivor in Isle of Wight County.

It all started in the Holy Land.
During a trip to Israel, Lee Kahn and her husband, Edward Kahn, toured the beginnings of Neot Kedumim, a 625-acre Biblical Landscape Reserve halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Back then, Neot Kedumim was little more than a plot of land on a rocky, eroded hillside, a sharp contrast to the Holy Land 2,000 years ago.

Call for hours and prices. (All numbers 757 unless otherwise noted)
 
Chesapeake
-Brookdale Farm, 2133 Mount Pleasant Road, 721-0558
-Lilley Farms, 2800 Tyre Neck Road, 483-9880
-Poor John's Farm, 914 Dominion Blvd., 485-7743
 
Isle of Wight
-Oliver Farms, 18222 Longview Drive, Smithfield, 255-4563
 
Suffolk
-Faith Farms, 2170 Joshua Lane, 620-8677

GARDENING GLOVES are getting dirty, nurseries are bustling. Annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees are popping into local yards, onto decks and balconies.
The big news this year? Vegetable gardening. Seeds, seedlings - anything for the table is selling like crazy.

Holidays and mistletoe go hand in hand. Sprigs tied with red bows hang over doorways. Kissing balls are made with leathery green mistletoe twigs adorned with creamy white berries. Stand under the mistletoe and you'll get a kiss.

Take time to enjoy garden