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The Impatient Gardener blog was started in 2009 and its library of posts includes practical how-tos, plant guides, favorite garden gear, successes and failures and much more. If you’re looking for something specific, the search function at the top of the page can help.

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Garden

The ultimate gardener’s getaway

Have your thoughts turned to summer yet? I’ve been trying to stave off that feeling I get every year at about this time when I get the itch to start gardening, but it seems impossible. What I’m about to tell you about won’t help with that. If you need some help with your garden dreaming though, that I can help ...

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Cottage

Another touch of black

What is it with me and spur-of-the-moment door painting? It’s really quite strange. I usually really think about a project before I jump into it. I’m not one of those people who will tear down a wall on a Friday night without thinking through what happens next. But for some reason, I get a little crazy when it comes to ...

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Cottage

Rug, meet chair. Chair, meet rug.

First off, I’m sorry for the radio silence this week after the big bang of two posts on Monday. I had posts all ready to go and then work got so busy I didn’t even have time to hit send. The other day a friend and blog reader sent me a message in the middle of our intense Words with ...

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Cottage

My laundry room essentials

Earlier today I showed you how we spruced up our laundry room. I love the new laundry organizers and I can honestly say it makes an unpleasant task a little better. I’m not a great laundress (you won’t catch me measuring my wool sweaters so I can properly block them after handwashing a la Martha Stewart) but there are two things ...

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CottageDIY

A little lipstick on a laundry pig

I want a laundry room that looks like this: Contemporary Laundry Room design by San Francisco Interior Designer Artistic Designs for Living, Tineke Triggs Or this: Traditional Laundry Room design by Orange County Design-build Spinnaker Development Or this: Contemporary Laundry Room design by Grand Rapids Architect Visbeen Associates, Inc. But that is not the laundry room I have, and as ...

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Garden

You know you’re a gardener when …

You absolutely loved the dowager countess’ comment to her granddaughter Edith disparaging gardeners on Sunday’s “Downton Abbey.” Edith (recently left at the altar and nearing “spinsterhood,” at least her in estimation) needs a hobby and suggests perhaps gardening. “Well no, you can’t be as desperate as that,” Lady Violet says. If you’re not a “Downton Abbey” fan (or if you ...

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Cottage

List checker-offers unite!

Raise your hand if you’ve ever put something on a list that you’ve already done just to have the satisfaction of crossing it off. I see you all out there with your guilty hands in the air.  Let’s face it, it feels damn good to cross things off a list and I’m happy to say that I’ve done a pretty ...

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Garden

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

I promised I’d be back with a few photos to share from Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and since it’s technically still the 15th, I haven’t missed it yet. Just two photos to share, both demonstrating one of the great things about letting plants stand during winter. They can still be beautiful. I love the fuzzy seedheads that stick around on ...

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