I’m not sure it’s right to even call it a construction update, since no construction has technically begun, but it’s all related, right? Here’s the background: If you’re new to the blog the deal is that we are about to embark on a partial renovation of our house. We’ll (and I don’t literally mean “we” because all “we” will be ...
I’ve been walking past driftwood my whole life. I couldn’t begin to add up how many walks on the shore of Lake Michigan I’ve taken over the course of my life, but an average of two per week since I was about 5 equals about … well, a lot. And until about four years ago I probably never picked up ...
You have to admit that the ugly black wrought iron railing by our front door is a bit depressing. It was green before I painted it black and I think that might have been even more depressing. Maybe someday we’ll change that railing out for something more attractive (although how you’d do that I have no idea), but it does ...
One of the inspiration photos I’ve collected from Houzz. I liked the white (but not too white) walls and the slim band of accent tile that goes all the way around the room. I especially like the one vertical band, which I think helps add some height to the room. Sometimes I wonder if I have some sort of problem ...
I use the word reveal with hesitation because I’ve seen full on kitchen re-dos and this isn’t one of those … it just took about as much time as one. It started in October with the hunt for a table, and I found it at the Restoration Hardware outlet last October. Then came the banquette. Then came the ugly “Which ...
So, I know I promised to reveal our partial kitchen makeover soon, but a bit of wrench has been thrown in that plan. Remember how the sneak peek looked a couple weeks ago? Allow me to refresh your memory. Here it is: I wanted to get a nice set of pictures to show you the rest of the kitchen and ...
W ith the table finally the right length (but not yet finished), it was time to turn my attention to the area on the other side of the door, aka, the dumping ground. As I’ve mentioned before, we have no proper entryways into our house and neither door to the outside has a closet within less than 30 feet and ...
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.
Gosh, this week just whooshed by and so many things I had planned for the blog just didn’t happen. Next week should be better. Just a few quick Friday Finds to kick off the weekend. If you’re reading this on Friday, you still have a few hours left to enter to win one of two […]
I have always resisted journaling. I’m sure that part of that is related to a bad journaling experience I had in eighth grade when a teacher who required us to journal every day took quite literally what I had written, which in my mind was the start of one of the many of my novels […]
It would be cruel to ask me (or any gardener) to name my favorite flower, but I can say without any hesitancy that I can’t imagine a garden of mine ever being without dahlias. They are, to me, the quintessential flower. And there are so many varieties I can’t imagine that everyone couldn’t find at […]
You know what a bummer it is when you find something you really like only to discover you really don’t want to spend that much money on it? That sort of sums up my search for lights in the basement, which, as you may recall, we are trying to do on a tight budget. At […]
It is a gorgeous day in Wisconsin. The sun is shining, the high temperature may break a record and I have completely mixed feelings about that. Don’t get me wrong, I love an easy winter. But I love it during winter. There are consequences though. Last year I had Japanese beetles in my garden for […]
So this is in my fridge. In case you can’t tell what that is, it’s a 5.5-pound bag of slightly moldy-looking sawdust. Makes it all clear, right? That’s a bag of mushroom spawn in my fridge, complete with the directions on top of it because if I don’t keep them in there I’m sure to […]
Although it was a major topic in fall, I’ve not said much about the circle garden lately. To catch you up to speed here’s the deal with the circle garden, which is not at all a circle, but “oval garden” is not the least bit catchy. When we bought our house it was a derelict […]
I’ve been following Claus Dalby on Instagram for quite some time and if you hang out there he’s worth a follow. Gardenista recently wrote about him and you can see some of his work, although I detest the headline (I don’t really see any comparison to him and Martha Stewart). Over at the Rusty Duck, […]
It has become very popular for different organizations to features “plants of the year.” These usually involve a marketing push as well, so retailers tend to stock up on featured plants and the odds are much better that you’ll be able to pick them up without a lot of hunting. Here are a few of […]
I can’t wait for the weekend. I have nothing special planned other than little projects here and there, including on doing more painting in the basement, but some weeks an unplanned weekend sounds like the best thing in the world. Lots of great stuff happening online this week (well the fun stuff, not the bits […]
When I first started growing plants from seed I limited my growing to vegetables only. I can’t really explain it, other than to say that it seemed like flowers might be fussy to start from seed. Boy was I wrong. Most flowers, in fact most plants, are pretty easy to start from seed. But some […]
I had to change the name of Friday Finds this week since this is going out so late that most of you won’t see it until Saturday. Here’s what I’ve been liking and loving online this week. Loi Thai / Tone on Tone photo Loi shared some of his tips for growing the amazing myrtle […]
Dear me. It’s still a good four months before I have a hope of planting anything, but I’m very much behind on making a plan for what I will grow from seed this year. I need to start by going through what I already have and that will require riffling through boxes and Ziploc bags […]
It feels like it has been a long time since there’s been a Friday Finds post here. I can’t even tell you how busy this month has been and amazingly I feel like I’m already behind on gardening. There are seeds and dahlia tubers to be ordered and I’ve not done anything about formulating a […]
