Letters from the Garden

Cottage

Mid-project updates

I know that sometimes it seems like nothing is happening here in Impatient Gardener land. You don’t hear from me for a few days (unless you follow me in Facebook or Instagram where I’m much more likely to post regular updates) and you assume I’m probably asleep on the couch with my laptop half on my face. You would be ...

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Cottage

The garage: A ticking DIY time bomb

Everyone once in a while a DIY project sneaks up bites me from behind. It’s not even on my radar and then suddenly it’s consuming my every thought. That’s what it has been like for the last few days with our garage. Our garage is not exactly the prettiest building ever constructed and we’ve done absolutely nothing to it since ...

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DIY

Coming in for a landing: one big ol’ obelisk

Normally I am not one to rush through projects. I really believe in the adage that anything worth doing is worth doing well. But I recently threw that aside and just went for it on a little building project for the garden. I got a couple of goji berry vines recently and I am so excited for them. Not just ...

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Cottage

Our first DIY fail

Maybe I got too confident about our DIY ability. After all, I’ve jumped in with both feet to projects I had no idea would work, we installed our bedroom floors, I laid a huge stone path through our yard and built stacked-stone retaining walls and I’ve even learned how to do some electrical work. Our theory on when to do ...

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Cottage

Slip slidin’ away to trash organization heaven

You know how sometimes I publish a little to-do list that shows you what I’m all working on and what’s been finished? I am going to spare you that because reading it would take up FAR too much of your time. I have balls in the air, folks. Lots and lots of them. I feel like I have about 20 ...

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Cottage

Let’s get bold

Slowly but surely the living room transformation from a warm modern French country feel to a more casual, slightly nautical feel has come together. I showed you the new main seating area (our living room is long and narrow so we have three seating areas). I also showed you how I reupholstered the set of chairs by the game table ...

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DIY

Pretty organized paint

Last week when I randomly went on a painting spree and suddenly painted the back door black, I was totally irritated when I couldn’t find the can of tinted primer that I know exists somewhere in this house. I never did find it, but when I realized the sheer volume of paint in this house I decided a little organization ...

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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.

The monarchs are making their way south, and the hummingbirds are all but gone. The geese overhead seem to be pointing south and all this migration can only mean one thing: It’s time for the annual houseplant migration. I like to think of myself as a good gardener, but I am a lousy caretaker of […]

Put the wheelbarrow down! I know you’re busy working in the garden, but I have to tell you that this post is a partnership with Lowe’s Home Improvement. Thanks for checking it out and thank you for supporting the brands that partner with The Impatient Gardener.  Life is just periods of blissful unawareness followed by […]

As I got farther and farther behind in planting my vegetable garden I knew this day would come. In fact, it comes every year, but I knew it would be even more dramatic this year, as tomatoes just wouldn’t have enough time to produce and ripen all the fruit they were meant to  provide. But […]

It’s funny how some plants mean more to me than others. Often these are among the first plants I bought.  Acer palmatum dissectum ‘Orangeola’ was, I think, the first expensive plant I ordered online. It was certainly the first tree I bought online. I say online, but I think I actually placed the order on […]

I’m about to gripe about gardening, but I want to preface that by saying that I realize that in light of what many people are dealing with from Hurricane Florence and other natural disasters, this is small potatoes. So on that front, I am thankful that I’m in a position to be able to whine […]

The start of the gardening year is signaled, in my garden at least, by the blooming of the first bulb. Last year it was a race between one insanely long-lived and abused daffodil and the winter aconites. Even though I cannot bear to think of the months that precede that moment right now, I know […]

There is great irony in writing about varying methods of watering a garden after of two weeks of nearly constant rain here, a weather cycle I can’t remember the likes of but I know so many other gardeners have faced this year (or the exact opposite, and I’m not sure which is worse).  Still, after […]

It has been a great year for dahlias in my garden and after talking to several dahlia-loving friends, I’m counting myself very lucky. Few flowers bring me as much joy as dahlias, and I like them every which way: big and blousy, perky singles, pokey cactus types, perfect little balls. I want them all. What […]