One of the jobs for the weekend was digging out three large Viburnum lantana ‘Mohican’ shrubs from the “back” (which is really the side, but that is a story that is too long to go into) of the property. One by one, they’ve been fading, with more parts of each looking worse by the month. Given that we’d planted them ...
The first real days in the garden are special. The jobs at this time of year are not particularly exciting or interesting, but I usually write about them anyway because being back in the garden is special in and of itself. Although the weekend here wasn’t all that nice, we’re looking at some more seasonal temperatures for the week, which ...
Two weeks ago it was snowing at my house, but not until after it sleeted for awhile. It was miserable. Or so I was told. I was fortunate enough to be enjoying gorgeous California sunshine surrounded by amazing plants. I have much to tell you about those plants, but first I wanted to share the detour I made to the ...
I was skeptical when I first heard about Calamintha nepeta ‘Montrose White’. I’d been to multiple garden talks in which speakers extolled the virtues of this plant. It was a “must-have” they said. But I didn’t think it looked particularly spectacular in photos. Still, I’m a sucker for a new-to-me plant if multiple people have told me how great it ...
Many gardeners in the north are looking at snow in the forecast this weekend. My most sincere condolences. That is just not OK. I wonder if this lousy spring is a harbinger of an equally cruddy summer to come or if Mother Nature will make up for lost temperatures and cook us this summer. I’m not sure I’d be happy ...
I didn’t intend to start cleaning up the garden over the weekend. The thermometer never got over 40 and there is snow cover on about 40 percent of the garden. But on Sunday, after walk on the beach with the dogs (in which we saw two bald eagles fly just overhead, quite a rare sight here), the sun was warm ...
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Last spring Mr. Much More Patient looked out the window at our still-gray landscape and asked why we didn’t have more daffodils. They are a good bulb to grow here because no critters will touch them. Still, I don’t want to add too many more to the gardens, as keeping them healthy requires leaving the […]
You can tell that it’s fall and people are starting to move inside because there’s been some great stuff on the Internet this week. Before I dig in, a quick programming note: I mentioned bulb augers (that’s an affiliate link) the other day and I realized, while in the throes of mass planting the other night, […]
We were blessed with yet another gorgeous autumn weekend here. I can’t say enough about how wonderful the weather has been for most of this year, but I feel like we deserve it after two really cruddy years. I’m still gardening in shorts most of the time and I can’t think that’s common for this […]
Some weeks Friday it feels even better than usual when Friday rolls around. So it goes this week. Some affiliate links may be used. This means that if you buy what I link to, I may get a small percentage of the purchase price. This helps support this blog and I very much appreciate it! […]
One thing that can be said for sort of tedious gardening tasks such as weeding or moving mass quantities of soil is that it gives you a lot of time to think. And over the last several weekends of working in the oval circle garden I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the mistakes […]
Progress continues on the renovation of the oval circle garden but I won’t lie, I’m getting nervous about how slowly it’s going. I spent a good part of last weekend working on it and have gotten it to the point where I’m waiting for materials before I can move on. My goal is to have […]
I remember the first time I took notice of an allium. It was on Mackinac Island where a side garden at the Hotel Iroquois was planted with what must have been hundreds of Globemaster alliums, with 8-inch (or better) flowers standing proud. It was stunning. When I think of punctuation in a garden my first […]
Thanks so much for all of the nice comments and feedback on our gradual garage upgrade. I didn’t even to get into the other benefits of the new doors the other day. Until we got the new doors we only had one automatic opener, which Mr. Much More Patient graciously let me use. That meant […]
I’m not one to draw projects out. When I get set on doing something I like to focus on it like a laser and pound it out until it’s finished. I’d rather wait until I can do all of it exactly the way I want to than take it by bits and pieces or settle […]
I didn’t have much time to work in the yard last weekend, which is sad indeed. It has been raining here for days and days and there were other projects that took precedence (which you’re about to hear about). The few hours that I did have for garden time were dedicated to working on the […]
I’m sure you’re confused about what Monday Musings are. Well, they are Friday Finds when you were too busy on Friday to do Friday Finds but didn’t want to wait a whole week to share some goodies. And god forbid I not use alliteration in a headline.I decorated the house for fall. Yep, that’s it. […]
I went outside in the rain the other morning and snapped a shot of my favorite plant at this time of year. Then I checked the blog because I thought surely I’d written a special post about toad lilies before and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t. Truth be told, I had no idea what a […]
On Tuesday I walked into a funeral service in full on late-summer weather and emerged a couple hours later into weather more suitable for late October. A brisk breeze came off the lake, leaves were falling on our heads and the sun refused to provide the warmth I swear it had earlier in the morning. […]
It’s officially fall. I will allow myself to use the word now, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. But there’s nothing to be done about it, so I might as well make the most of it and enjoy what really is a beautiful time of year (even if I spend it dreading what […]
