I have never been great at following rules. I’m not saying I’m a great rebel, but there has always been a part of me that wants to do the opposite of what I’m told to do just because. Perhaps this is why I don’t always follow conventional garden wisdom. It certainly sounds better to frame it that way than to ...
If you’ve read my power tool reviews before, you’ve probably picked up on a trend: I like power but I like it when it comes easy. What I’m about to say makes me sound like a pathetic girl, but I hate pull starts. I’ll use them when I have to, but I feel like my arms aren’t long enough to ...
It is stacking up to be one of those summers where it feels like the hose is another bodily appendage. Already we’ve had periods of heavy rain followed but long stretches of windy, hot weather that dries out the ground quickly. It’s been years since we’ve had a summer where I never wanted to see the hose again and it’s ...
It’s high time I tell you a little about the containers I planted this year. I like to show you them early in the summer if only to prove that no container looks great when it’s first planted (and some look positively pathetic), unless you start with enormous plants, which few people do. It takes time for them to grow ...
I’ve not been quiet about my relatively recently discovered love for Dutch-made Sneeboer tools. After years of buying less expensive gardening tools at the local hardware store or garden center, I broke down and bought a Sneeboer Ladies Garden Spade (my mom is about 5’5″ and she likes the Border Spade which has the same size head but a slightly ...
There is so much happening in the garden these day and if I don’t show it to you soon there will be something else entirely happening. I’ve not had time for proper photos, but I did snap a bunch on my phone and I thought phone photos would be better than waiting even longer. I had such high hopes for ...
Oh my, there is so much going on in the garden and I’m not sharing any of it! Bad blogger! Soon, I promise. We had the most amazing weather for Memorial Day weekend and I spent plenty of time in the garden. It was lovely. But, once again, I was so busy gardening that I didn’t take any photos. So ...
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I’ve finally finished planting all of my containers for this year. The weather since they’ve been in has not been great so they are not filling in as quickly as one would hope, but they’ll get there, I’m sure. I thought it would fun to see how they change throughout the summer, so I’ll try […]
Today’s post was supposed to be about the containers I planted this year, but somewhere along the line, the photos didn’t stay in it. So you can check that out tomorrow. In the meantime, I offer a weather update, which can be summed up in one word: rain. It rained Monday night and then again […]
If you haven’t lived in a rural area, you might not know about septic mounds. They are one of the most common ways to deal with septic in the country when you don’t have municipality-provided sewer service. We are fortunate that our mound is on the far side of the property. They aren’t unattractive, they […]
I’ve been feverishly working on finishing up the new garden area in the side/back yard and I’m almost there. I’m at the really fun part of arranging and planting now. I love planting a new bed. There is something so wonderful about a clean slate to plant in. But with me spending so much time […]
We didn’t plan it this way, but this year has become the year of the back yard. Between the renovation of the gardens there and fixing up the garage, I think we’re finally taking care of some of the things that have needed attention since we bought the house 12 years ago. This […]
Since it’s finally finished and planted, I think it’s high time I share with you how we built the wood planter by the front door. When the old planter fell apart after five or six years of year-round service, I was shocked when I found out how much large planters cost. Having found some wood […]
Our poor garage. We’ve ignored it so much over the years (12 of them actually; the anniversary of closing on our house was last weekend!). As you may, recall, we’re working on fixing that, but I also made a change I could have done any time and just never did. I added a bit of […]
What is the sound of summer? Is it the song of birds singing early in the morning? Waves crashing on the shore? Wind rustling through ornamental grasses? For me, the sound of summer is the squeak of a tight spring followed by the slap of a screen door. I’m certain that it’s a sound that […]
Although it was not intentional, this has become a very experimental year in the vegetable garden. First I tried out the potato towers. The jury is still out on those as I’m seeing the first potato shoots coming out now. And it turns out that the “straw” that I bought (where they guaranteed it was […]
I’m declaring it here: Someday I will go to the Chelsea Flower Show. This annual event is a veritable utopia for gardeners who go to take in the show gardens (from large to small), and special booths often featuring specific plants. The only thing keeping me from booking a ticket for next year is the […]
As you know, I love planting containers. Of the containers I plant I think I put the most emphasis on the window box. It is probably the first thing you see when you pull up to our house and it’s one of the few containers I can see (part of, anyway) from inside the house. […]
Did you all have a great long weekend (at least my U.S. readers who celebrated Memorial Day)? I love long weekends (well, who doesn’t?) but my goodness, they are so exhausting. Saturday was our big master gardeners’ plant sale, so I took Friday off of work and spent nine hours helping set that up. Then […]
I can’t tell you how much I wish this post was showing you the new beds in the back/side yard, but I still haven’t finished pulling up the sod. Apparently I grossly underestimated how much sod there was to remove and just what a pain in the butt it is to remove. I think I […]
I’ve been so busy working on various projects around the garden that I’ve neglected showing you what the actual garden is looking like these days. As usual, there is good news and bad news in the garden. The bad news is that our cold, wet spring has really retarded the growth of many perennials. My […]
