Gardening is happening, people. That’s the main reason for my absence so far this week. We’ve had amazing weather recently, but no mosquitos, so I’ve been gardening pretty much any time I’m not at work or sleeping and it’s still light out. And I’ve been taking hardly any pictures. That’s the problem when you really get in the zone: There ...
Another mail order nursery review today but before we get to that, I wanted to share a couple photos of the serviceberry tree in bloom. the flowers are really only at peak for a day or two max so I take a photo of it every year. It’s rather amazing to me that this tree was a gift from my ...
The plant deliveries came fast and furious last week, which is somewhat funny since as recently as a month ago I hadn’t anticipated ordering any mail order plants this year. I discovered Arrowhead Alpines from a familiar source: Margaret Roach at A Way to Garden. I swear, reading that blog can get very expensive. I went there for one specific plant ...
My friend Linda over at Each Little World has been doing an excellent series on mail order plant purchases this spring and it inspired me to do the same. My first mail order plants arrived last week Friday from Digging Dog nursery. I don’t think I’ve ordered from them in the past, but they have excellent reviews on Garden Watchdog, ...
We spent part of the weekend in Chicago for a function we were attending Saturday night. I can’t seem to sleep well in hotels, no matter how comfortable they may be, so when I woke up at 6 a.m. I figured I would get some coffee, get ready and head over to nearby Millennium Park to check out the gardens. ...
I got a message from a friend and blog reader the other day who asked, “How come you aren’t blogging about planting?” It’s a fair question, this being primarily a gardening blog. The fact of the matter is that it’s still really cool here and there is very little to plant. I did sow a few very small areas of ...
Yesterday I wrote about the factors to consider when choosing a container. You can read it here, but I broke it down to four factors: Size (err on the side of bigger) Style (what suits your house, garden and personal preferences) Material (will you leave it out all year or have to move it) Price Now I’m going to share ...
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You think this is going to be about weeding, don’t you? Well, I do detest weeding, but it pales in comparison to the garden job that I truly abhor: pulling up sod.Last weekend I finally had the guts to cut the bed lines for the new side/back yard. I sort of had to; the can […]
It seems incomprehensible to me that I have given basically no thought to container plantings this year. By this time of the year I usually know exactly what I’ll be doing in all of my containers, but I’m just first starting to think about it now. Certainly the weather is partly to blame, but I’ve […]
One of the trees we took down in our latest round of tree trimming and (dead tree) removal was an evergreen that the compost bin was located next to. Even though the only thing that shielded the bin was a (rather large) bare trunk, it somehow made the placement of the compost bin make sense. […]
I grew potatoes for the first time last year at one of the community garden plots my mom and I share. Despite the fact that I had no clue what I was doing and the soil in the new plot was very, very poor, we got a small but delicious crop of fingerling potatoes. The […]
It is predicted to rain here. All week. And hover in the 45-degree range. The optimist in me assumes this is because Mother Nature wants to make sure we get our fill of April showers so we get our May flowers.It does give me a chance to take a break from talking about gardening, to […]
It was a great weekend in the garden: two marathon days that left the garden in pretty good shape and my body in pretty bad shape. There is something so satisfying about the pain one feels after long days in the garden. I put some row cover over the peas and lettuce seed, if only […]
First of all, thank you all so much for your kind words about the loss of our dog Hudson. So many of you shared stories of your beloved pets and I know that you know just what we’re feeling. Hudson loved water as all Newfs do. In fact they love it so much that having […]
I try not to get overly personal here and I hate to do posts that can be kind of a downer. But I would be remiss in not remembering a great friend here. Yesterday we had to say goodbye to what was certainly one of the world’s greatest dogs. At just about 10 years and […]
Since I wrote this post, I estimate that I’ve watched more than 50 hours of British gardening shows. And I think I’ve learned more from them than I ever learned over all the years of watching American gardening shows. Some of that information—how to take cuttings, for instance—may not be completely practical as I have nowhere […]
A lot of people are blogging about gardening these days. People who normally blog about clothing, interior design and a little bit of everything (or, um, nothing) are writing posts about gardening. I think that is fantastic. The more gardeners in this world the better, so if people are inspired to put a few plants […]
I love garden ornaments and sculpture. The right piece in the right place adds another dimension to a garden. There’s a place for serious sculpture and whimsical ornaments in any garden, but I think the key is to know when to stop. Nothing makes a garden look a little bit like a junk yard with […]
I forgot to show you something I did about a month ago. I painted the garage door Wythe Blue (Benjamin Moore color). I’ve been sort of lusting over that color, which is this really interesting grayish greenish blueish, sort of turquoise-but-not color for a long time and I really wanted to paint something that color. […]
I know that it is high time to stop complaining about how bad winter was, but those of us who experienced it will be dealing with its aftermath for some time. In my area, where Lake Michigan reached an absurd 93% ice coverage this winter (for the first time since the 1970s), the water is […]
Yep, you’re in the right place. I just made a change to the design here. Although the last design, which I did myself after not being satisfied with multiple people who I paid to try interpret what I wanted, was a favorite, I think it’s been there since January 5, 2013, so it was feeling […]
