It is mid-October and the dahlias in my yard are looking the best they have all summer. Most have been blooming since July, basically nonstop and I’d be hard pressed to find another flower that puts out that kind of performance. Some of their success is part of the nature of dahlias, but the reason they are still blooming, and ...
In the interest of keeping it real, I sometimes feel obligated to fess up to my shortcomings here. And today I will show you what happens when I’m not thrilled with how a container turned out. The poor thing gets forgotten about. The container plantings I did at work this year were not great. The coleus grew too well and ...
The garden is looking remarkably good for this time of year, but things will change quickly, so now is the time to take care of a few jobs to prepare for next year. Here are four things you can do right now to have a great garden next year. I cleared out the half of the patio garden that I ...
It’s no secret that I love clematis. I absolutely cannot get enough of them. Last time I counted I think I had 22 different varieties growing in the garden. A few of them are not doing well, so that number may go down, but it’s far more likely that by next summer the number will go up. Having maxed out ...
The first day of autumn was this week. This depresses me more than it should, and facing winter gets more difficult with each passing year. However, I’m making a concerted effort to be a more positive person, so I give you my list of things to look forward to in fall. Acer japonicum ‘Acontifolium’ at its peak color. 1. The ...
I have learned a lot of lessons about gardening over the years (case in point: don’t buy one of everything!) but I’m starting to think there are some lessons I will never really learn. One of them is the lesson of staking. Plants that need staking need to be staked before they need staking. And even though I know full ...
The end of the growing season might seem like a strange time to be talking about growing things from seed, but I find it to be a time to take stock in the garden. I’ve had a whole summer to figure out what worked and what didn’t and yes, I’m already making mental lists about what I’ll start from seed ...
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After a go-go-go business trip last week, it was a go-go-go weekend here. We’ve been enjoying an amazing fall (which I feel we deserved after a less-than-stellar summer) but the weather is going to take a turn this week. The feeling that the time for outdoor projects is running out has created a mad dash […]
Vegetable gardening is all but finished for the year. The occasional tomato ripens up and we’re still eating onions from the garden, but for the most part, it’s all over. I’ll have to start buying vegetables from the grocery store within a week. That makes me so sad. (You can read about the varieties I […]
Look what’s back! It’s The Garden Appreciation Society, which went on a bit of a hiatus while I stepped out of town for a little bit and then got my life sorted when I came back. The garden is waning so we need to appreciate it all that much more now, while we can. The idea […]
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 […]
About a year ago I started a little photo project on Instagram. I would stop in the same spot on the way home and take a quick picture with my cell phone. I picked the spot for the photo because it’s one of my favorite views in the world. There is only one way to […]
As you know I was out of town a couple weeks ago (you know, when I just ditched you all without even attempting to blog while I was gone?). Mr. Much More Patient and I headed off to the great state of California for a little bit of work and a little bit of pleasure. […]
I followed my own advice this weekend and spent a good amount of time in the garden, although all I accomplished was a lot of weeding and a little bit of planting. There is still tons to do. I hope the weather hangs in there awhile, even though the first day of fall really felt […]
I stayed up late last night to work on a blog post. I was quite proud of myself because I even scheduled it to go up automatically. Often I get close to finishing them, but work on them a little bit in the morning before I hit “publish,” but it’s so much nicer when I […]
I said I was only going to skip one week of The Garden Appreciation Society but I’m still getting back in the swing of things here and it has been a very bad week in my life as far as technology goes. It is unbelievable how long it takes to set up a new computer. […]
Well that was a bit of a break, wasn’t it? I had great intentions of posting while I was out of town but have you ever tried to do any real typing on an iPad? Oh my gosh, it’s exhausting. So I didn’t. Anyway, it was a great trip and I’ll share a few photos […]
The Garden Appreciation Society seems to be getting later and later each week. And last week I really screwed it up when I set the dates wrong on the link tool. Sorry about that. I have a good excuse for having this week’s on Friday, though. There won’t be a Garden Appreciation Society link-up next […]
It’s not unusual for me to let house projects slide during summer. After all, there is gardening to be done and fun to be had. And winter up here is way too long so it’s good to have some things to keep busy with. But this summer, more than any other, I pretty much walked […]
This got late again this week but only because work got totally crazy this week. Really, work? In summer? For the birds, I tell you. Anyway, welcome to Week 16 of The Garden Appreciation Society. We’re in the home stretch folks so hang with it! There are very few flowers I grow specifically for cutting. […]
I am horrible when it comes to logging what goes on in my garden. Honestly I started this blog partly to force me to take at least a few notes about the garden, but beyond what you read here (and you know that that’s not exactly a log) I don’t do much in the way […]
