Even though we are in that sort of sweet spot of summer when there isn’t much to be done in the garden other than enjoy all the hard work, there is still one job that must be done: weeding. I have a lot of weeds in my garden. Honestly, this year I never really got out in front of them. ...
Can anyone explain to what it is about roses that makes gardeners go nutty? OK, maybe some of you may have been able to resist the siren song of this queen of all flowers, but I have not, despite the fact that they torment me. I kill roses. I can think of at least five that have met their fate ...
Somewhere along the line it became August. I have no idea how that happened and I’m none too happy about it, but that means I better check in with the containers like I promised I would back in June. The deck planters are doing surprisingly well. I feel like the pink mandevilla is a bit more vigorous than the red ...
I have had a lot of favorite/top posts in the works and was planning to run them over the course of a week, but this is my 600th post on this blog so I thought it should be something a bit meatier, and today I’m bringing you five perennials I wouldn’t be without. These are plants that are complete no-brainers ...
After returning from about a week away from the garden, I looked around last week and noticed two things: Overall, I’m pretty happy with how the garden is looking this year. I tend to think my garden is always in shambles, but a bit of time away made my heart grow a little fonder for my little piece of dirt. ...
One of my favorite things to do on a warm summer morning is take my cup of coffee and stroll around the garden. Most of the time I end up with dirty fingernails and a half hour late for work after I start pulling random weeds or deadheading spent blooms. But lately my walks have been anything but a relaxing ...
Garden tours are such a great way to give your own garden a dose of inspiration. A lot of times I poo-poo going on them because I’m busy, or it’s hot, or it’s buggy, or it’s rainy or I’ve seen the gardens on the tour before, but a couple Saturdays ago I was reminded of how important it is to ...
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.
I got the most lovely e-mail message the other day. Brigitte wrote me to tell me that she was so inspired by the eating area in our kitchen, that she created her own. I thought that sounded pretty cool but when I looked at the photos, I was blown away. Brigitte did this all herself […]
Welcome to my first ever video post! This has been a long time in coming, mostly because I didn’t realize how much time was involved in making and editing a video. I actually kind of gave up on the process, which will be totally obvious when you watch the video which is an exercise in […]
Soil testing is one of those things you often hear you should be doing but few people do regularly. I can’t tell you the number of times that our master gardener’s class instructors harped on us to do soil tests. They aren’t hard to do: take a sample from a few inches down, put it […]
Another hairy deadline at work has passed (or will have, I pray, by the time you read this) which explains the lack of posts last week. It’s funny how what is normally a pretty laid-back time of year around here is so hectic this year because of the early spring. In the past I’ve actually […]
Cue the collective groan. Who can pass up a good “orange” pun? It’s just my way of telling you to make sure to catch my guest post at The Design Confidential about how to incorporate the Color of the Year (Tangerine Tango, but for purposes of gardening we’re calling it orange) into your garden. In […]
Most gardeners I know go to the nursery even when they aren’t looking for plants. They often buy things with no idea of where they are going to put them, just knowing that they NEED that plant. But people who don’t consider themselves gardeners who buy plants to pretty up their landscape don’t buy things […]
Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with a ton of vacation pictures (especially since I took very few), but for the one day it wasn’t raining I saw some amazing plants, and on the days it was raining (all the others) I saw some amazing wet plants. A few highlights: Remember my stick in […]
Even though it’s been a mild winter in Wisconsin, it’s nice to get out of the gray scene for while. So we did! Here are some of the colors I’ve been looking at this week. Much prettier than Wisconsin right now, even if it was 60 degrees at home yesterday. We’re in Maui on what […]
Today I’ll show you one more project related to the office spruce up. It’s not the last thing that needs to be done in the room but I’ve come to a fairly natural stopping point and anything else I decide to do in there after this is just gravy. If you’ve been following along with […]
I know that the whole world can’t get enough of talking about the mild winter that most of the United States has been experiencing, to the point that some people are getting a little cranky about it, but I know a good bandwagon when I see one and you know I’m on it! In all […]
Last Saturday I attended a garden seminar (I just love going to garden seminars and shows in late winter; it is so fun to dream) where Richard Hawke, the plant evaluation manager for the Chicago Botanic Garden was the keynote speaker. I’ve gone to a lot of seminars, speeches, talks, etc. for work and pleasure, […]
Having successfully spray painted a handful of odd things including a lamp (including the shade) and our wall-mounted stereo speakers, I’m far more inclined to at least give spray paint a chance to improve a situation before buying something new. And once again, spray paint has come through! As I’ve said from the beginning, it […
Hey it’s me. Remember me? Gosh I’ve been a bad blogger lately. I had a rough couple of weeks at work and then a cold and some trip planning and blah, blah, blah. Who cares right? Life sucks sometimes; get your crap together and write a blog post why don’t ‘cha? So I now take […]
