Hi all! I’m just back from my annual journey (via sailboat) to Mackinac Island and while I get my life back in order and get some proper posts (most of which I had dreams of finishing and publishing while I was gone) ready for you, I’ll give you my annual review of a garden I visit every year on Mackinac ...
I am not growing a Ziploc bag tree, I promise. One of the houses on a garden tour I went to over the weekend was the original home of the super dwarf apple tree in my garden. I won the gala apple (grafted onto super dwarf roots so it will never get big) at a gardening seminar a couple years ...
I am an unapologetic lover of meatball boxwoods. I know plenty of people abhor manicured shrubs, particularly squatty balls of boxwood. I’m not one of them. They make me oddly happy. So much so that I just added three more potential meatballs to my garden despite the threat of boxwood blight. The ‘Green Velvet’ boxwood on the corner of the ...
For five years now, I’ve been referring to various areas of the yard (any longtime readers remember the “Pit of despair?”) but there is really no way for you to know where anything is in relation to anything else. A blog friend (and regular reader) mentioned a few weeks ago that it was nice to see some long-view pictures of ...
The weather has just been lovely here the past few days. It is all I can do to tear myself away from the garden in the morning and go to work. Today I’m going to share with you the new garden area in the back / side yard. Despite this being one of our main views from the house, ...
One of the luxuries of having a large yard with lots of room to garden is that almost every plant can have a place in it somewhere. Even if you don’t particularly like a specific plant, you can usually find an out of the way corner that needs a few plants. As far as I can recall, I have only ...
Consider this photo your annual reminder to never, ever plant mint directly in the ground. It will take over your garden, your yard, your life. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t plant mint. It is an absolutely lovely herb that is useful for so many things. Just plant it smartly. This was a small spearmint plant in a 3.5 pot ...
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.
Creating a garden starts out as an innocent pursuit. You just want a pretty patch of flower or vegetables that flows and looks beautiful at least three seasons out of four. But there is that one plant that outshines the others. It outperforms them by looking great or by being the big, bold bright spot […]
I’ve been trying to deny the calling of the seed catalogs and the desire to peek at the vernal witch hazel and the warmest corners near the house where the bulbs come up first (it is only January, after all) but there is only so much a gardener can do during an unseasonably warm winter. […]
The USDA released an updated plant hardiness zone map Wednesday and for many people it shows what a lot of people have been thinking (but maybe thought they were imagining): it’s getting warmer out there. Maybe less cold is a better way to describe it, since the plant hardiness zone map is based on minimum […]
I have a homework assignment for you. If you are not watching PBS’ “Downton Abbey,” then you must change that. First, you must set your DVR to record it on Sunday night. It’s at 8 p.m. CST, but check your listings to make sure you record it at the correct time. Once you have done […]
It’s no secret that I love magazines. Nothing brightens a day more than coming home to a new issue in the mailbox. Interestingly enough, when it comes to shelter magazines, probably 90 percent of what I see in magazines is pretty/intriguing/fantastic/interesting but is not translatable to my life. What makes magazines great is that other [&he
Does that sound a little wrong? Because I do. I couldn’t blog about it because it would have ruined the Christmas surprise, I bought three Moss Rocks for Christmas gifts this year. I ordered them well in advance because I wanted to make sure I’d get them in plenty of time. My mom, sister-in-law and […]
I have great news: progress is being made on the office redo (mentioned here, here, here and here). I stopped updating you guys on it because it got downright depressing when I was having so many problems with the counters (sadly mentioned here, here and here). Rather than wait until it’s all finished and show […]
You might think that since the blog redesign (No. 6, I think) happened around the first of the year, that it was all part of my master plan. Please, think that. I makes me look efficient. Also not at all like the procrastinator that I am. The sad fact is that I started this months […]
My godmother is one of those amazingly good women who doesn’t deserve what is happening to her, like so many others in this world. She is suffering from pancreatic cancer and it’s going to take her life. She’s been in a rehabilitation facility for the past several weeks but right before the new year she […]
Well, this wasn’t exactly the big splash I had planned for my new blog layout, but I seem to be having some technical difficulties getting it uploaded. So, some of what you see is new and some is old. Hopefully I’ll get it up and running soon (I think the problem is Blogger’s not mine […]
I’m not a resolution maker. I don’t think there’s anything more depressing than setting yourself up for failure, which is what most resolutions do. I am, however, in favor of change for the better so here are a few things I’m hoping to change for the better in 2012. 1. Blog more. I’ll never write […]
I’ve noticed that a lot of blogs are running posts featuring some of their most popular projects or posts from the past year and who am I to avoid hopping on a bandwagon? So let’s take a look at what you all were digging in 2011. You really liked Looking back at the reno, […]
I’m traditional about very few things in life. I’m a pretty independent woman, so much so that I can sometimes be offputting to gentlemen offering to help with something. I have no problem painting a piece of fine furniture white (or any other color) if I’m going to like it better that way. And we […]
It’s amazing where you can find interesting displays this time of year. I snapped this picture in the gift second of the grocery store this weekend. I just love the feel of this tables cape. I tend to prefer more color around the holidays, but this is so casual and sleek at the same time. […]
