Letters from the Garden

Garden

Those are some big Incrediballs!

Last year my mom and I had a little to see who could grow more tomatoes at our shared community garden plot. I don’t remember who won. I’m not sure anybody did. Tomatoes were plentiful last year, unlike this year, so really we all won. Suffice to say, our family is just a wee bit competitive. Anyone who can turn ...

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Garden

Thinking of a new garden, but it’s not my fault

I have a bad habit of adding gardens. I certainly do not need anymore gardening space right now. I find it hard to keep up with the maintenance of what I already have and there are plenty of holes in the existing gardens that need to be filled. Plus I already have my eye on an area in the back ...

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Garden

The Garden Appreciation Society Week 12 — Link up!

I really can’t believe we’re already on Week 12 of The Garden Appreciation Society. What do you think? Are you enjoying it? I think I’m a flowers-in-the-house convert because of this. I haven’t missed the few flowers that I’ve brought inside each week from the garden and I love that there are always fresh bouquets inside. Even Mr. Much More ...

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Containers

How to combine plants with special needs in containers

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just stick any old plant into a container with any other plant and have it be beautiful and grow perfectly? Anyone who has tried this knows it just doesn’t work that way. I scoff a little when I see some beautiful container planting in a photograph that makes absolutely zero sense because I ...

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Garden

The Garden Appreciation Society Week 11 — Link up now!

We’re back on track, more or less, for this week’s Garden Appreciation Society link-up. I have to say I’m particularly happy with what I came up with this week because this is something I never would have thought to do if it weren’t for this weekly effort to appreciate the garden in a new way. Many of the container plantings seem ...

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Garden

The mystery is solved, aka How a California wildflower ended up in my Wisconsin garden

Before I left a couple weeks ago an exciting mystery was solved. Reader Carol Y identified the mystery plant! To back up a little, you might recall that I found three mystery plants, planted in about a triangle as though they were put there purposely, in the garden this spring. Since I had a vague recollection that that was where ...

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Garden

Better late than never: The Garden Appreciation Society Week 10

Don’t worry, I have beat myself appropriately many times with a wet noodle as punishment for taking off without so much as leaving a single post in the can. I have to say, I admire bloggers who are organized enough to have a bunch of posts all lined up before they go on vacation. I’m just happy if I can ...

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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.

You might remember that we found this awesome little note on a rafter when we started the demo (way back in September, which now seems like ancient history). It was so cool finding this on one of the first days of demolition. We saved it, of course, although I haven’t decided what to do with […]

You know how people say “We can put a man on the moon but we can’t _________ (fill in the blank)?” Well now there is one less thing to say that about. I got an e-mail this morning from My Perfect Color announcing that they can now make you a can of spray paint in […]

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted one of these, and that’s mostly because things were moving quickly there for awhile. Sadly, that pace seems to have slowed and now it seems like every little thing is taking forever and a day. Anyway, here’s where we were as of about a week ago. Everything was insulated […]

Gosh, I’m so sorry that I haven’t been posting more regularly. It seems like every free moment of my life has been spent with a paintbrush in my hand lately. Since our renovation project has gone over budget, and we weren’t willing to cut out some of the things we really want out of this […]

I’ve (and I say I’ve because I get no help whatsoever from Mr. Much-More-Patient on these matters) chosen almost all the paint colors for the remodeled areas of the house and even though I wasn’t conscious of it at the time, it appears I’m really into gray at the moment. Let’s start with the most […]

Last week I wrote about my favorite new plants of the summer. Here are a few that earned honorable mentions a couple that were just plain disappointments. Raspberry Blast with Gold Dust and Snow Princess on the front steps. Narrowly missing the “best of” list was Petunia Raspberry Blast. I never really liked this petunia […]

I tried several new-to-me plants this summer and found several real winners in the bunch. These are the plants I’ll find a way to incorporate into the garden next year. 5. Royale Chambray Superbena – I don’t have a photo of this from my own garden because I used it in the window box and […]

We hadn’t planned on replacing the floors in the bedrooms. The construction guys tried to save it, but when they started pulling it up, it just broke into pieces. It was douglas fir, wood that the floor guys said was garbage wood when we had the floors refinished four or five years ago, but we […]

I’m loving the new east side of the house. The trim (only on the top roof so far) really helps it all come together and I love the windows. So, this update comes with the old good news, bad news scenario. The good news is that things are still progressing nicely, although I’m extremely anxious […]

There was a good chance we were going to get our first frost Sunday night and a quick scan of the veggie garden told me that I had a ton of basil still in great shape (it was the best basil harvest I’ve ever had). A pile of basil that couldn’t be allowed to go […]

When even the plants are dirty. My Hakonechloa ‘All Gold’, Heuchera ‘Blackout’, and new witch hazel all got a heavy coating of dust when the masons were out fixing the chimney. Guess I’ll have to wash my gardens this weekend since rain isn’t predicted for awhile.

We’ve moved into a phase of the house renovation project that doesn’t have as many big changes so it feels like things have slowed a little, but in reality I think we’re moving along at a pretty good pace. Since the last update, they put on the soffits and the shingles started going on Monday […]

Today, when I went out to the house in the morning, there were masons working on the chimney, roofers scraping off the old shingles, a carpenter working on the fascia and more carpenters working on stuff inside. Our entire yard was a cloud of dust. At this point everything in the house and outside of […]

I hope I’m not boring everyone with construction updates, but I promise to keep them to no more than a couple a week and only if there’s something worth reporting. Last week was full of lows and highs as far as the project went. On Monday they started ripping off the top of the house. […]