Letters from the Garden

Garden

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

I promised I’d be back with a few photos to share from Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and since it’s technically still the 15th, I haven’t missed it yet. Just two photos to share, both demonstrating one of the great things about letting plants stand during winter. They can still be beautiful. I love the fuzzy seedheads that stick around on ...

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Garden

PREPPING FOR WINTER … A LITTLE LATE

Gosh, it’s about time for a gardening post, don’t you think? I never really showed you some of what happens here in the winter when it comes to the garden. Winter brings a couple of serious challenges: protecting plants from the freeze/thaw cycle and protecting plants from hungry animals. A lot of people think that it’s the cold that is ...

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Garden

NOT GOODBYE, JUST UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN

The mustard yellow chair and ottoman in the living room went away Monday morning. They are off to get a new look at a local upholsterer. Yeah, I should probably vacuum before I take pictures. The ottoman (and more dog fur). You can see the fabric swatch on the X-bench in the background. I love that chair and, like our ...

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Containers

Winter containers: A bit of much-needed gardening fun

Gosh, here I was reveling in the extra-week-in-between-Christmas-and-Thanksgiving glow and all of a sudden it’s December and I’m freaking out a little bit. Every year I resolve to take time to actually enjoy the holiday season instead of scurrying around doing everything, and every year, I end up totally stressing myself out. The problem is that I’m just not the ...

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Garden

Buh-bye ugly lamp!

It’s the last day of November. Seems strange since it feels very December-y lately (other than the weather) and it seems like Thanksgiving was ages ago. What better way to finish off the month than by resolving a problem I shared with you at the beginning of the month! That problem was the ugly lamp situation in my living room. ...

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Garden

Poinsettias in every color; even blue

Longtime readers of this blog will know that I have a love-hate relationship with poinsettias. I love them because they are one of the few plants that can bring some color into the house during these darkest days and because even if you do nothing else, a red poinsettia makes your house look holiday-ish. I sort of hate them because ...

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Garden

Do you see what I see?

I can’t tell you how thankful I am that because of the early Thanksgiving this year we have an extra weekend thrown in before Christmas. It takes so much pressure off. The rest of the world, though, seems to be full-on into Christmas prep mode. Shopping, baking, decorating and lighting up their houses like crazy. I can’t tell you how ...

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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.

I   love the Better After blog for inspiration. It amazes me how there are people out there who can see another life for something that I would classify as junk or never see beyond its original purpose. Here’s a garden related before and after that would be so cool for a more modern house. Taking […]

I     think I predicted this was going to happen. If you recall I was on the search for a “named” white for the trim in our house. I did a bunch of testing and it turned out that Benjamin Moore’s “Cotton Balls” seemed to be very close to our existing trim color, but maybe a […]

F   ew places on Earth are more beautiful than New Zealand. Actually, I’ve been lucky enough to do a lot of traveling and so far I’ve not found a place as beautiful as the little land down under. And it’s particularly wonderful if you love gardens. I’ve been enjoying reading the blog of a Kiwi […]

Every Christmas tree is special and every Christmas is memorable for one reason or another. This project combines both of those. And if you have kids, I think it’s especially great. The good news is that it’s not too late to make these tree trunk ornaments, although usually I start the project when we bring […]

I     n honor of my Christmas cards going out late this year, I thought I’d send Christmas wishes to all of you out there by giving you a little look back at our holiday cards featuring our dogs. We weren’t planning on sending out pictures of the dogs (Newfoundlands Hudson and Rita) every year, but […]

I     t’s been a bit since I’ve had a post here, but that’s because I’ve been busy Christmas-ing things up at our house. To say that I got a bit late this year would be something of an understatement. Since I’m sure most of you already have done your decorations, I’m not expecting to inspire [

L ast year I bought several interesting amaryllis bulbs to give as Christmas gifts. They were very well received, especially by the people on my list who don’t want or need more “stuff.” I guess I was bit over anxious last year because I planted them sometime in November. I ended up giving most of […]

O K, so I’m missing the before and during pictures, but I do have an after. This is one of those really uncomfortable Ikea chairs that the whole world gets when you need a chair. After awhile it ends up in your basement where your cat takes up residence on it, making it so disgusting […]

I   ‘ve found that mentioning projects here makes me far more likely to actually accomplish them. Keeps me honest, I guess. So, here’s my list of things I’d like to accomplish around the house this long, long winter. Someone please make me revisit it in March so I actually hurry up and get some done. […]

C  hristmas, apparently, is right around the corner. Apparently even though I have calendars in front of my face constantly, that is a fact that has eluded me until this weekend. What really got me in gear was the threat of our first real snowfall, and I thought I had better get some decorations up, […]

A  llow me to indulge myself just a bit (as though this whole blog isn’t an indulgence). I love the television show “Lost” and particularly the character Hurley, played by Jorge Garcia. (Well I really love Sawyer, but that’s something else entirely). Anyway, Jorge (the actor) has a blog that’s pretty funny and thi

A    m I think only person who gets more excited about wrapping presents than buying or giving them? I’ve always loved wrapping presents and a big part of the fun is coming up with new ideas every year. Often my “theme” follows a color trend I’m particularly into at the time, but sometimes it flows […]

I  ‘m more than a little in love with these succulent wreaths, featured yesterday at Apartment Therapy. If I had time I’d make one now, but I think this would be an equally great summer project.

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