It’s been awhile since I’ve done any garden crashing and this one is more of a mini crash but its still quite different from most gardens lurking around this area. I visited with my mom, who was writing about it for the home and garden section of the local newspaper. The garden is THE feature at this house, a mid-century ...
It was a beautiful weekend here in Wisconsin and I did not spend a single moment of it in the garden. That’s not a good thing. I should be taking advantage of good weather when I can to start sprucing up for fall. Usually my fall gardening chores consist of weeding (the more weeding I do know, the fewer weed ...
Don’t read this post while you’re eating. Unless you are dieting and want a reason to stop eating. I have sad news to report on the health of the Family Jewels plant. The aphids love it. I have never actually seen a plant so covered in aphids before in my life. From a distance I thought the stems were turning ...
For the three summers that we’ve had the window box I’ve been challenged to find the right balance in it. The first year was fairly experimental. Last year I ended up with a texture issue (everything was the same scale). This year I actually worried more about the texture than the color and did OK. What I’m most impressed with ...
The plant feeler-upper strikes again. Look how big the family jewels are getting! You might recall my PG-13 plant touching moment from last year: P.S. I’m not totally sick, I swear. I’m just a toucher. I touch everything. It’s a good thing I discovered Internet shopping because store employees would get irritated with me for touching, rubbing, feeling and inspecting ...
I’m a big proponent of gardening being fun. That’s why I feel that gardening “rules” should be thought of more as guidelines. My gardening rule is: Do what makes you happy. As part of embracing that philosophy, this spring I bought a plant for no reason other than that I thought it was funny. I actually first saw this plant ...
Happy Tuesday everyone! Are you all just soaking up this last bit of summer like I am? Last weekend we did pretty much nothing productive after noon on both Saturday and Sunday. We read books on the beach, ate lots of taco dip, drank Coronas at 2 and I got to go paddleboarding (my new obsession and so much fun) ...
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One reason I was actually happy about fall was because I’ve been dying to see what my new tree, Acer japonicum acontifolium, would look like. Since it’s called the “Dancing Peacock” I was anxious to see if it lived up to its reputation. And as you can see, once it got going, it went quick, […]
Let me be clear: I’m not one of those people who loves autumn. Sure, I can appreciate a beautiful autumn day when you can take a walk through the woods, admiring the sun coming through the colorful leaves and your feet shuffling through them on the ground. But those days, especially this year, are rare. […]
I went to the bank today. This is not that exciting. Except that even though the bank is a block from my office I drove there, and not because I was feeling lazy. I had 43 pounds of change in my car (yeah, I weighed it). We have two jugs in the house. One is […]
Over at The Lettered Cottage they are giving away a leaf blower/vacuum, which is exactly what most of us need these days. They are part of the True Value DIY Blog Squad, which basically means that True Value gave them a $1,000 gift certificate to buy stuff with and then blog about the projects they […]
I’ve been looking for some bluestone inspiration online given my impending bluestone acquistion and came across a couple ideas that might be a jumping-off point for something that could work. Hopefully these will inspire someone out there to throw me a great idea. This is a path from Fine Gardening magazine that uses a whole […]
See this beautiful bluestone path? I’m about to inherit it. It is the stairway to the front door of a family member’s house that is about to be torn down. Right before the big machinery comes to take down the house, I’m going to disassemble that path and take the bluestone. But the question is, […]
That’s ivory queen allium, and I don’t think it grows in a cute little bunch like that. They are shorties, so I made sure to put them right in front, and I only got three of them (they aren’t cheap) so I clumped them all together although at right this moment I couldn’t tell you […]
There was a great article about creating great entryways in the Fine Gardening e-newsletter that showed up in my in box this morning. It’s something I’d like to do in my garden, although I have a difficult time see how I can create any kind of entryway garden here. What I may be able to […]
I’m not turning “The Impatient Gardener” into “The Clueless Home Decorator,” I swear (well, I’m trying really hard not to). But I have found a totally cool Web site that I thought some of you might be interested in knowing about. It’s called Houzz, and it’s like someone took all the cool design photos
This post is not about gardening. It’s about almost everything else. Mostly it’s just me fessing up to my weaknesses. I, apparently, am a very predictable and cyclical person. Every year, right after the Christmas decorations go away, I start thinking about gardening (oh wait, I said that this wasn’t going to be about gardening).
Since I was less than faithful about posting this summer (and trust me, it pains me to even think about refering to it in the past tense) I thought I’d just hit on a few highlights and lowlights of the season. First off, the veggie garden: This was a hoot this year! Thanks to my […]
This will be brief, but I just wanted to apologize for my extended absence … that is, if anyone is still reading this! Summer sort of took hold and then next thing you know, it’s bulb-planting season. I promise to catch you up on what’s been happening in the garden, but in the meantime, I […]
A few weeks ago I went on the local garden walk. A few of the gardens were very nice, but one in particular was a standout. This small garden was packed with lovely little spaces, just what I would want if I had a city garden. It was so charming, just like the roses over […]
The gardens outside the Grand Hotel dining room. They were filled with zinnias, marigolds, purple fountain grass, dahlias with the most enormous stems I’ve ever seen (must be the horse manure) and, of course, nasturiums. I really do. They have such pretty leaves and cheerful flowers. And since they are super easy to grow from […]
