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Letters from the Garden

Garden

The most inspiring moments from great gardens

I’ve said it here before, but it bears repeating: The very best thing you can do for your garden is get out of it and into someone else’s. I cannot think of a a single time I’ve gone into another garden and not taken something away from it that I either learned or wanted to incorporate into my own garden. …

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Garden

Celebrating surprise plants

There are plants in my garden that are coddled within in inch of their life. I check on them often enough that I usually know when a new leaf has emerged. And then there are the other plants that just quietly do their thing for years until one day you blink and wonder where that beautiful plant came from. And …

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dead viburnum
Garden

Tallying up winter’s losses

The effects of our extreme winter are still showing up in the garden. With the cool, wet spring we’ve had (as much a blessing for a busy gardener who is thankful that the weeds aren’t head-high as  it is a curse), everything is slower than usual. In fact I estimate that most things are still two weeks behind what I …

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Colocasia Distant Memory
Garden

Pretty in purple: Gorgeous foliage to add dimension in the garden

I don’t know what spurred my recent interest in plants with purple foliage, but everywhere I turn, deep, dark leaves are catching my eye. Like other plants with “special” colored foliage, including chartreuse, silver and variegated, purple plants have to be used sparingly, lest they lose  their impact. They also work better when set against a lighter background, like a …

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Scillia blue flower
Garden

Spring in the woods if not in the garden

I haven’t cleaned up the garden yet and although I’m feeling anxious about being behind, there’s very little happening right now and I know I still have some time.  But while the cultivated parts of our yard are very, very slowly waking up, the natural areas, those that are mostly free of my intervention, are doing the most wonderful things.  …

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chives
Garden

How did tasty and pretty chives get such a bad rap?

If social media has taught us anything, it’s that you never know what is going to cause controversy. It’s hard to imagine gardening ever being controversial, but there are plenty of strong opinions. I’m good with healthy discussion on any topic, but sometimes I just don’t see the controversy coming. And I certainly didn’t think an Instagram post showing a …

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'Sapphire Indigo' clematis
Garden

The complete clematis growing guide

My first clematis was ‘Mrs. N. Thompson’, a spindly specimen from a local garden center, but I thought it was something spectacular because it was a clematis that wasn’t ‘Nelly Moser’. Up until that point, I was under the impression that the only two clematis that existed were ‘Nelly’ and ‘Jackmanii’.  ‘Mrs. N. Thompson’ never grew that well for me, …

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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 have gifts to buy and I’m here to help. There’s a lot of gardening stuff out there geared toward gift giving and to be honest, a lot of it is not great. Quality matters and sometimes cute just doesn’t cut it. Gardeners are, generally speaking, a practical bunch, and most of the gardeners I […]

There are two possible explanations for what’s been going on outside here lately: Either the weather is completely off its rocker or I’ve forgotten what this time of year is like. After several decades of experiencing fall into winter in this particular part of the world you would have thought I’d have it down by […]

I suppose the answer to the question posed in the title starts with “What plant?” Sure, there are plants that are special (we all have favorite plant children whether we admit it or not) that many of us would go to some length to protect. But what about replaceable plants?  There was a time where […]

This post is sponsored by 3-IN-ONE® Brand, but all opinions are my own. I also take full responsibility for any messy garages that may be featured. There’s nothing like an abrupt change in seasons to get yourself in gear. Just a week ago I was sitting back, enjoying a beautiful fall day and feeling pretty […]

I might whine about winter and therefore autumn, which is guilty by association, but last weekend we had one of those magical fall days. The sun was bright and warm, the sky was that deep sapphire blue you only see in the last quarter of the year and every bit of foliage seemed to be […]

Fall cleanup used to be more about making sure the tools were put away, the leaves were off the lawn and the pots were cleared out of the way to make sure they won’t get in the way of the snowblower.  I’m not sure when it happened but somewhere along the line I started collecting […]

The last day of summer came and went in the most depressing way possible: with an all-day downpour that kept me out of the garden. This summer-loving gardener is not pleased. It is my sincere hope that we have a lot more summerlike weather ahead because as usual, it feels like summer has absolutely flown […]

I can tell you the exact moment that summer started at my house: 12:27 p.m. September 2.  You read that right. That is the moment that summer started. Reports of summer’s death have been greatly exaggerated. And in this house summer starts the moment that I take the first bite of  BLT featuring a giant […]