Letters from the Garden

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Cute elves and ugly ornaments

It’s not often that I report back on Monday with what I did over the weekend (because usually I started a project that I didn’t finish so there’s not much to report on), but even though I did not one iota of Christmas decorating (whoops) this weekend, it was an excellent holiday time. Saturday I went down to my college ...

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Giveaways galore

Happy Friday, everyone! ‘Tis the season to hurry up and get decorating, I guess, so that is on my agenda for the weekend in addition to doing a little cookie baking with my BFF’s family (and meeting her adorable daughter for the first time) followed by an “ugly ornament exchange” with my other BFFs. Posts are written, but photos are ...

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Holy magnolia!

There is a chance that perhaps I may have underestimated exactly what 40 magnolia stems looks like. Stuffed to the gills in the basement until I can decorate with them. And yes, Mr. Much More Patient is still running around in shorts. And yes, that’s a sneak peek of a thrift store find in progress in the background.  First I ...

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Let the eating begin

It’s the day before Thanksgiving so if there were ever a time to talk about food for the first time on the blog, I guess this is it. We go to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving every year and even though we have a rather small gathering, we of course make way too much food and eat far more than ...

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Last day for the giveaway!

I’ll be back later to show you a couple small updates that we’ve done in the house, but for now I just wanted to remind you that today is the last day to enter the giveaway for the vintage botanical chart from Bonnie & Bell. Don’t miss out!

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Things I learned from Sarah

It’s no secret that I have a massive girl crush on Sarah Richardson. I try not to talk about it too much here because I hate to just show you pretty pictures of rooms that other people have created. There are a lot of blogs that do that very well and this one will never been one of them. But ...

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A sneak peak of the latest project

I’ve been working on a few projects, some more exciting than others and I’ve finally finished a pretty exciting one that I’m pretty stoked about. BUT … it’s gonna be a long post (you’re gettin’ a tutorial folks, whether you want it or not), and no one wants to read long posts on Fridays. So I leave you with this ...

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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.

It’s Friday, so I bet you’re expecting Friday Finds. Never fear, they are coming later, but I didn’t want to let another day pass without giving up an update on the oval circle garden (I feel like that’s now the best way to refer to it). When we last checked in on this garden that […]

There’s no getting around it: At this time of year, the garden is starting to look tired. Foliage is tattered and sun faded, flowers are flopping, everything looks a bit haggard. But one plant is just now coming into its own, the ever tropical-looking Castor bean.  This plant will surely catch your key from across […]

I had to apologize to the friend that I bounce every idea off of (she has mastered the art of gently telling me I’m crazy when I need to slow down a little) because as I always do this time of year, I’m full of so much inspiration and I suffer from some sort of […]

If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? I’m going to weigh in with my own answer to this age old question: No. I say that because on Sunday we discovered that a very large tree had, in fact, fallen in our woods, […]

Well I made it through the first post-Labor Day week. This summer has been so incredible (I know, I won’t shut up about it, sorry) that I was truly melancholy Monday just thinking of it ending. Despite my best efforts, my thoughts have turned to gardening tasks that need to be attended to before frost […]

I would be crazy to complain about anything that happened in the garden this summer. The weather has been lovely, possibly even perfect. For the most part we had warm temperatures with plenty of rain mixed in. Sure, there were a few dry weeks, but I only had to do supplemental watering a handful of […]

It’s been a great year for dahlias here. Who am I kidding? It’s been a great year for everything in the garden, but the dahlias are appreciating our lovely summer as much as anything. A few have been unfairly (in my estimation, at least) targeted by slugs, but for the most part they continue to […]

How did it get to be Friday again? Specifically a Friday late in August? Sometimes it feels like the world is spinning a bit too fast. Loi Thai photo Have you seen Loi’s fabulous Limelight hedge? I can’t believe it’s only three years old. (Stephen, if you’re reading this I’m sure you knew I’d put this [&hell

I first saw Eupatorium capillifolium ‘Elegant Feather’ late last summer at a baby shower. I spotted it from inside the house and ran out at my first opportunity to give it a closer look. It looked to me like a soft, feathery evergreen and I had to seek out the landscaper who planted to gardens […]

I’ve got Olympic fever. For the past two weeks, if the television was on in our house, it was tuned to the Olympics, although I enjoyed watching some of the less popular events on the channels high on the dial (that reference will make no sense to people much younger than me) even more than […]

The poor vegetable garden has gone mostly unnoticed on the blog this summer. That’s a shame because at this time of year it really does provide an incredible abundance for us. Part of my lack of excitement about is that I’ve been stewing over a plan to redo the entire vegetable garden area for a […]

I don’t want to talk about how it’s almost the middle of August, or how the back-to-school ads are incredibly annoying to me (not because I have any stake in anyone going to back to school, but such ads signal a certain time of year). Instead I’d rather revel in the fact that last night […]

For years I’ve read horror story about Japanese beetles invading gardens. I’d even talked to local gardeners who have been plagued by the irridescent buggers. But until this year I’d never even laid eyes on one. I read an article that suggested that our springs are too cold here (and particularly at my house near […]