I’ve talked about beach glass before (some of you may know it as sea glass, but here on the Great Lakes that wouldn’t make much sense). But I don’t think I told you just how competitive my family is about collecting beach glass. We’re ruthless. My dad’s collection is now so big, there’s no way I’ll ever even approach it ...
If you are ever in southeastern Wisconsin, I highly recommend a stop at the Kohler Design Center in Kohler, Wisconsin. People come from all over to visit this kitchen and bathroom dreamland (located across the street from the Kohler factory), but I’m lucky enough to live about a 25-minute drive away. We’re hoping to add a bathroom sometime soon (I’m ...
Have you ever noticed that sometimes the things in our homes that bother us the most are the last things we deal with? Or is this some sick personality quirk of mine? It was almost exactly eight years ago that I first laid eyes on what would become our first (and hopefully only) house. After looking at a lot of ...
I have some great posts from the Proven Winners Outdoor Living Extravaganza in the works, but I ran off to Texas to go sailing and didn’t have time to finish them like I thought I would. And now I’m laid low with some sort of epic illness. Anyway, here’s my luck for you … it was warmer all week at ...
T hat is how pathetic my French language skills are. I’ve been wanting to post for a couple days and could not figure out how to say anything catchy in French. I’ve finally given up trying. Anyway, I was in Marseille on business for two and a half days last week. Unfortunately about 20 hours of those two and a ...
The Impatient Gardener needs a bit of inspiration so I’m heading south to find it. And while I have nothing exciting to talk about I just thought it was pretty wild that I can actually do a blog post at cruising altitude thanks to onboard wifi. Crazy stuff. Be prepared though … after a week of looking at GREEN again ...
Maya over at Completely Coastal has some cool giveaways going on so go check them out!
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 garden tools. I can’t get enough of them, really. Every tool has subtle differences and I live playing around with them to see what works best for me. Troy-Bilt came out with a line of garden tools this year and I put them to the test. I noticed two things right off the […]
I’ve put off an analysis of the this year’s garden long enough. It’s time for a little constructive criticism of my own work. At the same time, gardening is an imperfect art. Sometimes things do what you expect them to and sometimes they don’t. Mother Nature often decides the design of the garden as much […]
I spent most of Sunday in the garden, which was a real treat. It’s fun to garden at this time of year, because most jobs fall under the “pottering” category. I spent a lot of time with my compost, sifting five wheelbarrows full and top-dressing parts of the garden with it. I still have about […]
In case you were wondering, I refuse to acknowledge that it is getting rather far into August. Please do not remind me. One of these days I’m going to take on the enormous project of making my basement into something other than a storage space (half of it is finished space and there’s a fireplace […]
I’ve been staying out of thrift stores for awhile now because I have instituted a rule of not buying something if I don’t have an immediate use for it (and will fix it up within a reasonable amount of time). But I am in a few rummage-type Facebook groups in our area and every so […]
I have never toured a garden and not taken something away from it that I want to put into practice or plant in my own garden. If you ever feel like you’re in a gardening rut, it is the single most inspirational thing you can do. The garden I visited a few weeks ago was […]
I’m on a really good streak with books. I’m reading Dear Friend and Gardener: Letters on Life and Gardening and although I’m only halfway through it (I’m taking my time with it, savoring every page), I just know this is going to be one of those books I go back to and may become one […]
There is something rather momentous going on in my garden right now: Lavender is blooming. For those of you who successfully grow lavender, this probably doesn’t seem like something worth dedicating a blog post to. With lavender, it seems, you either have it, or you don’t. I’ve struggled with growing lavender for years, which is [
So I painted another door. By now, this should come as absolutely no surprise to you. When I get an itch, I paint something and 99% of the time it’s a door. What can I say? They are easy and you get a lot of bang for your buck. BEFORE (Wythe Blue door) AFTER (New […]
One of the weekends I was gone in mid-July also happened to be the weekend that every garden tour in southeastern Wisconsin was held (or so it seemed), and I missed them all. What a bummer. Fortunately, last night I toured two fabulous gardens as part of our annual master gardener garden crawl. I’m now […]
This spring I grew more flowers from seed than I ever have before. The process was incredibly rewarding and I feel like my garden looks better than it ever has, in part due to all the plants I produced from seed. Among those flowers were sweet peas, which have a reputation for being a bit […]
And just like that, it’s August. It’s almost impossible to fathom that we’re at the beginning of what I once considered the last month of summer. The weather, though, is changing from what it was like in my childhood, and since I’m not personally tied to school schedules, more and more, my idea of summer […]
Earlier this year I told you about the Troy-Bilt Horse XP Tractor, and now I’m showing you a little more about it. Get ready for a video full of the inner workings of a lawn mower, mowing to music, creative and possibly dangerous camera angles, dive-bombing dragonflies (we had a huge dragonfly hatch around here […]
We’ve been enjoying the most amazing stretch of gorgeous summer weather here in southeastern Wisconsin. Save for the fact that we could really use some rain, there is absolutely nothing to complain about. We’ve been savoring every possible moment of it (I seriously try to soak it in and save it for a few months […]
