There is a school of thought, which I wholeheartedly subscribe to, that the activities we enjoy for a lifetime are those that are difficult to master and that constantly have us striving to know more, or perform better. There’s no doubt in my mind that gardening falls under this category. But if I were so blazen as to start thinking ...
It’s an unsettling time in the garden. Part of me looks around, thinks about all the tasks that must get done before it gets too cold out to want to do them and wants to just get on with it, and the other part of me realizes that the garden is still looking fantastic. And a walk around the ...
I used to dig in my garden, unearth a worm and be delighted. I took it as a pat on the back for my hard work in making good soil that earthworms would want to be in doing their good work. But for the past year or so that delight has been gone. It has been replaced with dread. Dread ...
Longtime readers will know that I’m not one to rush the seasons (other than winter, which I’m happy to mentally check out of sometime around January 5), but we need to talk about autumn. And maybe a little bit about spring. Because even though my garden is currently enjoying a very summerlike couple of weeks, the autumnal equinox is Friday, ...
It’s been a busy late summer so I haven’t spent as much time on the internet as I might have otherwise and therefore there wasn’t a lot of finds to share with you, but this week there’s some can’t miss stuff I want to share. First off, don’t miss the most charming little garden and plant show in Belgium, compliments ...
Two things happened on the same day earlier this week that once again reinforced my “garden for yourself” school of thought. First, I read Garden Media Group’s analysis of the gardening trends they see for 2018. One of the things it seems to show is that the trend toward a less cultivated style of gardening is growing. I think we ...
You know how annuals at nurseries can look when things start getting picked over? Generally sad. It’s hard for nurseries to keep up on the watering, it’s getting hotter out making that even more difficult, and they might all be bunched up growing together. That’s how you get plants like this Supertunia Indigo Charm. It’s a favorite of mine ...
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It is mid-October and the dahlias in my yard are looking the best they have all summer. Most have been blooming since July, basically nonstop and I’d be hard pressed to find another flower that puts out that kind of performance. Some of their success is part of the nature of dahlias, but the reason […]
Despite how the headline of this post sounds, I’m not giving life advice. That would be most ridiculous case of false expertise blogging in the history of the Web (and if you read blogs you know that there are a lot of “experts” out there). I prefer to think of posts like this as tidbits […]
In the interest of keeping it real, I sometimes feel obligated to fess up to my shortcomings here. And today I will show you what happens when I’m not thrilled with how a container turned out. The poor thing gets forgotten about. The container plantings I did at work this year were not great. The […]
This is going to be so darn cool. I have never even heard of a meal planning system, but I’m pretty sure our current method of a 4 p.m. phone call every day with a cranky conversation about what we don’t want to eat and who is going to go to the store can be […]
The garden is looking remarkably good for this time of year, but things will change quickly, so now is the time to take care of a few jobs to prepare for next year. Here are four things you can do right now to have a great garden next year. I cleared out the half of […]
It’s no secret that I love clematis. I absolutely cannot get enough of them. Last time I counted I think I had 22 different varieties growing in the garden. A few of them are not doing well, so that number may go down, but it’s far more likely that by next summer the number will […]
Yep … another post today! Truth be told, the today’s first post was supposed to run on Wednesday, and then Thursday, but I didn’t get back to it until late Thursday night. Anyway, it’s time for some Friday Finds. The complete guide to shiplap. Because as I told you, there is going to be some […]
The first day of autumn was this week. This depresses me more than it should, and facing winter gets more difficult with each passing year. However, I’m making a concerted effort to be a more positive person, so I give you my list of things to look forward to in fall. Acer japonicum ‘Acontifolium’ at […]
I have learned a lot of lessons about gardening over the years (case in point: don’t buy one of everything!) but I’m starting to think there are some lessons I will never really learn. One of them is the lesson of staking. Plants that need staking need to be staked before they need staking. And […]
The end of the growing season might seem like a strange time to be talking about growing things from seed, but I find it to be a time to take stock in the garden. I’ve had a whole summer to figure out what worked and what didn’t and yes, I’m already making mental lists about […]
We’re still enjoying the bounty of the garden here (it’s really just beginning, actually), and last weekend I made one of my favorite summer treats, but fancied it up. Usually I just chop everything up in big pieces and toss it in a bowl, but it was a special occasion so I stacked thick slices […]
Yikes, it seems I took an inadvertent break last week (and, um, half of this week). Sorry about that; it turns out that the “end of summer” (somebody else’s term that I refuse to use) is an awfully busy time. On top of all sorts of things going on a work, an event I’ve been […]
First, let me start by saying that even though it’s the end of the August and kids all over the country are already back in school, summer is not over. Not even close. Dammit. Now repeat that until you really believe it. Because even thinking about fall and the miserable season that comes after it […]
Did you follow the Gardenista design awards at all? I hate to say it, but I wasn’t blown away by them this year, at least from a gardening standpoint. But this yard is downright cool. In fact, I’m sure I’m not cool enough to hang out in a place like that, but someone very cool […]
