Letters from the Garden

Friday Finds

FRIDAY FINDS

I’ve been following Claus Dalby on Instagram for quite some time and if you hang out there he’s worth a follow. Gardenista recently wrote about him and you can see some of his work, although I detest the headline (I don’t really see any comparison to him and Martha Stewart). Over at the Rusty Duck, an ongoing bedroom renovation is ...

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Garden

PLANTS OF THE YEAR

It has become very popular for different organizations to features “plants of the year.” These usually involve a marketing push as well, so retailers tend to stock up on featured plants and the odds are much better that you’ll be able to pick them up without a lot of hunting. Here are a few of the featured plants of the ...

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Friday Finds

FRIDAY FINDS

I can’t wait for the weekend. I have nothing special planned other than little projects here and there, including on doing more painting in the basement, but some weeks an unplanned weekend sounds like the best thing in the world. Lots of great stuff happening online this week (well the fun stuff, not the bits that I use this blog, ...

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Garden

5 FLOWERS THAT ARE DEAD SIMPLE TO GROW FROM SEED

When I first started growing plants from seed I limited my growing to vegetables only. I can’t really explain it, other than to say that it seemed like flowers might be fussy to start from seed. Boy was I wrong. Most flowers, in fact most plants, are pretty easy to start from seed. But some are just dead simple. Here ...

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Friday Finds

WEEKEND FINDS

I had to change the name of Friday Finds this week since this is going out so late that most of you won’t see it until Saturday. Here’s what I’ve been liking and loving online this week. Loi Thai / Tone on Tone photo Loi shared some of his tips for growing the amazing myrtle topiaries he grows. I’d love ...

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Garden

MY SWEET PEA ORDER

Dear me. It’s still a good four months before I have a hope of planting anything, but I’m very much behind on making a plan for what I will grow from seed this year. I need to start by going through what I already have and that will require riffling through boxes and Ziploc  bags and generally realizing that my ...

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Friday Finds

FRIDAY FINDS

It feels like it has been a long time since there’s been a Friday Finds post here. I can’t even tell you how busy this month has been and amazingly I feel like I’m already behind on gardening. There are seeds and dahlia tubers to be ordered and I’ve not done anything about formulating a plan yet! But there will ...

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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.

I’ve finally finished planting all of my containers for this year. The weather since they’ve been in has not been great so they are not filling in as quickly as one would hope, but they’ll get there, I’m sure. I thought it would fun to see how they change throughout the summer, so I’ll try […]

Today’s post was supposed to be about the containers I planted this year, but somewhere along the line, the photos didn’t stay in it. So you can check that out tomorrow. In the meantime, I offer a weather update, which can be summed up in one word: rain. It rained Monday night and then again […]

If you haven’t lived in a rural area, you might not know about septic mounds. They are one of the most common ways to deal with septic in the country when you don’t have municipality-provided sewer service. We are fortunate that our mound is on the far side of the property. They aren’t unattractive, they […]

I’ve been feverishly working on finishing up the new garden area in the side/back yard and I’m almost there. I’m at the really fun part of arranging and planting now. I love planting a new bed. There is something so wonderful about a clean slate to plant in. But with me spending so much time […]

We didn’t plan it this way, but this year has become the year of the back yard. Between the renovation of the gardens there and fixing up the garage, I think we’re finally taking care of some of the things that have needed attention since we bought the house 12 years ago.     This […]

Since it’s finally finished and planted, I think it’s high time I share with you how we built the wood planter by the front door. When the old planter fell apart after five or six years of year-round service, I was shocked when I found out how much large planters cost. Having found some wood […]

Our poor garage. We’ve ignored it so much over the years (12 of them actually; the anniversary of closing on our house was last weekend!). As you may, recall, we’re working on fixing that, but I also made a change I could have done any time and just never did. I added a bit of […]

What is the sound of summer? Is it the song of birds singing early in the morning? Waves crashing on the shore? Wind rustling through ornamental grasses? For me, the sound of summer is the squeak of a tight spring followed by the slap of a screen door. I’m certain that it’s a sound that […]

Although it was not intentional, this has become a very experimental year in the vegetable garden. First I tried out the potato towers. The jury is still out on those as I’m seeing the first potato shoots coming out now. And it turns out that the “straw” that I bought (where they guaranteed it was […]

I’m declaring it here: Someday I will go to the Chelsea Flower Show. This annual event is a veritable utopia for gardeners who go to take in the show gardens (from large to small), and special booths often featuring specific plants. The only thing keeping me from booking a ticket for next year is the […]

As you know, I love planting containers. Of the containers I plant I think I put the most emphasis on the window box. It is probably the first thing you see when you pull up to our house and it’s one of the few containers I can see (part of, anyway) from inside the house. […]

Did you all have a great long weekend (at least my U.S. readers who celebrated Memorial Day)? I love long weekends (well, who doesn’t?) but my goodness, they are so exhausting. Saturday was our big master gardeners’ plant sale, so I took Friday off of work and spent nine hours helping set that up. Then […]

I’ve been so busy working on various projects around the garden that I’ve neglected showing you what the actual garden is looking like these days. As usual, there is good news and bad news in the garden. The bad news is that our cold, wet spring has really retarded the growth of many perennials. My […]