Last week I had to go to Newport, Rhode Island, for work, and although business travel isn’t high on the list of things I want to be doing in summer, it was a pleasure to be in such a beautiful city. Before I left I gardened like a mad woman to get all the major jobs in the garden finished ...
It’s a rare Saturday blog post! I figured I owed you a little something with my sporadic posting over the past few weeks. The garden is finally coming alive, and although there isn’t a lot of things flowering just yet, it is a lovely combination of greens and almost everything is still looking fresh and new. I’ll show you more ...
I love looking at photos of gardens. I study them and after a while I think I know them. I’ve been following Linda’s blog Each Little World longer than I’ve been following any other garden blog and I feel like I’ve become close friends with her Madison, Wisconsin, garden. But a couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to see ...
I’m nearing the tail end of the major work in the garden, which now consists of pulling out weeds by the handful and mulching. I’m certain I’ve weeded at least 10 wheelbarrows full and the mulch situation is completely out of control. I’m fussy about mulch. My favorite is a very fine pine bark with pieces a half-inch or less ...
I forgot to show you a couple of photos that I meant to include in yesterday’s post about what’s happening in the garden. The ‘Blue Angel’ hostas in a corner of the garden have not yet recovered from a hasty division a year or two ago when they were badly in need of it so there is a little extra ...
So many things have been happening in the garden and I’ve not had to time to show you any of them, so I thought it was high time to take a few peeks at what’s happening. Not much is blooming yet, but in a matter of weeks I expect the yard to be a riot of color. There are moments ...
You are reading the blog of a movie star. Well, not quite, but I sort of felt like one for a day. A couple weeks ago I drove 60 miles west to the charming town of Merton, Wisconsin (where I think I actually covered a school board meeting once for one of my first jobs), to help at the grand ...
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You might remember that we found this awesome little note on a rafter when we started the demo (way back in September, which now seems like ancient history). It was so cool finding this on one of the first days of demolition. We saved it, of course, although I haven’t decided what to do with […]
You know how people say “We can put a man on the moon but we can’t _________ (fill in the blank)?” Well now there is one less thing to say that about. I got an e-mail this morning from My Perfect Color announcing that they can now make you a can of spray paint in […]
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted one of these, and that’s mostly because things were moving quickly there for awhile. Sadly, that pace seems to have slowed and now it seems like every little thing is taking forever and a day. Anyway, here’s where we were as of about a week ago. Everything was insulated […]
Gosh, I’m so sorry that I haven’t been posting more regularly. It seems like every free moment of my life has been spent with a paintbrush in my hand lately. Since our renovation project has gone over budget, and we weren’t willing to cut out some of the things we really want out of this […]
I’ve (and I say I’ve because I get no help whatsoever from Mr. Much-More-Patient on these matters) chosen almost all the paint colors for the remodeled areas of the house and even though I wasn’t conscious of it at the time, it appears I’m really into gray at the moment. Let’s start with the most […]
Last week I wrote about my favorite new plants of the summer. Here are a few that earned honorable mentions a couple that were just plain disappointments. Raspberry Blast with Gold Dust and Snow Princess on the front steps. Narrowly missing the “best of” list was Petunia Raspberry Blast. I never really liked this petunia […]
I tried several new-to-me plants this summer and found several real winners in the bunch. These are the plants I’ll find a way to incorporate into the garden next year. 5. Royale Chambray Superbena – I don’t have a photo of this from my own garden because I used it in the window box and […]
We hadn’t planned on replacing the floors in the bedrooms. The construction guys tried to save it, but when they started pulling it up, it just broke into pieces. It was douglas fir, wood that the floor guys said was garbage wood when we had the floors refinished four or five years ago, but we […]
I’m loving the new east side of the house. The trim (only on the top roof so far) really helps it all come together and I love the windows. So, this update comes with the old good news, bad news scenario. The good news is that things are still progressing nicely, although I’m extremely anxious […]
There was a good chance we were going to get our first frost Sunday night and a quick scan of the veggie garden told me that I had a ton of basil still in great shape (it was the best basil harvest I’ve ever had). A pile of basil that couldn’t be allowed to go […]
When even the plants are dirty. My Hakonechloa ‘All Gold’, Heuchera ‘Blackout’, and new witch hazel all got a heavy coating of dust when the masons were out fixing the chimney. Guess I’ll have to wash my gardens this weekend since rain isn’t predicted for awhile.
We’ve moved into a phase of the house renovation project that doesn’t have as many big changes so it feels like things have slowed a little, but in reality I think we’re moving along at a pretty good pace. Since the last update, they put on the soffits and the shingles started going on Monday […]
Today, when I went out to the house in the morning, there were masons working on the chimney, roofers scraping off the old shingles, a carpenter working on the fascia and more carpenters working on stuff inside. Our entire yard was a cloud of dust. At this point everything in the house and outside of […]
I hope I’m not boring everyone with construction updates, but I promise to keep them to no more than a couple a week and only if there’s something worth reporting. Last week was full of lows and highs as far as the project went. On Monday they started ripping off the top of the house. […]
