I was traveling last week for work and by the time I got home on the weekend, I didn’t feel like doing much. It’s funny, the garden is actually looking pretty good these days. Although I know there will be a ton of work to be done getting it ready for winter, I’m not ready to stop enjoying what it ...
Kylee’s video of a monarch butterfly eclosing (hatching, sort of) is so cool. Deborah Silver is recommending that gardeners in cold climates apply an antidessicant to their boxwood this fall. The change of seasons always makes me want a clean an uber-organized house. This roundup of fabulous pantries is making me very jealous. North Coast Gardening image After all this ...
There is plenty of work to be done in the garden at this time of year. Every thing I can do before the garden is put to bed for the winter is one less thing to do come spring. And of course there are other tasks that simply must be done in fall, like planting bulbs. Still it is difficult ...
Remember the potato tower experiment? This was a method of growing potatoes I tried in part to get a crop of potatoes without using precious garden space. I also thought they would be easier to harvest. Last weekend I attacked those towers to get a feel for how successful this experiment was. I’m not going to keep you in suspense: ...
I find it interesting to follow the progress of container plantings throughout the summer. I only plant each container once because our odd seasons here don’t really allow me to get much time out of a spring- or fall-only planting. This year’s containers have been looking a little tired for a couple weeks now. And there’s no telling how much ...
Some of my favorite blogs do something different than their usual content on Fridays. One of my favorite takes on this is what some bloggers call a “Love List.” In other words, they just link to a lot of things they are interested in that week and think their readers might be interested in as well. So I thought I’d ...
Well it didn’t take long to solve the mystery of what happened to the community garden plots (see the story here). At least one plot-holder complained to the local police (I’m not sure if she filed an official report but she at least made them aware of what had happened) and several irate gardeners complained to the higher-ups at the ...
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.
Last time I focused on some of the great annuals that are new. This time we’re talking perennials. The first one on my list HAS be this beauty which I cannot find anywhere but if I do find one (at a nursery) I’ll snatch it right up and figure out where to put it later. […]
So very excited to be participating in my first Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. Things are pretty slow in my zone 5 garden. Because of our proximity to Lake Michigan we’re a good week to two weeks behind any zone 5ers to the west of us. I expect the Serviceberry will bloom next week (and then […]
There are a couple nurseries I shop at regularly where the staff are extremely well versed in plant care and selection. I know when I go to these places that the plants I’m buying have been well cared for and provided I don’t do anything stupid, they should be fine in my garden. But there […]
I love finding new cultivars of plants. It’s just interesting to see what plant breeders are coming up with. I hope to have some of these in my garden this summer but often they are in limited supply when they are first released. If I don’t get them this year, I’ll grab them next year. […]
The past couple of weeks have been great for bird watching. It really is the best time of year to keep an eye on the feeders, as the migratory birds make their way through. Most of the year we fill the feeders once a week, but this time of the year it’s about every two […]
We’re very lucky to have a woods full of wildflowers and I love walking around looking for them each year. They come back and it’s like seeing an old friend again. I adore the Mayapples and of course the trilliums, but I think my favorite is the marsh marigolds. They have such great foliage and […]
My husband is almost finished with the new vegetable garden. Today we put up most of the deer screening. We just need to put the door on. But after all that work, imagine my surprise when a whole new kind of critter ended up in the garden.That’s me wrangling Newfoundland #2 out of the bed. […]
This is my plumeria. While at the Philadelphia Flower Show this year, my mom, sister-in-law and I saw these for sale. Three for $20. So we bought them and decided to have a competition. First one to get a bloom wins. Now we’re starting to think the first one to see a leaf wins. We […]
I just got the Wisconsin Master Gardener newsletter. One of the articles in it was an admonishment by … um … someone that we should be calling our Master Gardener organizations “associations” rather than “clubs.” The author felt that calling them clubs made it seem as though such organizations are social rather t
I am not one of those people who insists on using Latin names for plants, but I understand there is value to knowing them (since there are a lot of plants with similar common names). But this weekend, as I was in the nursery butchering the pronunciation of “Hakonechloa macra Aureola,” I was thinking it […]
Friday I posted a long list of weekend gardening chores. The weather this weekend was stellar, which we deserved after the previous weekend’s 2.5 inches of rain. Here’s how I did: • Edge all beds – DONE. They look great. I don’t like edging, but nothing cleans up a garden like fresh edges. (Note: I’m […]
My co-op buying has reached epic proportions this year. Through the co-op I have access to oodles of great perennials at great prices. The only catch is that they are plugs—what most local nurseries buy from wholesalers, then pot up and grow before selling them to the public, for up to four times what they […]
Since last weekend was pretty much rained out, I have a long list of things to do in the garden this weekend. Here’s just a few: • Edge all beds• Finish weeding beds (groan)• Plant tree peonies• Divide daylilies• Determine if the Disneyland rose made it through the winter. It’s not looking good.• Deal with […]
Aren’t these just the cutest little flowers? They are bloodroot, and I wish they were in my garden. These are actually from my mom’s garden, and I’m thinking that once they are done blooming I might just have to steal a few! Just try to look at these and not smile. I dare ya!
