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 the house is covered in …
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. By Wednesday they were building …
Monday was the big day for the renovation: the day they pulled the top off half the house. Up until now they’ve been doing a lot of preparatory work getting ready for the tear-off. I swung by at mid-day to see just how it our house would look as a ranch. Hopefully we’re all done with demo now and from …
You know how the folks over at Young House Love are always out crashing houses? Well, here’s my take on it. Welcome to Garden Crashing! This is a garden that was actually spotted from the road on a bike ride. You know a garden is good when it’s so impressive from the road that you do a reverse address search …
Here’s a before and after for you that I had absolutely nothing to do with. The husband gets to take credit for this one. We have two big dogs. Two very big dogs, in fact. We’re talking massive here (a tumbleweed of hair, such as those that regularly roll across my living despite almost daily vacuuming can be bigger than …
Look at what I got: My very own fandeck! After stopping at the local True Value store (which is the area Benjamin Moore dealer) almost every day to pick up paint chips, I finally decided it would be a heck of a lot easier to just buy a fandeck. I use those paint chips for everything from their obvious use …
Yesterday I was feeling a little bit like I had betrayed our old home. Like somehow I was telling it it’s not good enough for us. I actually felt a little guilty. I realize this is crazy but I adore this house and want desperately to do right by it. Today, I almost feel like our house said, “It’s OK. …
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Thank you to Longfield Gardens for partnering with me on this post. I’m starting to think that old gardeners can learn new tricks. I’m not sure what else would explain that for the first time, possibly in history, I have a bulb plan. Allow me to explain: Typically my bulb-purchasing strategy is to order some […]
This post is sponsored by 3-IN-ONE® Brand, but all opinions and questionable design choices are my own. Oh the poor front door. These days it just doesn’t get a lot of use. In fact the only person who’s seen it in several months is the UPS guy. But even though we might not actually be using […]
They say the first step is to admit you have a problem. So I admit it: I have a dahlia problem. I grew about 100 dahlias this year, and I estimate there were between 25 and 30 varieties. I try not to count these things too carefully because denial is easier if you don’t have […]
Longtime readers will know that that we have a pretty clear delineation of yard duties around here. I manage the garden and Mr. Much More Patient handles the lawn. So it’s rare when he weighs in on garden-related matters. But the other day he very carefully suggested that floppy plants were becoming an issue in […]
It all depends on this tomato. Whether this year’s vegetable garden is declared a success or a failure depends entirely on this lone tomato. It’s the first big slicer that I’ve picked this year, brought in to finish ripening on the windowsill, safe from critters and cracking. The tomato is Brandyfred, one of several dwarf [&hell
The facts are indisputable: I enjoy starting interesting and different flowers from seed. Doing No. 1 is a great way to create lush borders on a dime. I grew way too many plants from seed this year. Restraint is called for. Those facts all call for a brutally honest analysis of the new flowers I […]
I’ve always been a reluctant seed saver. Even though I’ve been growing flowers, vegetables and herbs from seed for many years now, I save seeds from very few of them. In some cases I’m not willing to give up any flowers in order to allow the plant to produce seed, but most of the time […]
Mr. Much More Patient recently made an observation that painfully spot on. There was a time in this gardening journey when I used to aim to be more or less finished planting by shortly after Memorial Day. Later, when the sheer volume of plants being put in the ground here got so large that was […]
This post is sponsored by 3-IN-ONE® Brand, but all opinions are my own. I might not be able to tell you what day it is (seriously: When did we get into full-blown summer?), but I know that more people than ever are gardening this year. So this post is for all you new gardeners, or […]
I regret to inform you that the enemy has broken the terms of the 2019 Rabbit Peace Accord. All rabbits are hereby put on notice that no further temporary treaties will be entered into no matter how cute baby bunnies are. For many years I enjoyed a gardening existence that was delightfully free of rabbits. […]
Thank you to long-time sponsor Troy-Bilt for partnering with me on this post. As usual, all words and ideas are my own. Let’s be honest, every yard and garden has its problems, and, especially at this time a lot of people are trying to solve them. We’re spending more time at home, and noticing all […]
My patio is full of plants, and more are on the way. It’s a sure sign of two things: First, a new garden is underway, and second, I am, predictably, quite behind. I always have an excuse for this, but I feel like this year it’s more legitimate than usual. We had a rather significant flood […]
A lot of people are ordering plants online this year, and although I’ll always suggest you check an independent garden center first, there are a lot of reasons to order online (from what are almost always also family-owned small businesses). But if you’re new to ordering online, it can be a little scary. Fortunately, I’ve [&hell
I own very few things that anyone will be interested in when I go to the great garden in the sky, but there is one possession that is so dear to me that I’ll have to find just the right person to bequeath it to. I don’t expect that the lucky person who inherits it […]
