Garden tours are such a great way to give your own garden a dose of inspiration. A lot of times I poo-poo going on them because I’m busy, or it’s hot, or it’s buggy, or it’s rainy or I’ve seen the gardens on the tour before, but a couple Saturdays ago I was reminded of how important it is to …
Hi all! I’m just back from my annual journey (via sailboat) to Mackinac Island and while I get my life back in order and get some proper posts (most of which I had dreams of finishing and publishing while I was gone) ready for you, I’ll give you my annual review of a garden I visit every year on Mackinac …
One of the things I particularly enjoy shopping for (other than plants or anything garden related) is lighting. It can also be exhausting because of the mind-boggling amount of options, but in general I find the search for lighting to be pretty fun. I was happy to have the chance to look for a new light for the garage. We …
I am not growing a Ziploc bag tree, I promise. One of the houses on a garden tour I went to over the weekend was the original home of the super dwarf apple tree in my garden. I won the gala apple (grafted onto super dwarf roots so it will never get big) at a gardening seminar a couple years …
I am an unapologetic lover of meatball boxwoods. I know plenty of people abhor manicured shrubs, particularly squatty balls of boxwood. I’m not one of them. They make me oddly happy. So much so that I just added three more potential meatballs to my garden despite the threat of boxwood blight. The ‘Green Velvet’ boxwood on the corner of the …
For five years now, I’ve been referring to various areas of the yard (any longtime readers remember the “Pit of despair?”) but there is really no way for you to know where anything is in relation to anything else. A blog friend (and regular reader) mentioned a few weeks ago that it was nice to see some long-view pictures of …
The weather has just been lovely here the past few days. It is all I can do to tear myself away from the garden in the morning and go to work. Today I’m going to share with you the new garden area in the back / side yard. Despite this being one of our main views from the house, …
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It feels odd to “reveal” a space that’s been unfolding in front of your eyes on this blog for a year now, but the vegetable garden is finally at a place where almost everything but the gardening bit is finished. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be left only with the task […]
Ask me what my favorite season is and before you can finish asking the question I’ll tell you it’s summer. I’m a summer girl. I like summer activities, summer food, summer cocktails, summer nights and summer gardens. But I have to admit, like a cat with an attitude who deems your lap worthy of laying […]
We’re coming up on 17 years in this house. How that happened I have no idea, but one mark of the passage of time here has been the coming and going of trees. For many years we didn’t cut down any trees here. They were all healthy and more or less where we wanted them. […]
I don’t know what spurred my recent interest in plants with purple foliage, but everywhere I turn, deep, dark leaves are catching my eye. Like other plants with “special” colored foliage, including chartreuse, silver and variegated, purple plants have to be used sparingly, lest they lose their impact. They also work better when
I can’t say what accounts for it, but I’ve noticed recently that I’m a different gardener than I used to. I’m not talking about knowledge, because all gardeners gain that through years of experience and, well, failure. It’s my approach to the physical tasks of gardening that I’ve recognized a change in. I used to
I haven’t cleaned up the garden yet and although I’m feeling anxious about being behind, there’s very little happening right now and I know I still have some time. But while the cultivated parts of our yard are very, very slowly waking up, the natural areas, those that are mostly free of my intervention, are […]
If social media has taught us anything, it’s that you never know what is going to cause controversy. It’s hard to imagine gardening ever being controversial, but there are plenty of strong opinions. I’m good with healthy discussion on any topic, but sometimes I just don’t see the controversy coming. And I certainly didn̵
I have always been a procrastinator. This is not a virtue, and I recently read an article that it’s procrastination is caused by being in a bad mood and living in the present. Personally, I think it has much more to do with living my entire young adult and adult life on a deadline; at […]
My first clematis was ‘Mrs. N. Thompson’, a spindly specimen from a local garden center, but I thought it was something spectacular because it was a clematis that wasn’t ‘Nelly Moser’. Up until that point, I was under the impression that the only two clematis that existed were ‘Nelly’ and ‘Jackmanii&#
It’s been awhile since I’ve shared an update of what’s happening in the garden here, roundabout six months or so. I’m quite happy to report there’s something to report. Mind you, none of this is earth-shattering, but sometimes when I’m busy writing about fake plants or gate colors, the little things happening in
Crowdsourcing aspects of a garden is an enlightening experience. Last weekend I picked up the gate for the vegetable garden. This is a big deal in this very lengthy project. I am an admirer of garden gates. The best ones ooze charm, teasing you to just dare to walk through them. But in my garden, […]
In the 1960s and 1970s double digging was the proper way to garden. That opinion persisted for many years, and the method also known as “bastard trenching” still has its fans. (You can read more about the process, and just how unpleasant it is, here.) As arduous as it was, gardeners persisted in doing it […]
I love gardening in raised beds. In fact I’d argue that everything about gardening in raised beds is easier than growing in the ground. Well, everything except for the part where you make them. But other than that there are so many advantages to growing in raised beds and they are worth considering for anyone […]
Before I launch into what is probably the closest I’ve ever gotten to a rant on this blog I want to just say that I firmly believe in the idea of doing what you like in your own house and garden. These spaces should please you, and if they please someone else in the process, […]
