I started more things from seed this year than I ever have and I’m so happy I did. More than just the satisfaction of growing from seeds and the fact that I’ll have a well-stocked garden for pennies, it kept me busy during those hardest months for gardeners. It was lovely to tend to something green. In fact, I’m …
Next week I’ll touch base on the progress on all the seeds I’ve been starting this year, but thanks to this new mini greenhouse, I’ll be able to get most of the plants out of the back room this weekend. For about $130 this was gardening money very well spent. Great. First I wanted pygmy goats, now I want this …
After one of the more challenging weeks of my working career, I was absolutely spent going into the weekend. I desperately needed to just stop thinking about everything for awhile. Thank goodness Mother Nature cooperated and presented two nearly perfect spring days for me to get lost in the garden. And that’s exactly what I did, getting caught up on …
New House New Home photo Heather is looking back at springs past. I will absolutely be making these cocktails this spring. Would you ever paint your house black? Look how cute this one is. I do love dahlias and I’m not the only one. I will be potting up dozens of them this weekend to give them a head start …
I’ve never been known to whip through projects quickly, but adding a pergola to our garage certainly took longer than most. Although I first mentioned adding a pergola (among other changes) on the blog way back in October 2013, we didn’t start actually building it until last fall. We used this article from This Old House for reference, but for …
If you’re hear to read about the garage pergola (like I promised you would in this space last Friday), I’m sorry. It’s been a crazy week at work and it just didn’t happen. But it will. Next week. I promise. We’re hosting Easter at our house. I like having Easter because it’s a low-pressure holiday. (Edited: Previously I launched into …
The results of the soil tests of the skinny bed next to the house and what I call the main garden just off the patio came were not what I would call earth-shattering, but ironically the one thing I thought I knew is probably what I was most wrong about. One of the reasons I wanted to test the skinny garden …
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.
Nothing stops me in my tracks more than when I’m looking at a garden jam-packed with color and texture and come across a spot of bare soil. It puts a screeching halt to well-planned flow. Gaps in the garden happen because the plant that was supposed to be growing there didn’t, or perhaps because other […]
What more can we ask from a gardening book than to be inspirational and education? Two new books with more than a little in common manage to strike the right balance of both, complimenting each other, much as the personalities of these enthusiastic and generally delightful gardeners do. Claus Dalby, the Danish gardener known for […]
Thank you to Park Seed for partnering with me on this post. As always, all words, thoughts and seed choices are my own. The hardest part of growing plants from seed is keeping the amount I grow in check. I can’t be alone in this. It can be so tempting to plant just a few […]
If there is a support group for planter addicts, let me know, because I need it. I love a good container, but finding one is a different matter. I have two non-negotiable requirements for most planters: they need to be big and they need to look good. Weight, style and even cost are all things […]
Is there any task that has so many rules and yet so many people tackling it in different methods more than growing plants from seeds? It can make the whole process even more confusing. Each way to start seeds has its pros and cons, and although some are better than others for starting particular seeds, […]
There’s a well-established garden-making process around here: Every other year I make a new garden space. It is a lot of work, puts me behind in other areas of my arguably already too-large garden and takes a bit bite out of the plant budget. By the end of the project I swear I’m all done […]
What can I say about the 2021 garden? I have been putting off thinking about it too much because well, I have regrets, and when we are only given so many summers in this lifetime, it stinks to use one on a garden that you don’t love. Don’t get me wrong, I am way more […]
No matter how much I’d like to be one of those people who makes notes throughout the year of gift ideas for family and friends, I am but a mere mortal who, in the throes of a panicked gift-buying season, ends up scouring online gift guides that claim to know the innermost desires of the […]
At a time of year when there’s no shortage of faux decor—faux trees, faux berries, faux garlands, faux mistletoe, for starters—it’s nice to have a few real plants around. The plants we typically think of as “holiday” plants don’t usually bloom at this time of year. Rather, they are forced (although perhaps “t
Growing oddball plants—those plants that aren’t commonly grown in the area—is almost always rewarding. Since there is no real way to measure success, any sign of a plant doing what it’s supposed to do is chalked up in the win column. In other words, I keep my expectations low and hope to be pleasantly surprised. […]
Thank you to Inside Outside House & Garden for partnering with me on my post. As usual, all words and thoughts are mine. Check out the promo code at the end for a free trial. “No new gardens.” Perhaps you’ve heard me say this a few times before, but it turns out no matter how […]
I’ll admit it: My gardener brain switched into fall to-do list mode awhile ago. But somewhere along the line in between planning where bulbs will go and remembering which plants need to be moved, I looked up and found some great plants showing off in the garden. It was, once again, a good reminder to […]
This time of year is all about soaking in the garden and making mental (or more likely, photographic) notes about what worked and what didn’t. Some things are as simple as a plant that just didn’t perform or as complicated as being happy with how a design sketched on paper came to fruition. But somewhere […]
Thanks to Longfield Gardens for partnering with me on this post. You don’t need to look far on this blog or in my garden to know that I am mildly obsessed with dahlias and have been for a long time. And while I admire, and maybe even envy, those photos of a field with row […]
