I’m not even going to look in the archives, but I’m willing to bet that every year around this time I’ve started a post by telling you I’ve done no Christmas shopping. I think we can all safely assume that short of taking advantage of a few cyber week sales for things we needed, there will be no gift buying …
It has been a difficult few weeks to be a gardener in my area. The sun is setting early (and soon to be much earlier) so there’s no time for gardening after work and the weekends have been rainy. I appreciate this late season rain, as I believe that it is best for plants to go into dormancy well hydrated, …
It’s been awhile since I’ve done a Friday Finds, so I thought I’d pop in quickly to share some of my favorites for the week. First off, a bit of a programming note. I haven’t been posting a lot lately simply because it’s been one of those busy times in life. I was out of town last week (in beautiful …
It’s been a busy late summer so I haven’t spent as much time on the internet as I might have otherwise and therefore there wasn’t a lot of finds to share with you, but this week there’s some can’t miss stuff I want to share. First off, don’t miss the most charming little garden and plant show in Belgium, compliments …
Have you noticed that I’ve not shown you much (or maybe anything) from the vegetable garden this year? That’s because I got so late planting stuff that even my kale is only a few inches tall. The only variety I grow anymore is lacinato, which, as you can tell from the photo above from Mackinac Island makes a pretty great …
My head has been all over the place this week. I still feel like I haven’t gotten back in the swing of things after being gone (seriously, what is with that), and I haven’t even unpacked my bags yet. So I’m looking forward to a weekend with some time in the garden to put me back on level footing.I don’t …
How did it get to be the middle of summer? Ugh … it’s going too fast and needs to slow down! The good part about this time of the year is that the major work in the garden is starting to wind down. That’s actually sort of funny because of course I would prefer that to have been wrapped …
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I have written thousands of words on this blog about deer: plants deer avoid, ways to fend off deer attacks, homemade deer spray, complaining about deer. Lots of complaining about deer. And a lot of you reading this have deer issues too. I know because not only do you commiserate (particularly with the complaining), but […]
You have gifts to buy and I’m here to help. There’s a lot of gardening stuff out there geared toward gift giving and to be honest, a lot of it is not great. Quality matters and sometimes cute just doesn’t cut it. Gardeners are, generally speaking, a practical bunch, and most of the gardeners I […]
There are two possible explanations for what’s been going on outside here lately: Either the weather is completely off its rocker or I’ve forgotten what this time of year is like. After several decades of experiencing fall into winter in this particular part of the world you would have thought I’d have it down by […]
I suppose the answer to the question posed in the title starts with “What plant?” Sure, there are plants that are special (we all have favorite plant children whether we admit it or not) that many of us would go to some length to protect. But what about replaceable plants? There was a time where […]
This post is sponsored by 3-IN-ONE® Brand, but all opinions are my own. I also take full responsibility for any messy garages that may be featured. There’s nothing like an abrupt change in seasons to get yourself in gear. Just a week ago I was sitting back, enjoying a beautiful fall day and feeling pretty […]
I might whine about winter and therefore autumn, which is guilty by association, but last weekend we had one of those magical fall days. The sun was bright and warm, the sky was that deep sapphire blue you only see in the last quarter of the year and every bit of foliage seemed to be […]
Fall cleanup used to be more about making sure the tools were put away, the leaves were off the lawn and the pots were cleared out of the way to make sure they won’t get in the way of the snowblower. I’m not sure when it happened but somewhere along the line I started collecting […]
Whew. Life has been a whirlwind lately. Right around June life always starts getting busy. There’s the usual busy-ness of summer and I managed to add to that by having a group of master gardeners tour my garden in August. And just when I thought I’d get a breather, work got busy. Somehow here we […]
There are gardeners who eschew new plants, and although they may have some valid arguments (among them that they are hybridized to a point where they are no longer of use to pollinators and the species is just fine), I’ll never get sick of trying new plants in the garden. I enjoy the challenge of […]
The last day of summer came and went in the most depressing way possible: with an all-day downpour that kept me out of the garden. This summer-loving gardener is not pleased. It is my sincere hope that we have a lot more summerlike weather ahead because as usual, it feels like summer has absolutely flown […]
Everything was going fine until it rained. And rained. And rained. Our weather station temporarily went on the fritz last week when a night of lightning took out the power, but we got somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 inches of rain in about four days. That much rain at this time of year is […]
These are the onions I grew this year. I harvested them this weekend and they may be the single best argument for trying new things in the garden.I can’t give you poundage because I just pulled them and they are curing but I can assure you I’ve never grown more onions before. And here’s where […]
I can tell you the exact moment that summer started at my house: 12:27 p.m. September 2. You read that right. That is the moment that summer started. Reports of summer’s death have been greatly exaggerated. And in this house summer starts the moment that I take the first bite of BLT featuring a giant […]
Just a couple weeks ago I wrote here about how I manage insect pests in the garden. The general point was that human intervention is often not required. If you create a garden with a healthy ecosystem, things will all balance out. If that sounds just a wee big smug, you can rest assured that […]
