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Edibles, Friday Finds, Garden

Friday Finds: Catching up with the garden

July 6, 2018

David Austin Alwick rose

It’s been a bit since we’ve had a Friday Finds here, because there’s been so much going on in the garden. But I thought I’d dedicate this Friday Finds to all kinds of catching up. 

First off, I’ve been trying to get some videos up on the YouTube channel, although not as many as I’d like. Here are a few I’ve done that you might have missed:

Planting a hornbeam hedge

 

 

 

A one-handed gardening tip

 

 

 

 

I have a few videos planned to shoot this weekend, but if you have ideas for other videos you’d like to see, please let me know! 

One of those videos is going to be a rundown on the container plantings I did at the house this year, a companion video to this post (which went up late enough in the day that you might have missed it). 

I try to post once or twice a day on Instagram, usually of something growing in my garden that day, and a lot of those photos never make it to the blog. So feel free to check out what’s happening there for a peek into my garden.

Right now, it’s all about the roses. I’m happy to report that only one Japanese beetle (click here for a handy Japanese beetle related tip) has been spotted but I’m ready for the rest. Alnwick rose is really coming into its own in its second year in the garden. 

Here’s the same cluster of flowers photographed two days apart.

David Austin Alnwick rose

I’m still fighting the war of the weeds. It’s tiresome, to the point where there’s not really much more to say. There is a great business opportunity out there for someone with a crew of skilled people who do nothing but pull weeds (and know which plants are weeds). When you start that business I will be your first client.

I didn’t want to leave you hanging on the vegetable garden. In the last report, I had planted everything. Some things are growing well, but the tomatoes are in a state of suspended growth that I hope they come out of soon. One pathetic 5-inch tall plant produced a cherry tomato and started listing like a sad Charlie Brown tree. 

This weekend’s big project (in addition to weed patrol; yawn) is to dig out the soil between the garden beds which I imagine will be about as much fun as it sounds. We will be putting down a layer of paver base and then topping it with gravel and we need to go down a bit to make that happen. After the digging but before the base, we’ll install the main tubing for the irrigation. I’ll admit it, we’re both significantly less enthusiastic about this project right now, but if we can get beyond this digging and irrigation part, I think we can hire people to do the rest, which is fine with me. 

The good news is that we’ve been blessed with cool breezes while everyone else seems to be roasting and we’ve been enjoying eating and sitting outside far more than other years. I’m a fan. 

I hope you’re enjoying your garden right now! Let me know how things are going for you and if you have video suggestions, leave those too!

Friday finds Instagram roses youtube
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
3 Comments

About Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

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previous post: The year’s containers
next post: How to select (and find) the right plants for your garden

Comments

  1. Leslie says: July 7, 2018 at 6:22 am

    With this super hot weather, my garden is a case of being really overgrown or stunted. I ended up buying tomato plants this year because my seedlings stayed 2 inches tall after 8 weeks–severely stunted. I contemplated keeping them and planting mid season for fall harvest but figured they were too handicapped. The weather has finally broken here in Michigan. I’ll be weeding today 😛

    Reply
  2. Linda from Each Little World says: July 7, 2018 at 2:24 pm

    Two days of lovely weather are about to end. Lots of sun coming with temps in the higher 80s. Not good for working outdoors and I need to prep for a big tour in two weeks. Lots of projects unfinshed or not started as I try to deal with weeds. Never been this behind! Those roses are gorgeous!

    Reply
  3. Kathy Menold says: July 7, 2018 at 3:14 pm

    Hot, hotter hottest. North Carolina has been roasting. Some of my plants have literally fried in the sun. Having a 2 day despite so I may try to get out and clip back some sorry looking perennials and plant a few annuals for some color. This has been a real challenge for gardeners this year and tempting to throw in the trowl, get a good book a cold drink and retire to the air conditioned house.

    Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
I fell in love with gardening through container de I fell in love with gardening through container design and it’s probably still my favorite type of gardening. My trip to Philadelphia area gardens was full of so many excellent ideas. For several years I’ve been enamored with clustered pots, but in my opinion they work best when they are able to stand alone in a space. And you probably know me well enough by now to know that as far as I’m concerned, the bigger the pot, the better. Feast your eyes on these beauties and use your zooming fingers to really get into those nooks and crannies. 

Don’t forget to save your favorites because you know you’re going to be looking for them come next spring. 😀

Photos 1 & 2: Amazing container cluster at @longwoodgardens  that works particularly well because of the restraint used in the design. Also how many different ways is the universe going to tell me I need to grow agave before I actually listen?

Photo 3: This was probably favorite display I saw the whole time and of course it’s from the masters at @chanticleergarden This is a master class in texture. It’s also probably not attainable for the average home gardener because it relies heavily on tropicals that need proper overwintering in order to reach a good size. But there’s no reason why I (or you) couldn’t use this as inspiration to create a similar feel with other plants. 

Photo 4: Strappy foliage, bright orange and colorful pots create such a good doorway collection at @chanticleergarden 

Photo 5, 6 & 7: Similar colors were used at a patio doorway at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm home garden. A pot is perfectly framed by an arbor off a side patio. The front entrance has a pink theme (and an amazing feature pot that I couldn’t show here because all my shots are vertical). 

Photo 8: Back to @chanticleergarden where I could have studied this container planting for an hour just to soak up all the detail. 

Photo 9: And while I love a pot with a lot going on, never underestimate the power of a simply planted, gorgeous pot, like this one at @abunting64 garden Belvidere. 

#gbfling2023
I think every garden probably needs a little bit o I think every garden probably needs a little bit of water, even if it’s just a bird bath. All of the fabulous gardens I saw recently in the Philadelphia area incorporated water into them. Here are just a few examples of how lovely these water features were. 

@paxsonhillfarm @northviewgarden @brandywinecottage @longwoodgardens #gbfling2023
Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the vi Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the view even though we all know that most of us rarely take the opportunity to use them. The seating I saw in gardens in the Philadelphia area reflected their gardens and all were special. 

Make sure to share your favorite!

Photo 1:  I adored these perfectly lichen-covered chairs at @brandywinecottage

Photo 2: Great lichen game on this bench at Wayne Guymon’s mind-blowing garden WynEden. 

Photo 3: Perhaps my favorite seating moment of the whole trip was this chair in @jennyrosecarey @northviewgarden . Not only was it perfectly lichen covered (are you sensing a theme here?) but a volunteer cleome was growing right up through the middle of it. Unfortunately this photo of it isn’t grata because by this point in the trip my phone (I didn’t want to use my DSLR in the middle of the tropical storm so I switched to my phone) was getting very grumpy about the rain. 

Photo 4: I’d be happy to hang out on these chairs in @abunting64 ‘s gorgeous garden Belvidere. I loved this space. 

Photo 5: Color was the name of the game on this patio at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm. 

Photo 6: The most original table and benches I saw were at @abunting64 garden. This was a portion of the garden that was actually on the neighbors’ property adjacent to Andrew’s. It had been a vegetable garden but is getting a bit too shady so it will soon have a new life. 

Photo 7: We visited Barbara Tiffany’s Mill Fleurs in a deluge, which is a shame, and dotted throughout the property are examples of her husband Tiff’s amazing furniture. This was, called the Centipede was upholstered and quite different from the others. All were amazing works of art. 

Photos 8 and 9: The @scott_arboretum at @swarthmorecollege had some excellent seating, from brand new @deebenarc chairs to more lichen-covered charmers.

#gbfling2023
*** I can already see that some people do not unde *** I can already see that some people do not understand humor so let me just say this: 1. I was fully aware of the escaped convict situation (I’m an avid follower of the news, which is common for us journalists). 2. It’s ok to laugh about the fact that I’ve missed the Longwood meadow twice through weird circumstances while being a rational adult and realizing that I’m not making light of the situation that led to the meadow being mown. ***

I missed seeing @longwoodgardens beautiful meadow the first time I visited so I was excited to see it the second time. Not so fast! Turns out it had to be mown down during the search for an escaped convict who was hiding out there (at least that’s what I was told was the reason for the mowing). He’ll never see goldenrod the same way again! 😀

That whole situation was really unfortunate for @longwoodgardens (not to mention everyone who lives in the area), which had to be closed for about a week while the hunt was on!
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