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Gardening Week begins

February 7, 2011

Since most of the country is buried under a pile of snow, gardening seems like it’s so far off we could cry. So this week is Gardening Week at The Impatient Gardener. I’ll be posting only Gardening-related posts, but if you want to know the latest on house stuff check out the Facebook page because I’ll be updating reno stuff over there.

You know it’s going to be a good weekend when you open the mailbox on Friday and find the latest issues of both House Beautiful and Fine Gardening. I can think of four magazines that I absolutely love. I work for one of them (so I’m required by law to love it), and I also love Coastal Living (although it’s getting a bit thin these days).

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So which one did I reach for first? Well, it’s February, so that means I’m totally dreaming about gardening.

Between getting two great magazines in the mail and an awesome Packers victory in the Superbowl, I couldn’t ask for much more.

Anyway, Fine Gardening got me even more fired up for gardening season. To give you an idea of where I was before that magazine showed up, the other day a Facebook friend who lives in a part of the country with much nicer weather posted that she had spent most of the day weeding and I was overcome with jealousy. You know it’s bad when you want to weed (someone please remind me of this in June).

In honor of my need to weed, I’m laying off the renovation posts this week and I’m only talking about gardening stuff. There are a few things going on at the house, but I’ll fill you in on those some other time, because this week I’m thinking about spring.

One of the articles in Fine Gardening was about composting. I love composting and I even have a book that’s well over an inch thick on the subject, but the fact of the matter is, I don’t have the time or energy to dedicate to tending my compost pile. What I loved about the FG article is that it simplifies the process. Any organic matter will turn into compost if you give it enough time, but the trick is get enough of the stuff quickly enough to be useful in your garden. The FG article advocates a very loose guideline for compost, which I love. Six parts of “browns” to one part of greens. Layer it all up, water in between each layer, mix every three layers. That is the kind of thing I can handle. I’m just not up for setting up a string of compost bins a mile long to accommodate various stages of compost. And with the new compost bin I got last year, I hereby resolve to be more attentive to my compost, but not too attentive.

The other article in Fine Gardening that I love is a primer on garden design by Ann Stratton. This is something I’ve struggled with, and I bet a lot of gardeners would say the same thing. Knowing how to grow a plant and select the right plant for the right spot is completely different from designing the overall look of a garden and I think the latter is something that either comes from formal education or trial and error. This is why a lot of great gardeners hire garden designers.

I can see the design flaws in my gardens. I have a serious lack of structure and all-season interest. I used to plant in singles instead of drifts (I’ve been correcting that over the years). I lack repetitive elements. I know that I need those things, but how to incorporate them can be a challenge.

So I spend a lot of time reading books and magazine articles on garden design (you can see some of the plant IDs from the article here). The article in Fine Gardening mentions a concept I don’t think I’ve heard before but I love it and when I saw the accompanying picture it made perfect sense to me. It’s the triangle rule. That is, try to plant similar things in a triangle.

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In the photo above (from the article; you can go online to see the specific plants in the photo), see how the iris in the bottom right corner is repeated on the opposite side of the path about halfway up and then again on the right side of the path further along? Doesn’t it just feel like it is escorting you down the path?

I love this design idea and I will definitely be incorporating it in to some of the new gardens I’ll be working on come spring (and some of the old ones too).

compost garden garden design
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
6 Comments

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Comments

  1. Remington says: February 7, 2011 at 8:02 pm

    I am looking forward to spring, also! Congrats to the Packers for an awesome win!

    Reply
  2. threeacres says: February 8, 2011 at 5:30 am

    I'm so looking forward to spring and gardening! I just found your blog and I'm loving it! A perfect mix of gardening and remodeling…and you're not too far away. We're over in the Madison area.

    Reply
  3. Erin Schanen says: February 8, 2011 at 4:31 pm

    Hi threeacres! Glad you found the blog. It used to be only about gardening and then winter came and I had nothing about. And as you well know … winter in Wisconsin is a LONG time. Do you read the Each Little World blog? It's a great gardening (and other things) blog from Madison.

    Reply
  4. LINDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD says: February 9, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    I am with you on being ready to weed, turn compost, anything. Just ordered my first plants online and am all psyched up even though they won't be delivered til late April. Still, the end is in sight — isn't it?

    Reply
  5. threeacres says: February 10, 2011 at 5:15 am

    I hear you Erin. Thanks for the reference I just added Linda's blog to my reader. I'm excited to find local garden blogs since many of the ones I have tempt me with beautiful plants I can't have.

    Looking though your old posts again I realized I recognize you! Well not you but your bathroom. You're wisaliorgirl on GardenWeb aren't you? I've been visiting the bathroom forum for a while now but I haven't posted much. The search engine seems to answer all of my questions right now. We're starting a big remodel that evolves two bathrooms this year so I have plenty of bathroom research to do. What a small world!

    Reply
  6. Erin Schanen says: February 10, 2011 at 12:57 pm

    @ Linda … gosh I sure hope the end is in sight. February might be the cruelest the month because it just seems to last forever. Even though March is never very springlike here, at least we can say that spring starts then.

    @threeacres: Yep, that's me. Small world! The bathroom was a relatively small part of the renovation we did but it has been by far the most complicated part. Such a fuss for an 8-by-8-foot room. Good luck with yours.

    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 toured 12 gardens over the long weekend and I no I toured 12 gardens over the long weekend and I noticed that many have little mascots around bringing joy or peace or protecting the garden. Here are a few. 

Photos 1, 2 and 9 are from @jennyrosecarey amazing garden @northviewgarden 

Photos 3 and 4 are from @paxsonhillfarm 

Photos 5 and 6 from @edgewood_gardens 

Photo 7 from Michael Bowell and Simple’s Create a Scene garden

Photo 8 from Carol Verhake’s @lastingimagelandscapes amazing garden 

#gbfling2023
The koi at @chanticleergarden are a very friendly The koi at @chanticleergarden are a very friendly bunch. They are also very big, which is good news for them and bad news for the heron who was hanging out looking for a snack.

*I definitely didn’t get into the pond to film this. Action camera on a very long stick. 😀
We’ve reached the stage of my garden visits in t We’ve reached the stage of my garden visits in the Philadelphia area where the number of photos showing amazing bits and pieces has out measured my ability to post and label everything properly. So here’s a photo dump of some gorgeousness and you must tell me what you love most. Some of these are from @chanticleergarden and others are from private gardens. 

#gbfling2023
Scenes from the amazing @brandywinecottage What a Scenes from the amazing @brandywinecottage What a treat to visit a garden that I’ve studied in books and seen in many of David Culp’s talks. Beautiful even in a tropical storm (and perhaps even moreso). 

#gbfling2023
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