Well, it’s time to think about next year’s garden. I can hear what you’re thinking: But Erin, you haven’t even finished cleaning up this year’s garden! Aren’t you still trying to get a fence up around the vegetable garden this year? Have you even found all the tools you stranded in the garden yet? And you would be making some ...
Well this was not in my plan. An early season snowfall has put a damper on my fall gardening plans and even worse, it has pretty much killed any desire I have to be in the garden. It’s just so hard to get inspired to garden when the option is getting your winter gloves dirty or freeze wearing just your ...
More than once I’ve written here about the misconceptions I had about spirea. For a time it was, to me, the most boring of shrubs, the least interesting of what I call the “landscaper’s trio” of spirea, daylilies (almost always ‘Stella d’Oro’) and a (usually sickly looking) hydrangea. Somewhere along the line this combination became the standard planting along every ...
Bulb planting continues for me. I’ve been a bit pokey about it this year, just because the lack of a mid-fall warmup has me running a bit frantic in the garden. There’s lots of cleanup to be done, and some jobs, like digging dahlias seem to be taking longer than I planned. I have about 150 more bulbs—daffodils and alliums—left ...
We’ve been enjoying a particularly beautiful fall here. Beautiful not in terms of weather, as gray days have far outnumbered those crisp, sunny fall days with royal blue skies, but the trees have put an amazing show. Last year, a late-summer drought stressed trees, plants and gardeners alike, dropping leaves to the ground before most had a chance to develop ...
This post is a paid partnership with Lowe’s Home Improvement, but all words, opinions and the recipe for the perfect s’more for non-marshmallow lovers are my own. If Mother Nature is feeling generous we’ll enjoy a long autumn with a few excellent Indian summer days mixed in for good measure. I know I spend a fair amount of time griping ...
We’ve had several frosts now (Indian Summer, where are you?) so the garden is a mishmosh of dead and alive right now. Some things are looking great and so much else is looking terrible. I’ve been trying to take some mental notes for the future. I went heavier on the annuals this year than I would have liked, in part ...
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The rabbit struggles continue here. I have borrowed a few traps but the little buggers aren’t big enough to set them off. They are absolutely decimating any annuals I’ve planted in the ground and it is getting so frustrating! Deer repellent seems to have no effect on them. If you have some proven ways to […]
It’s an amazing time in the garden. Plants seem to be growing with reckless abandon and we are at that stage when things look lush but not overgrown. Every day something new is flowering, but plants still aren’t battered by hot sun or too much slug damage, although with the amount of rain we’ve had […]
Hi friends! I just wanted to let you know that Troy-Bilt provided me with the tools I’m showing you in this post and compensated me for my time. Of course all opinions are my own. You’ve seen these tips for quick cleanups of your house, right? Like the 5-minute thing where you know company is […]
As promised, last weekend I banged out all the container planting (save for three small containers on the front steps that I usually plant with whatever I have leftover). I like to show the starting point for my containers because they are all a little sparse. I think people who are new to creating […]
Sometimes you think you’ve seen it all in your garden. This is our 15th summer in our house so I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on the comings and goings in our yard. But this year I’ve been presented with an issue I’ve not faced before. Rabbits. Many, many rabbits. Last night […]
Hey friends! This post is sponsored by Troy-Bilt, who sent me a mower to review and paid me for my time. But you know all opinions are my own. As are all the weeds in my lawn. I’ve come to accept that I’ll never have the perfect lawn. There will always be weeds in it […]
What a crazy week here. So much that was supposed to get done, didn’t. Work was nuts, the garden needs attention and there is this little voice in the back of my head that keeps whispering, “Hurry up and get on with summer.” This is standard operating procedure for this time of year for me […]
As you know, I’ve been working on the circle garden. I’ve not showed you much progress lately, but I hope to finish up the planting this weekend and I’ll be able to show you some real progress. I have, however been planting bits of it, including the first thing that went in: a centerpiece boxwood […]
I grow an apple tree smack dab in the middle of the main part the garden, in one of the most noticeable places. It’s on one of the very dwarf root stocks so it won’t get huge and it has a somewhat wonky shape, as I think is somewhat common in apples. Apple blossoms […]
The long path that now extends all the way to the garage was originally a short path that cut through an existing garden when we first bought our house. At the time, I’d never planted anything in the ground, only containers. I don’t even know where or when I first saw a lavender-lined path, but […]
We’ve officially hit the height of Holy Crap There’s a Lot to Do in the Garden season. I’ve been taking it chunk by chunk, trying to completely finish one area before starting on another. The problem with this plan, of course, is that the other areas of the garden farther down the list are turning […]
Hostas, at least the ones in my garden, are just about at their peak. They thrive in the cool nights, (semi) warm days and constantly damp soil thanks to spring rains. The armies of slugs haven’t hatched to attack them yet and so far the deer have been (mostly) thwarted by my preventative measures. Their […]
A while ago I showed you the rather odd loaf-like object taking up space in my refrigerator. Well, I’m happy to report that I was able to free up that space in the fridge this weekend, as the mushroom spawn has been planted scattered strewn. The process of growing these Wine Cap mushrooms is less […]
Prepare yourselves. I’m about to tell you how to plant a tree in a way that may go against everything you’ve ever been told about planting a tree. But bear with me because I’m also going to tell you why it’s a good idea to plant a tree like this. Plant a tree for life, […]
