The list of flowers I grow from seed changes from year to year, but there are some that are non-negotiable. I must have them. At the top of the list is Nicotiana alata. Most people are familiar with Nicotiana—common names are flowering tobacco or jasmine tobacco, but this is one of those plants for which I always use the botanical ...
One of the lessons I’m learning the more I garden is that a little organization goes a long way. I don’t really want to embrace this concept. There is a part of me that wants to think of gardening as organic, natural and very much at one with the Earth (and the earth). Then there’s the other part of me ...
Poor Friday Finds … it keeps missing its own deadline. But as with most things, Friday Finds are better late than never. Before I get into it, you should know that as I sat at the kitchen table writing this, one of the flowers (next to the one pictured above) on the amaryllis literally just popped open in front of ...
This is the start of regular feature I’ve been planning to start for about two years now. Plants to Know a quick growing guide for plants that you should, well, know about (clever, right?). In each Plants to Know feature, I’ll share a plant with you, a bit about growing it and the basic facts, including the TIG classfication, my ...
The first DIY project of the year is in the books. It wasn’t a big one, but it’s been awhile since we’ve done a project so it’s nice to ease into it. This is one of many small projects within the ongoing and rather slow renovation of the finished half of the basement. (Let’s not dwell on the part where ...
Somehow Friday Finds turned into Sunday finds, but better late than never, right? Since we’re halfway through the weekend I can tell you that it’s one of those blissful weekends with nothing specific planned. We’re supposed to warm up tomorrow and hopefully all of you poor folks on the East Coast are not far behind. Anyway, here’s a bit of ...
When I’m brainstorming ideas for almost any renovation or project in or out of the house, I first head to Houzz and Pinterest to collect ideas that I then go back and do some sifting and winnowing to see which ideas really stick. I’m not the only one who uses these tools like that, which is why they can be ...
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.
So, it’s April 1, aka April Fool’s Day. Be warned, folks, the Internet is full of bad jokes that people are falling for left and right. But I hereby proclaim this space to be April Fool’s joke free. Read with confidence. In all seriousness, I’m really excited that we’ve made it to April. Gardening gets […]
I love a good to-do list. For the most part, April is the first real opportunity to get back in the garden in this area and although this week is cold and wet, soon it’ll be time to clean up the yard. So in honor of tomorrow being April and my love of to-do lists, […]
I love asking gardeners what their favorite plant is. It’s an unfair question, I know, and on any given day my answer could be any number of things, but I think it’s an interesting exercise. I reached out to some garden blogging friends to see what their favorite perennial is and here’s what they said. […]
Winter came back. I knew it would. I knew that this mild winter and early spring that we were blessed with was just too good to be true, but mentally I had moved on. The end of the week brought us horrible weather and this morning the trees were shimmering with ice on their branches […]
I am a sucker for new plants. I’m also a sucker for old, tried-and-true varieties, but there is something fun about checking out all the latest and greatest that will be hitting garden centers this year. I’m doing a little series on some of the new plants I’m most excited about this year and I’m […]
My neighbors must be understanding people. Until about midnight every night a bright white light emanates from the sliding glass door in the office, illuminating our back/side yard and, I’m assuming, that side of my neighbors’ house. Fortunately their bedrooms don’t face this direction, but it’s bright.Of course by this time
The other night I had a dream that I was in a nursery buying potting mix, except it wasn’t called potting mix, it was called compost. And I spent a great deal of time trying to figure out if I wanted ericaceous compost or not. But here’s the thing: Calling potting mix compost is not […]
It’s Friday Finds time, but first I wanted to share a couple pictures from my trip to Austin with Troy-Bilt’s Saturday6 gang last week. Troy-Bilt sent the Saturday6, a group of bloggers who work with them, on a shindig to find out about some new products, explore Austin and do a little good. (Disclaimer: They […]
I hesitate to even tempt the weather gods by posting this, but holy smokes are we in a stretch of beautiful weather here. The snow is gone, the little creek in the back yard is running (and astonishingly not a single Newfoundland dog has figured that out yet), bulbs are peeking their heads out of […]
My apologies for the absence last week. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you’ll know that I was down in Austin for a Saturday6 (Troy-Bilt’s blogger team) event. I had all kinds of plans to get some posts up but I ought to stop making plans like that because it never happens. We […]
This weekend was one of those amazing gifts that Mother Nature throws our way every once in a while that revive the sleeping soul of a gardener. Saturday was in the 50s and we set a record on Sunday with temps in the low 60s. This is pretty much unheard of for Wisconsin in February. […]
It’s Friday Finds time! If you missed today’s earlier post showing off my now hanging staghorn fern, check it out here. Deborah Silver photo I have long been in love with Deborah Silver’s “grass” floor, but now she’s gone and put English daisies on it and I’m completely smitten. Some great seed starting do&
Remember how I repotted the staghorn fern in a grapevine ball a couple months ago? Because of the renovation to the back room (which has been finished for awhile but I still haven’t gotten around to putting everything back in that room and therefore having shown you what it looks like now), the fern has […]
Much of the past decade of gardening at my house has been an alternating pattern of creating new gardens and improving existing gardens. A couple years ago I realized that I probably have as much garden square footage as I can handle (and frankly probably too much) at this point in my life, so my […]
