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 real in April. So let’s ...
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, here’s a list of some ...
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 and every sign of live ...
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 kicking it off with annuals. ...
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 they know the drill at this time of year. ...
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 common in the U.S., and ...
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It was a beautiful weekend here in Wisconsin and I did not spend a single moment of it in the garden. That’s not a good thing. I should be taking advantage of good weather when I can to start sprucing up for fall. Usually my fall gardening chores consist of weeding (the more weeding I […]
Don’t read this post while you’re eating. Unless you are dieting and want a reason to stop eating. I have sad news to report on the health of the Family Jewels plant. The aphids love it. I have never actually seen a plant so covered in aphids before in my life. From a distance I […]
Busy, busy, busy. That’s the theme around here lately. The weather took at decided turn towards downright chilly over the past week reminding me of all the things that need to get finished outside before the snow flies. But you know how you can be flying along checking things off the to-do list and then […]
For the three summers that we’ve had the window box I’ve been challenged to find the right balance in it. The first year was fairly experimental. Last year I ended up with a texture issue (everything was the same scale). This year I actually worried more about the texture than the color and did OK. […]
The plant feeler-upper strikes again. Look how big the family jewels are getting! You might recall my PG-13 plant touching moment from last year: P.S. I’m not totally sick, I swear. I’m just a toucher. I touch everything. It’s a good thing I discovered Internet shopping because store employees would get irritated with me for [&hel
Dear Canon bigwigs, Since I’m sure you’re readers of The Impatient Gardener, you’ve probably noticed that the photography on the blog as of late has not been, um … award-winning. The main reason for that is that the Canon Rebel XTi that I have occasionally used in the past is borrowed from work and lately […]
A prudent DIYer does some testing when they work with a new product before jumping right into the real deal. I bet that would be really boring to read about. So, as a favor to you, when I decided to use chalk paint to redo my kitchen chairs I jumped right in with both feet […]
I’m a big proponent of gardening being fun. That’s why I feel that gardening “rules” should be thought of more as guidelines. My gardening rule is: Do what makes you happy. As part of embracing that philosophy, this spring I bought a plant for no reason other than that I thought it was funny. I […]
My bidding number. Go figure. I went to an auction Sunday. For FIVE hours. I had no idea auctions lasted so long (I left before it was over). Normally giving up almost an entire Sunday to stand in an dank old building would be akin to torture but I did it anyway because: 1. Some […]
If this doesn’t put a smile on your face then you need the weekend more than most. I love this and kind of want to do it but I’d be so sad when it got destroyed.
Anybody who has read this blog for long knows that I’m a creature of habit. Even if you lived in a bubble with no exposure to the outside world you would know just from reading this blog (and what kind of a sad state of affairs would that be?) what season it is. As you […]
Happy Tuesday everyone! Are you all just soaking up this last bit of summer like I am? Last weekend we did pretty much nothing productive after noon on both Saturday and Sunday. We read books on the beach, ate lots of taco dip, drank Coronas at 2 and I got to go paddleboarding (my new […]
I think most gardeners sort of lust for the perfect tomato (not ALL, since we know that oddballs like Kylee at Our Little Acre and Steve aka The Grumpy Gardener are proud freaks tomato haters). And I’d say I probably do grow a perfect tomato every summer. But I’m not content with one perfect tomato. […]
Hi everyone! I’m back from a whirlwind trip to England. I was so busy working on the sailing event the whole time that I didn’t get to do much in the way of tourist stuff. I didn’t even get to the London 2012 store before it shut down to pick up stuff for my nephews […]
