I’ve finally finished planting all of my containers for this year. The weather since they’ve been in has not been great so they are not filling in as quickly as one would hope, but they’ll get there, I’m sure. I thought it would fun to see how they change throughout the summer, so I’ll try to check in with them …
Since it’s finally finished and planted, I think it’s high time I share with you how we built the wood planter by the front door. When the old planter fell apart after five or six years of year-round service, I was shocked when I found out how much large planters cost. Having found some wood ones at Restoration Hardware that …
Our poor garage. We’ve ignored it so much over the years (12 of them actually; the anniversary of closing on our house was last weekend!). As you may, recall, we’re working on fixing that, but I also made a change I could have done any time and just never did. I added a bit of greenery. The bit of garage …
As you know, I love planting containers. Of the containers I plant I think I put the most emphasis on the window box. It is probably the first thing you see when you pull up to our house and it’s one of the few containers I can see (part of, anyway) from inside the house. So I spend a lot …
It seems incomprehensible to me that I have given basically no thought to container plantings this year. By this time of the year I usually know exactly what I’ll be doing in all of my containers, but I’m just first starting to think about it now. Certainly the weather is partly to blame, but I’ve also had other gardening projects …
Holiday decorating is a slow process at my house. I’m so amazed by all the holiday home tours on the Internet … I haven’t even really thought much about the inside. I love doing my outdoor containers though. I leave them decorated (sans lights) almost all winter because I love looking at them. I take no credit for the design …
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just stick any old plant into a container with any other plant and have it be beautiful and grow perfectly? Anyone who has tried this knows it just doesn’t work that way. I scoff a little when I see some beautiful container planting in a photograph that makes absolutely zero sense because I …
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It feels odd to “reveal” a space that’s been unfolding in front of your eyes on this blog for a year now, but the vegetable garden is finally at a place where almost everything but the gardening bit is finished. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be left only with the task […]
Ask me what my favorite season is and before you can finish asking the question I’ll tell you it’s summer. I’m a summer girl. I like summer activities, summer food, summer cocktails, summer nights and summer gardens. But I have to admit, like a cat with an attitude who deems your lap worthy of laying […]
We’re coming up on 17 years in this house. How that happened I have no idea, but one mark of the passage of time here has been the coming and going of trees. For many years we didn’t cut down any trees here. They were all healthy and more or less where we wanted them. […]
I don’t know what spurred my recent interest in plants with purple foliage, but everywhere I turn, deep, dark leaves are catching my eye. Like other plants with “special” colored foliage, including chartreuse, silver and variegated, purple plants have to be used sparingly, lest they lose their impact. They also work better when
I can’t say what accounts for it, but I’ve noticed recently that I’m a different gardener than I used to. I’m not talking about knowledge, because all gardeners gain that through years of experience and, well, failure. It’s my approach to the physical tasks of gardening that I’ve recognized a change in. I used to
I haven’t cleaned up the garden yet and although I’m feeling anxious about being behind, there’s very little happening right now and I know I still have some time. But while the cultivated parts of our yard are very, very slowly waking up, the natural areas, those that are mostly free of my intervention, are […]
If social media has taught us anything, it’s that you never know what is going to cause controversy. It’s hard to imagine gardening ever being controversial, but there are plenty of strong opinions. I’m good with healthy discussion on any topic, but sometimes I just don’t see the controversy coming. And I certainly didn̵
I have always been a procrastinator. This is not a virtue, and I recently read an article that it’s procrastination is caused by being in a bad mood and living in the present. Personally, I think it has much more to do with living my entire young adult and adult life on a deadline; at […]
My first clematis was ‘Mrs. N. Thompson’, a spindly specimen from a local garden center, but I thought it was something spectacular because it was a clematis that wasn’t ‘Nelly Moser’. Up until that point, I was under the impression that the only two clematis that existed were ‘Nelly’ and ‘Jackmanii&#
It’s been awhile since I’ve shared an update of what’s happening in the garden here, roundabout six months or so. I’m quite happy to report there’s something to report. Mind you, none of this is earth-shattering, but sometimes when I’m busy writing about fake plants or gate colors, the little things happening in
Crowdsourcing aspects of a garden is an enlightening experience. Last weekend I picked up the gate for the vegetable garden. This is a big deal in this very lengthy project. I am an admirer of garden gates. The best ones ooze charm, teasing you to just dare to walk through them. But in my garden, […]
In the 1960s and 1970s double digging was the proper way to garden. That opinion persisted for many years, and the method also known as “bastard trenching” still has its fans. (You can read more about the process, and just how unpleasant it is, here.) As arduous as it was, gardeners persisted in doing it […]
I love gardening in raised beds. In fact I’d argue that everything about gardening in raised beds is easier than growing in the ground. Well, everything except for the part where you make them. But other than that there are so many advantages to growing in raised beds and they are worth considering for anyone […]
Before I launch into what is probably the closest I’ve ever gotten to a rant on this blog I want to just say that I firmly believe in the idea of doing what you like in your own house and garden. These spaces should please you, and if they please someone else in the process, […]
