This headline should really read “What WAS happening a few days ago.” Blogger was down for much of the end of the week so I couldn’t post this, but I hope you enjoy it now. Sorry for the delay. Sometimes I feel like everything I write on this blog is old news because my zone 5 garden is so far …
When I posted about the amaryllis that I forgot about in the basement that bloomed its little head off anyway, someone pointed out that it’s rather ironic that we try so hard to make some plants grow and then others just go ahead and do it even when we mistreat them.Never was that more true than in the case of …
Composting purists would not at all approve of the way I compost, but frequent readers of this blog know I appreciate the K.I.S.S. principle (even though that acronym reminds me of a bad kitty poster in my third-grade classroom). This means that I don’t overthink composting, and generally just throw the stuff in the bin, knowing that nature will do …
Bet you’re surprised to be seeing a post here on Sunday. It might, indeed, be a first. But in addition to being a Sunday, it is also May 1 and I happen to have a fantastic guest here today. You might even say he’s a rock star. Michael Nolan is the co-author of a book called “I Garden: Urban Style” …
You know you have issues when you set out to just take the dogs to the beach for a walk and you end up 45 minutes later driving your lawn mower down the beach. But that’s exactly what happened on Sunday. This was the view from the lawn mower on Sunday. It’s way too early for lawn mowing here, but …
I’m very excited to share a little Q&A session with talented garden designer Jack Barnwell. I found out who Jack was last summer after spending years admiring one of his designs without knowing who was behind it. I make it a point to visit the garden at the Hotel Iroquois on the island every year and it continues to be …
Look what finally gets to see the light of day. This little boxwood (‘Green velvet’ I think) is such a trooper. When I planted it near the corner of the garden I never realized that it would be buried by snow plowed from the driveway every winter, but it is. How it manages to retain any shape at all I …
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If you build it, they will come. Apparently this holds just as true for vegetable gardens as it does for magical baseball diamonds, because they’re coming. “They” would be the neighbors, who have taken a real interest in this massive project we’ve had going for a couple months now. It would be hard for them […]
Here’s my philosophy on vegetable gardening: I’m more interested in growing interesting and delicious food than I am in getting very high yields or never having to deal with a bug. In other words, organic is important to me. As you know, I’m all about encouraging people to do what they want in their own […]
Awhile ago I read that plants abhor copper and that it actually inhibits vines from growing up it. I wish I could remember where, but it probably doesn’t matter because I now think this is unfounded at best and bullpucky at worst. I can’t find any scientific sources to suggest that’s actually the case. But […]
Well, the raised bed gardens are built. And I’ll tell you right now, that took a lot longer than I planned. But they are built and we’re still married. At this point both seem like remarkable achievements. Before I get into it, if you haven’t read part 1 in this series, I’d recommend you check it […]
A quick note before I get into this epic post on an epic project: Troy-Bilt sponsored this post and the Flip the Yard challenge and provided products for my use. It’s funny how projects that start as one thing end up being something else. If you followed me on Instagram last weekend (you can catch […]
I got behind on my weekly reports of what I’ve been planting, but I think that’s how it works this time of year. It’s a gardening flurry and I’m in that part of the spring marathon where it’s plodding along and longing for gardening days when you putter in the garden rather than do an […]
Note: “Five Seasons” is streaming free at this link April 24-26, 2020. At one point during “Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf,” a new documentary on perhaps the world’s most famous living garden designer, the tall Dutchman is driving a Texas-sized Cadillac Escalade down a back road in Texas and he’
I think it’s safe to say I may have underestimated how time intensive the process of building the new raised bed vegetable garden would be. I can say this with some authority since we are now into June and nary a vegetable has been planted at my house. Still, I’m not interested in rushing this process […]
Astute observers will notice that there is distinct focal point in my vegetable garden plan. But the fact is, I don’t know what that focal point is going to be. It might be a small café set, so I can sip a coffee surrounded by my growing vegetables. But I’ve also entertained the idea of […]
I’m ready to go on record. I think this may have been the most deadly winter my garden has ever seen. I’ve been patient and following all my steps for what you should do when you think a plant has died, but most things are growing by now and those that aren’t are probably doomed. […]
With all the plants still perched in temporary storage locations around the yard, you would think I’d gotten nothing planted over the long weekend. But I actually did get a fair amount of things planted this weekend in between working on the vegetable garden. I was very excited to plant Double Take Peach quince (Chaenomeles […]
Sometimes what we picture in our heads for our garden is not how reality works out. That’s the case with a little project I’ve been working on but I have faith it will improve. This spot in the main garden off the patio is the closest thing I have to controversial area. Some of you […]
It’s the time of year when big changes happen quickly in the garden and it’s easy for me to forget about them. So I thought I’d do a weekend wrap-up post to just show you what I got up to. Most of these are tiny bits of bigger projects but if I wait until the […]
I take no pride in admitting that this Plant to Know, which is one I now hope to never be without, is also one that for a time I wrote off as just another garden plant. But that’s a problem with a plant that isn’t particularly flashy and that you rarely need to visit. And […]
