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The Impatient Gardener

Late season vegetable harvest
Edibles, Garden, Plants

The first frost, the last harvest and a big project nearly complete

October 15, 2018

Well that was abrupt. Without a lot of lead-up, we had hard frost. And just like that, the growing part of the gardening season is over. I didn’t take the threat of a freeze too… [Continue Reading]

by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
11 Comments
Raised bed vegetable garden
Edibles, Garden

Finally planting the vegetable garden for the first time

June 26, 2018

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… [Continue Reading]

by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
18 Comments
laying out a vegetable garden
Edibles, Garden, Garden design

Raised bed garden construction part 1: The first steps

June 6, 2018

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… [Continue Reading]

by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
14 Comments
Mayapples and daffodils
Garden, Garden design, Plants

What I did in the garden this weekend

May 21, 2018

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… [Continue Reading]

by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
8 Comments
Leveling for a new garden
DIY, Edibles, Garden, Garden design

My take on raised bed construction

May 15, 2018

The area for the new vegetable garden was finally started this week. Leveling has begun, a messy process that involves moving around a lot of dirt. The next step is building the raised beds and… [Continue Reading]

by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
7 Comments
Hylocomen japonica
Edibles, Friday Finds, Garden

Friday Finds (and a growing to-do list)

May 11, 2018

It’s raining out and I can feel the to-do list getting longer rather than shorter. Currently the list includes: Weeding. Shocker! It’s been alternating rain and sun, heat and damn near freezing here, which means… [Continue Reading]

by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
6 Comments
Edibles, Garden, Garden design

The new vegetable garden plan

March 21, 2018

The new vegetable garden—I’m calling it a parterre although I think that may be stretching the definition just a bit—has existed in my head for a few years and been knocked around on paper for… [Continue Reading]

by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
27 Comments
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About

The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
These sister dahlias are big, beautiful girls. Pen These sister dahlias are big, beautiful girls. Penhill Watermelon (first picture) and Penhill Dark Monarch are the best two HUGE dahlias that I grow. They share slightly twisty petals (Watermelon more so) and, when you look closely, subtle striations that add a beautiful depth of color. Watermelon grows taller than Dark Monarch (7 feet tall or more sometimes) and they both need serious staking, but it’s worth it because they produce a lot of flowers for a large-flowering dahlia. 

I like them both but if I was forced to choose (and who would make me do that?) I’d give the edge to Dark Monarch because it’s a little easier to manage size-wise, produces more flowers and has a bigger variation in flower color so it’s always interesting. 

Which do you like better?
I don’t love tools that only do one thing. But w I don’t love tools that only do one thing. But when there’s only one tool that does that one thing really well, I’m here for it. This pottery/container knife from Sneeboer makes it possible to actually get plants out of pots without breaking or damaging the pot. It’s also really expensive. 😀
A little snippet of a bouquet from the weekend. Zi A little snippet of a bouquet from the weekend. Zinnias, pycnanthemum muticum and bronze fennel shown here.
My love for Nicotiana is not a secret. I love tryi My love for Nicotiana is not a secret. I love trying out new varieties and I feel like they just work so well in my garden from both a design standpoint and a cultural standpoint (they are happy here). Because I grow so many, the ones that self sow can be surprises. 

All of these self-sown Nicotiana are probably at least partly the children of the F1 hybrid Perfume series, which grow to be about 24” tall or so. Last year I grew purple, pink, white and lime versions and these are likely new variations on those. 

Picture 3 is, in my opinion, a good example of how these self sown second-year hybrids can go wrong. I’ll probably rip that one out. 😀

And the last photo is of my favorite colorway, lime, popping up amongst the Zinnias. I find these self-sown Nicotiana popping up all summer, so there’s always a fresh-blooming supply. 

Are you as enamored with Nicotinana as I am?
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