I’ve whined about the deer problem in my garden many times before and there is no perfect solution. Every year I learn more in the war in combatting them and what I learned last year was that they can do major damage in winter. Up until last year, we’ve had many years of mild winters. But last year we had …
I forget how difficult it is to keep on top of photos when Daylight Savings Time ends. Seems like I’m only home when it’s dark these days. The deep freeze is scheduled to arrive this week and stick around for at least a week. Temperatures next week will struggle to break 20. In other words, it was time to get …
The world outside my door appears to be frozen. Certainly nothing is growing, but I didn’t expect things to be shrinking. Sadly, there are a lot of things shrinking in my yard. The deer are starving. This winter has been so snowy and so cold with almost no relent (we’re hoping for above-freezing temperatures this week which would be good …
Since most of the country (and Canada) is in the grips of the polar vortex I’ll spare you my tale of woe and the pictures from my cell phone of the thermometer on my car. School’s been cancelled due to the cold for two days now and one of our buildings at work is without heat but my main concern …
I was born and raised in Wisconsin, and other than a brief stint down under, I have lived in this state for my entire life. If you’re not familiar Wisconsin, you probably associate the state with three things: cheese, the Green Bay Packers and cold weather. It’s no coincidence that these are the first things that come to mind when …
Gosh, it’s about time for a gardening post, don’t you think? I never really showed you some of what happens here in the winter when it comes to the garden. Winter brings a couple of serious challenges: protecting plants from the freeze/thaw cycle and protecting plants from hungry animals. A lot of people think that it’s the cold that is …
Gosh, here I was reveling in the extra-week-in-between-Christmas-and-Thanksgiving glow and all of a sudden it’s December and I’m freaking out a little bit. Every year I resolve to take time to actually enjoy the holiday season instead of scurrying around doing everything, and every year, I end up totally stressing myself out. The problem is that I’m just not the …
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Thanks to Longfield Gardens for partnering with me on this post. You don’t need to look far on this blog or in my garden to know that I am mildly obsessed with dahlias and have been for a long time. And while I admire, and maybe even envy, those photos of a field with row […]
A quick note: This post is done in partnership with Longfield Gardens, where I’ve been getting my fall-planted bulbs from for probably a decade (well before they knew I existed). Thanks to Longfield for the support. All words and thoughts are, as usual, my own. Bear with me for a moment here, because I have […]
As we approach the best days of summer it seems odd to be looking back at January with a bit of envy. Certainly that feeling has nothing to do with the weather (perish the thought), but there’s a part of me that longs for the kind of blind enthusiasm that comes in the middle of […]
This post is sponsored by Troy-Bilt, maker of great equipment to whip your yard into shape and supporters of neighbors helping neighbors. As usual, all thoughts are my own. Isn’t it funny how we limit our gardens to the little square of land we own? Obviously there’s a reason for this, but if the only […]
My garden has taught me a lot of lessons, but one of the most important is that good enough is usually good enough. When perfectionist tendencies rise to the surface, the garden is the perfect place to tamp them back into place. There is only so much a control a gardener can have over what […]
Thank you to Longfield Gardens for sponsoring this post and feeding my love of dahlias. Over the next couple weeks I will go through all the dahlia tubers I overwintered and plant them up in pots along with all the new tubers I just had to have. Starting dahlias in pots works well for me […]
Spring comes painfully slow here, something that I’m alternately thankful for and tormented by. It’s nearly intolerable to see the beauty of spring, all fresh green and flowery coming to other yards in warmer areas when mine is mostly still brown. But the upside is that I always feel like I get a bit of […]
I found myself with a bit of extra time at home last summer (imagine that) and, inspired by the amazing floral designers who I see sharing their work on Instagram, I decided I would try to get a little better at making bouquets. Mind you, I don’t do anything with these bouquets other than enjoy […]
I always say that the best thing I do for my garden is get out of it. Visiting other gardens never fails to provide the kind of inspiration I can’t find anywhere else. What is always interesting is that the photos I take on these visits continue to provide inspiration long after I’ve left, as […]
Gardeners love a good story and they are particularly drawn to anything that they believe will make their plants happy. This is where companion planting comes in: gardeners want their plants to have neighbors they love. It makes us feel good. But anthropomorphism aside, a lot of commonly held companion planting theories are a bunch […]
Hello flower lovers! I’m partnering with Longfield Gardens on this post, but you know the drill: all words and dahlia obsessions are my own. We interrupt your regularly scheduled holiday activities to talk about something that is, dare I say, even more important. And if you know me, you probably know that the only thing […]
Traditionally the gift guides here have featured a wide variety of gardening-related items for a range of budgets, but this year I’m going a different direction. Everything here is from a small or independent business, and most items are hand-crafted. You can still check out my Amazon storefront. (If you use that link I may earn […]
I’ve partnered with Garrett Wade to create a custom gift guide from their selection of high-quality tools, gear and accessories. I received some products to review to better inform my list (you know I’d never recommend something I didn’t really like) and compensation for my time. If there was ever a year that called for special
My first foray into pumpkin growing has been slightly less successful than that of Ian and Stuart Paton, 59-year-old British twins who obviously know more gourd growing than I do. The brothers just broke their own giant pumpkin record in the UK with a gourd of epic proportions: 2,593.7 pounds and 20 feet in circumference. […]
