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MY SWEET PEA ORDER
Dear me. It’s still a good four months before I have a hope of planting anything, but I’m very much behind on making a plan for what I will grow from seed this year. I need to start by going through what I already have and that will require riffling through boxes and Ziploc bags and generally realizing that my ...
FRIDAY FINDS
It feels like it has been a long time since there’s been a Friday Finds post here. I can’t even tell you how busy this month has been and amazingly I feel like I’m already behind on gardening. There are seeds and dahlia tubers to be ordered and I’ve not done anything about formulating a plan yet! But there will ...
GARDEN TRENDS FOR 2017
What will gardens look like in 2017? It’s a question I asked about about the same time last year and I loved everyone’s thoughts on the topic. The caveat with making predictions about gardens is that they are more insulated from trends than fashion or home decor simply by the fact that it takes so long for a garden to ...
A BASEMENT BEFORE TO MAKE YOU CRINGE
I’ve alluded to changes and projects quite a bit here so it’s well past time I fill you in on exactly what’s happening. Mr. Much More Patient is starting his own business and needs an office here. So, we’re making an office. We already have a den/office type of room, but we both very much like using that room (which ...
HOW WE DITCHED CABLE (AND ARE SAVING $$$$)
We are free of cable television. I feel like shouting it from the rooftops. The cord is officially cut. This is a move that we’ve been seriously contemplating for at least two years. Every month the cable bill would come and I’d shake my head at how much we were spending for television. Or worse, I’d avoiding looking at it ...
THE SUN SETS ON 2016
For most of my life, the start of a new year has been an “eh” moment. It’s going to happen whether I like it or not, I don’t find the year that’s ending to have been particularly better or worse than most other years. Although I’m always hopeful for a good year ahead, I don’t generally feel more hopeful than ...
BEST OF THE YEAR
I always enjoy looking back at the year and seeing what posts were the most popular on the blog. So without any further adeiu, here are the top 10. 10. I shared my favorite new plant of the summer. • • • • • • • • 9. After a tough election season, apparently I wasn’t the only one who ...
CHRISTMAS OVER, ONTO WHAT’S NEXT
All the presents have been opened. Most of the cookies have been eaten (the ones that remain seem to have an extra dose of guilt with them). Christmas is a wrap, but it was a darn good one. Yep. Ate all those cookies. And a whole bunch of others too. I had the day after Christmas off from work, which ...
HAPPY HOLIDAYS + THIS YEAR’S CARD
Have I mentioned that I love having Christmas on a weekend? I usually work at least a half a day on Christmas Eve which means I spend the other half of the day running around like a mad person, which is not at all Christmassy. So even though not a present is wrapped or a single package of cookies packed ...
HOW TO TIE A BEAUTIFUL RIBBON
When Mr. Much More Patient proposed to me, the ring came in a perfectly wrapped box (done at the jewelry store) that sat flat on the table. After we got through the whole “Yes!” bit, I went back and examined that wrapping, which was done without tape, just a perfectly cut square of paper and that beautiful red ribbon. I ...
LAST–MINUTE GIFT GUIDE (PROCRASTINATOR’S SPECIAL)
I can procrastinate with the best of them, but we are really at the last minute for gift shopping if you plan to order anything. This is where that Amazon Prime membership really comes in handy. If you don’t have a Prime membership now is certainly the time to get on that. There’s a link at the bottom for a ...
FRIDAY FINDS
It’s weird to have Christmas on a weekend. I love it from a work standpoint (taking off in the middle of the week and having to come back is a drag), but from an organizational standpoint it feels odd. Like there is a lot of Christmas stuff I still want and need to do and given the date, I feel ...
5 FREE WINTER CONTAINER DESIGNS
There is no Christmas tree in my house. That, of course, was not the plan. The plan was to be ahead of the game this year, but once again it’s the last minute and nothing is done. I’m tempted to just skip the tree at this point, but we did that last year and I feel like skipping a tree ...
HOW TO MAKE A HOLIDAY WINDOW BOX
I got a lot of questions recently about how I constructed my holiday containers and window box so I thought I’d share a quick tutorial. I can’t say that I invented this method, but I’ve gotten pretty close to perfecting it after several years of tinkering with it. The inspiration for it came from the professionals, mostly Deborah Silver. Just a ...
GIFT GUIDE: BOOKS FOR GARDENERS
Call me a traditionalist, but I love giving and receiving books for Christmas. Especially now, when real live books (the kind with pages) seem to be a novelty with some folks. I enjoy having a library of gardening reference books in my home, and I refer to them often. Here are some picks for books that the gardener in your ...
THE PRESERVE-YOUR-SANITY METHOD TO OPEN CABLE TIES
I had a lot of questions about my winter window box so I’ll share a little tutorial (more of a tips and tricks because the how isn’t as important as the way you get there). While I was doing the window box last weekend I realized that I use a lot of plastic cable ties in the construction of just ...
Letters from the Garden

Letters from the Garden
