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FRIDAY FINDS
Thank you all so much for your nice comments on Wednesday’s post of beautiful gardens. Few places can bring peace like a garden. Maybe I need to do that more often on the blog. But for now it’s Friday and a weekend in the garden will be an excellent thing indeed. Now, on the other hand, if you’re looking for ...
4 TIPS FOR USING A CHIPPER-SHREDDER
I spent many, many hours dealing with leaves last weekend. I say “dealing with” because removing the leaves from the lawn and getting them to their final resting place involves a series of machines and every once in awhile an actual human-powered rake. My method mostly involves using our lawn tractor to mulch and bag the leaves on the lawn ...
BEAUTIFUL GARDENS, BECAUSE IT’S WHAT WE NEED
I had a post ready for today that offers some tips on using a chipper shredder (knowledge gained after a long weekend of quality time with one). Upon further review, it seems like a very bad idea to be talking about a somewhat dangerous machine today. So whether you are shocked and disappointed or cautiously optimistic today, I give you ...
FRIDAY FINDS
Well folks, I’ve just set a new personal record. I just ordered plants. For next year. Certainly this is the earliest I’ve ever done such a thing, but I needed to just make a decision and move on. So I did. Someone should remind me in spring that I ordered these because I’m sure I will forget. Onto Friday Finds, ...
EXTENDING FALL COLOR
There’s been no sign of frost here and none in the forecast through the weekend. Surely it will happen next week. The delayed onset of cold weather is just fine with me (although I fear having to wrap up so much in the garden in very cold weather, because when it does come I think it’s going to come quickly), ...
HEELING IN PLANTS: A FALL TRADITION THAT BUYS SOME TIME
On Sunday I cut what I think will probably be the last bouquet of flowers from the garden this year. I thought it seemed late, so I looked back at last year and noticed that our first frost was on October 18. We haven’t had one yet and the forecast for tomorrow is 70 degrees. I think the flowers are ...
HOW TO USE A BULB AUGER (AND PLANT BULBS IN MINUTES)
Last spring Mr. Much More Patient looked out the window at our still-gray landscape and asked why we didn’t have more daffodils. They are a good bulb to grow here because no critters will touch them. Still, I don’t want to add too many more to the gardens, as keeping them healthy requires leaving the foliage standing to die back ...
FRIDAY FINDS
You can tell that it’s fall and people are starting to move inside because there’s been some great stuff on the Internet this week. Before I dig in, a quick programming note: I mentioned bulb augers (that’s an affiliate link) the other day and I realized, while in the throes of mass planting the other night, that a little bit of ...
WEEKEND PROGRESS
We were blessed with yet another gorgeous autumn weekend here. I can’t say enough about how wonderful the weather has been for most of this year, but I feel like we deserve it after two really cruddy years. I’m still gardening in shorts most of the time and I can’t think that’s common for this time of year at all. ...
FRIDAY FINDS
Some weeks Friday it feels even better than usual when Friday rolls around. So it goes this week. Some affiliate links may be used. This means that if you buy what I link to, I may get a small percentage of the purchase price. This helps support this blog and I very much appreciate it! Before we kick off into ...
THE PATH-MAKING MISTAKES I MADE THAT YOU SHOULDN’T
One thing that can be said for sort of tedious gardening tasks such as weeding or moving mass quantities of soil is that it gives you a lot of time to think. And over the last several weekends of working in the oval circle garden I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the mistakes I made there. It was ...
DIGGING MACHINE
Progress continues on the renovation of the oval circle garden but I won’t lie, I’m getting nervous about how slowly it’s going. I spent a good part of last weekend working on it and have gotten it to the point where I’m waiting for materials before I can move on. My goal is to have all of the hardscaping finished ...
THE ALMIGHTY ALLIUM + A GIVEAWAY
I remember the first time I took notice of an allium. It was on Mackinac Island where a side garden at the Hotel Iroquois was planted with what must have been hundreds of Globemaster alliums, with 8-inch (or better) flowers standing proud. It was stunning. When I think of punctuation in a garden my first thought is always to alliums. ...
HOW THE GARAGE DOORS CAME TO BE
Thanks so much for all of the nice comments and feedback on our gradual garage upgrade. I didn’t even to get into the other benefits of the new doors the other day. Until we got the new doors we only had one automatic opener, which Mr. Much More Patient graciously let me use. That meant that he had to manually ...
A BEFORE AND AFTER 3 YEARS IN THE MAKING
I’m not one to draw projects out. When I get set on doing something I like to focus on it like a laser and pound it out until it’s finished. I’d rather wait until I can do all of it exactly the way I want to than take it by bits and pieces or settle for something I don’t really ...
A CHIVE CONVENTION
I didn’t have much time to work in the yard last weekend, which is sad indeed. It has been raining here for days and days and there were other projects that took precedence (which you’re about to hear about). The few hours that I did have for garden time were dedicated to working on the oval circle garden update. Mr. ...
Letters from the Garden
Letters from the Garden
