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2016 CONTAINERS
It’s high time I tell you a little about the containers I planted this year. I like to show you them early in the summer if only to prove that no container looks great when it’s first planted (and some look positively pathetic), unless you start with enormous plants, which few people do. It takes time for them to grow ...
A HAND HOE TO LOVE: A REVIEW + A GIVEAWAY
I’ve not been quiet about my relatively recently discovered love for Dutch-made Sneeboer tools. After years of buying less expensive gardening tools at the local hardware store or garden center, I broke down and bought a Sneeboer Ladies Garden Spade (my mom is about 5’5″ and she likes the Border Spade which has the same size head but a slightly ...
GOODBYE, FRIEND
I thought I better check in here just so you all know I’m still around. I have lots of excuses for my weeklong absence here, but excuses are a bore. I’ll be back soon with lots of gardening, a fantastic giveaway and more. But for now, I just want to take a moment to remember our Newfoundland Rita. She died ...
AN EARLY JUNE GARDEN REPORT
There is so much happening in the garden these day and if I don’t show it to you soon there will be something else entirely happening. I’ve not had time for proper photos, but I did snap a bunch on my phone and I thought phone photos would be better than waiting even longer. I had such high hopes for ...
FRIDAY FINDS
It’s Friday Finds time, something I haven’t had time to do for a couple weeks. I’m a little behind on my blog reading as well with craziness in the garden, at work and in life. All good stuff, just busy. I wouldn’t have it any other way. How about a pretty picture to start? The ‘Coralburst’ crabapple we planted last ...
MAIL ORDER PLANTS REVIEW: GARDEN CROSSINGS & CLASSIC VIBURNUMS
Oh my, there is so much going on in the garden and I’m not sharing any of it! Bad blogger! Soon, I promise. We had the most amazing weather for Memorial Day weekend and I spent plenty of time in the garden. It was lovely. But, once again, I was so busy gardening that I didn’t take any photos. So ...
WHAT THE FOX DRAGGED IN (AND OTHER GARDENING TALES)
Gardening is happening, people. That’s the main reason for my absence so far this week. We’ve had amazing weather recently, but no mosquitos, so I’ve been gardening pretty much any time I’m not at work or sleeping and it’s still light out. And I’ve been taking hardly any pictures. That’s the problem when you really get in the zone: There ...
MAIL ORDER PLANTS REVIEW: JOY CREEK NURSERY
Another mail order nursery review today but before we get to that, I wanted to share a couple photos of the serviceberry tree in bloom. the flowers are really only at peak for a day or two max so I take a photo of it every year. It’s rather amazing to me that this tree was a gift from my ...
MAIL ORDER PLANTS REVIEW: ARROWHEAD ALPINES
The plant deliveries came fast and furious last week, which is somewhat funny since as recently as a month ago I hadn’t anticipated ordering any mail order plants this year. I discovered Arrowhead Alpines from a familiar source: Margaret Roach at A Way to Garden. I swear, reading that blog can get very expensive. I went there for one specific plant ...
FRIDAY FINDS
Everything is running a little late this Friday, so here are some very late-in-the day Friday Finds for you. How to create real alpine plant trough (without killing the plants). Drawing in perspective was always difficult for me. M.C. Escher I am not. But I like this tutorial on how to draw your garden in perspective because it starts with ...
ONE ROOM CHALLENGE: WEEK SIX (AKA THE END)
Thanks for your patience on this. I got behind on all the last minute details and just couldn’t finish this up in time to join the first wave of “big reveals” Thursday morning. If you’re wondering what all this is about, I joined the One Room Challenge, hosted semi-annually by Linda at Calling it Home and attempted to renovate our ...
ONE ROOM CHALLENGE: HOLD, PLEASE
If you’ve been following the renovation of our downstairs bathroom through the One Room Challenge, you probably came here today expecting to see the final product. And I’m here to tell you that you just have to sit tight. I’ve never been a great “finisher” and that really came out in this project as I was frantically finishing the roman ...
MAIL ORDER PLANTS REVIEW: DIGGING DOG NURSERY
My friend Linda over at Each Little World has been doing an excellent series on mail order plant purchases this spring and it inspired me to do the same. My first mail order plants arrived last week Friday from Digging Dog nursery. I don’t think I’ve ordered from them in the past, but they have excellent reviews on Garden Watchdog, ...
CHICAGO IN BLOOM
We spent part of the weekend in Chicago for a function we were attending Saturday night. I can’t seem to sleep well in hotels, no matter how comfortable they may be, so when I woke up at 6 a.m. I figured I would get some coffee, get ready and head over to nearby Millennium Park to check out the gardens. ...
ONE ROOM CHALLENGE: WEEK 5
When I thought about joining the One Room Challenge I thought six weeks was a tight timeline, but not so bad. Yet here we are in Week 5 and I think it’s safe to say five weeks have never flown by so quickly. Catch up on Week 1, Week 2, Week 3 and Week 4 if you missed any of the ...
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE GARDEN
I got a message from a friend and blog reader the other day who asked, “How come you aren’t blogging about planting?” It’s a fair question, this being primarily a gardening blog. The fact of the matter is that it’s still really cool here and there is very little to plant. I did sow a few very small areas of ...
Letters from the Garden
Letters from the Garden
