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FRIDAY FINDS
I’m on a really good streak with books. I’m reading Dear Friend and Gardener: Letters on Life and Gardening and although I’m only halfway through it (I’m taking my time with it, savoring every page), I just know this is going to be one of those books I go back to and may become one of my favorites. It is ...
REVELING IN A GARDEN VICTORY
There is something rather momentous going on in my garden right now: Lavender is blooming. For those of you who successfully grow lavender, this probably doesn’t seem like something worth dedicating a blog post to. With lavender, it seems, you either have it, or you don’t. I’ve struggled with growing lavender for years, which is why my path is lined ...
YET ANOTHER BLUE DOOR
So I painted another door. By now, this should come as absolutely no surprise to you. When I get an itch, I paint something and 99% of the time it’s a door. What can I say? They are easy and you get a lot of bang for your buck. BEFORE (Wythe Blue door) AFTER (New York State of Mind door) ...
FRIDAY FINDS: SUMMER IN THE GARDEN
One of the weekends I was gone in mid-July also happened to be the weekend that every garden tour in southeastern Wisconsin was held (or so it seemed), and I missed them all. What a bummer. Fortunately, last night I toured two fabulous gardens as part of our annual master gardener garden crawl. I’m now full of ideas for how ...
NO MATTER THE FUSS, SWEET PEAS ARE WORTH IT
This spring I grew more flowers from seed than I ever have before. The process was incredibly rewarding and I feel like my garden looks better than it ever has, in part due to all the plants I produced from seed. Among those flowers were sweet peas, which have a reputation for being a bit particular about their conditions. I ...
CONTAINER SURGERY (LIKE A NOSE JOB GONE WRONG)
And just like that, it’s August. It’s almost impossible to fathom that we’re at the beginning of what I once considered the last month of summer. The weather, though, is changing from what it was like in my childhood, and since I’m not personally tied to school schedules, more and more, my idea of summer continues right through September. We ...
VIDEO REVIEW: TROY-BILT HORSE XP TRACTOR
Earlier this year I told you about the Troy-Bilt Horse XP Tractor, and now I’m showing you a little more about it. Get ready for a video full of the inner workings of a lawn mower, mowing to music, creative and possibly dangerous camera angles, dive-bombing dragonflies (we had a huge dragonfly hatch around here when we were making the ...
A DOSE OF FUN COLOR JUST FOR SUMMER
We’ve been enjoying the most amazing stretch of gorgeous summer weather here in southeastern Wisconsin. Save for the fact that we could really use some rain, there is absolutely nothing to complain about. We’ve been savoring every possible moment of it (I seriously try to soak it in and save it for a few months from now), taking walks on ...
HOW TO PRUNE A MEATBALL BOXWOOD
My affinity for meatball boxwoods is no secret. In my very informal garden, they are one of the few nods I give to formality and I like the structure they provide. I usually prune boxwoods toward the end of June, but this year was a little behind weather-wise and then I left for awhile so I didn’t get to them ...
FRIDAY FINDS
So happy to be bringing you some Friday Finds today. We have enjoyed the most perfect week of summer weather and although I’ve been flat out catching up on work, I’ve been taking every possible moment to soak up the summer goodness because I know how fleeting it is. I love looking at dream properties as much as the next ...
ABBONDONZA OF ANNUALS: A PEEK AT A FAVORITE GARDEN
God bless the cloud. When my phone took one bounce of the deck of the boat last week before plunging into the depths of Lake Michigan I had no idea what had all backed up to the cloud before it offed itself. Thankfully, upon returning home I found all of the photos I had taken on Mackinac Island safely delivered ...
GARDEN TRIAGE
If it ever seems like your garden changes very slowly, just leave it for a couple weeks in the middle of summer and see what it looks like when you get back. Although I do this (rarely for this long, however) every year, it never ceases to amaze me how much the garden changes in what seems like a short ...
STAY TUNED
I had posts planned for you this week and in fact all set to go, but Murphy’s Law has made itself known and I dropped my phone with everything on it (including a ton of photos of beautiful gardens that I can only hope backed up to the cloud first) right into Lake Michigan. Almost directly under the Mackinac Bridge, ...
WHEN THE GARDENER LEAVES THE GARDEN
I’m leaving my garden for almost two weeks. It’s a bittersweet time to be away as I want to savor every bloom and new leaf and change and mentally bottle it to be conjured up come January. At the same time, summer is about much more than just gardening and it’s time to do some summer stuff. Any success in ...
NEW YEAR, NEW PLANTS
Every year I have the good fortune of growing several new plants, some provided for me to trial and others that I seek out and purchase because I NEED them. Since the garden is finally filling out, I thought it would be a good time to show you some of the interesting new plants I’m growing this year. It’s always ...
A FANTASTIC JUNE IN THE GARDEN
Last week I had to go to Newport, Rhode Island, for work, and although business travel isn’t high on the list of things I want to be doing in summer, it was a pleasure to be in such a beautiful city. Before I left I gardened like a mad woman to get all the major jobs in the garden finished ...
Letters from the Garden
Letters from the Garden
