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The Impatient Gardener

Friday Finds

WEEKEND FINDS

April 1, 2017

What a week. Well, weeks. I have been at an uncomfortable level of “busy” lately and I can’t wait to be back to normal busy, which is my happy place.

But caring for my seedlings is a wonderful break. Two times a day I check on them, making sure they are properly watered, rearranging them under lights or on the heat mat, petting them and generally checking on their well being.
I sowed tomatoes last weekend and they came up so fast they were already stretching by the time I got them under lights.
There’s a bit of a Clark Griswold situation going on with the power cords in the lower left corner. Four-light fluorescent on top, new LED light in the middle, old two-light fluorescent second from bottom and the heat mat on the lowest rack.
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That peculiar blue glow is coming from the new LED light I got this week. I don’t fully understand how to compare the fluorescent grow lights I’m familiar with to LED light, so this much smaller light, that apparently is meant to hang much higher is odd to me. I bought one of the less expensive lights I could find because I’m not quite sure how it will work. You can be sure I’ll let you know.
Think zinnias and marigolds are has-beens? No way.

My friend Linda from Each Little World gave a compelling review of this book that had me running to buy it. Speaking of which, I’m excited to be seeing Linda this weekend at a gardening symposium she told me about in Madison.
I’ve been looking for some dining chairs to use when we have large gatherings that can be easily stored but are still sturdy. The requirements were that they either fold or stack, were comfortable and weren’t hideously ugly. And budget was a factor.
After a lot of back and forth between a bunch of different styles, all of which I perceived as being a bit trendy, I decided I might as well go for trendy, but trendy that I like. I found this black bistro chair at Williams Sonoma and loved how it looked staged at a table, even if it has a bit of an outdoor vibe to it.  So then I went on a hunt to find it at a more realistic price. Here’s what I came up with.
Williams-Sonoma Parisian Bistro chair $125
AspenBrands dining side chair from Wayfair $118.99
Table in a Bag French Café Bistro Chair, Amazon $75
As far as I can tell, they are all the same chair and certainly the last two are. The descriptions and reviews for the last two say they are stackable and I love the idea that they will work equally good outside when we entertain in summer. I may get some cushions for them but I’ll wait to see how they sit first.
That’s it from here. Saturday will be a day for inspiration at the gardening symposium I’m going to and I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll be able to get some time in the garden on Sunday. I have a lot of work I need to do as well but I’ll go positively nuts if I don’t get in there to do some cleaning, even if it’s with a rake from the edges. What’s on your agenda this weekend?
Friday finds seeds
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
2 Comments

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Comments

  1. Lisa Greenbow says: April 1, 2017 at 5:18 pm

    I like those chairs. Have fun at the symposium. I hope you learns something and get some inspiration. I have been putzing around the garden. Pulling weeds. Getting grass out of flower beds. Placing pots where I think I want them for the summer. All sorts of fun things.

    Reply
  2. Ms. Wis./Each Little World says: April 3, 2017 at 12:55 am

    Lovely to see you Saturday. I think this one was even better than last year's. Walked around the garden when I got home but not much to see yet, still ooks more like winter than spring. RAining today. I'm going to look at my notes to see how I might use some of those ideas. Love the chairs.

    Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Here’s a combo I’m totally digging this year: Wicked Witch coleus with Compact White Sunpatiens. I should have planted more Sunpatiens because they haven’t filled in as much as I expected in this part sun spot, but it’s a great look.
When you leave your garden in the middle of summer you know there’s going to be some clean up on the back end. It’s amazing how the little things we do every day in the garden, even when we’re not “working” in it—pulling a weed, propping up a plant, tucking tendrils into a trellis—add up to important jobs. And you don’t realize that until they aren’t being done. 

When I came home after 8 days away I was planning to whip the whole garden into shape and ended up spending all day in the vegetable garden where things went awry quickly. 

I was rewarded though with lots of cucumbers and zucchini and a few pretty bouquets to put around the house. This is Madame Butterfly Bronze with White (a name I don’t understand at because I wouldn’t use any of those words to describe the color) snapdragon and Apricot Shades strawflower. 

Check the link in the bio to see the whole video and what I found when I first laid eyes on the garden after some time away.
It’s a nighttime hunt in the garden and it’s the best time to find hornworms. You’ll need a black light and a tough gag reflex but you have to remove these guys from your tomato plants or they’ll be gone quickly. If you find a hornworm with white things that look like grains of rice in it, that is parasitic wasp larvae that will eat them from the inside (everything about this is gross). Remove those hornworms from your plants but don’t kill then as you’ll be aiding the beneficial bug population by allowing those parasitic wasps to hatch. For other hornworms you can kill them or feed them to chickens or put on your bird feeder. They do turn into beautiful, big moths but you want to make sure they can’t get back to your plants if you let the hornworms live.
When it comes Echinacea, @garden.evolution (aka Coneflower king) and I don’t often agree, but I think we both feel the same about Color Coded ‘The Price is White’ being an outstanding variety. The flowers are big and flat, hold their white color really well, are sturdy and, well, put on a great show. I’m loving them growing with Rock ‘n Grow ‘Back in Black’ too. Both are @provenwinners varieties from @waltersgardens

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