Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Every year I write down my ideas for gardening projects.  It helps me to put down some thoughts and map out where my garden needs to go throughout the season.  I won’t be able to accomplish every project on the list but it does give me some direction.  At the end of the year I’ll go back and see how…

I think I’ve failed to fully express my appreciation for my culinary sage. So let’s fix that!  Sage (or Salvia officinalis) is one of those herbs that I use in all kinds of culinary concoctions from soup to seasonings.  Almost any kind of meat tastes better with fresh sage. Chicken, meatloaf, turkey, just about everything…it’s almost like the bacon of…

I am currently away from my garden so I thought I would share some Asiatic lilies from my mother-in-law’s garden. The blooms are spectacular this year! The lilies are mixed together with a variety of other plants in a raised bed garden made from local stone. Enjoy the blooms!For a look at other people’s June Blooms go to Carol’s site:…

While I didn’t intend to talk about weeds today I was out weeding the vegetable garden last night and had some thoughts on the weeds that I thought I would share. Worst Weed Wednesday was last week but with weeds there is always more to say so here are 5 things weeds do! Weeds: Crowd out plants Propagate like crazy…

A few weeks ago I happened to be in an antique store (I’ll bet you didn’t see that coming!) when I stumbled across this rusted old candle holder. It was only 5 dollars and I thought that it had some potential. If I cleaned it up and repainted it I could put it on our front porch during the growing…

Welcome to my Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day Post for September 2008. On the 15th of each month Carol at May Dreams Gardens encourages her fellow garden bloggers to show what’s blooming in their garden. Please stop by her site to see what else is blooming around the blogosphere!We’ve made it through August and survived with the minuscule amounts of rain…

If you want a drought tolerant hardy perennial that looks great check out a ‘Moonbeam’ coreopsis. ‘Moonbeam’ is one of the threadleaf varieties and is more drought tolerant because of those narrow needle-like leaves. The smaller surface area means that the leaves lose less water through transpiration than other varieties of coreopsis. It still has the massive profusion of blooms…

Last year we designed, built, and grew our first vegetable garden in our new home. The garden was made of two large beds that were subdivided into 3 smaller conjoined beds in an “L” shape. Unfortunately the vegetable garden layout we designed was built more around aesthetics than around function. Since then I’ve realized something: When designing vegetable gardens think…

I could have named this post several different things like: How to Destroy Your Mower in 5 Minutes, or Roasting Marshmallows Over an Open Mower, or even How To Turn Your Lawn Mower into a Bomb in Three Easy Steps. Fortunately each of those creative titles are inaccurate. The first title is wrong since I think my mower is still…

I’m a huge fan of vegetable gardening – or any gardening for that matter – in raised beds. There are many reasons raised beds are great for gardens like being able to garden nearly anywhere (even on rocky ground), controlling the soil, or planting more plants in a smaller space but what actually makes a good raised bed? The best…

As I mentioned in a previous post about fall vegetable gardening we’re in the window of opportunity for getting those fall veggies going. All those cool season vegetables you planted for spring are eligible for a second go round in the garden. In our garden the radishes are rising, the sugar snap peas are sown, and everything else is will…

Please bear with me while I make a few cosmetic changes!  I’ve been wanting to find a new look for the blog that is more functional and I think I have found a template that works.  There will be some minor tweaks and repairs over the next few days.  All the content and comments should be intact.  Think of this…

Have Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year!

What a gift to be surrounded by all the wonderful scenery that Patientgardener is! Over in Malverns, England (in Worchestershire) the chestnut and beech trees are showing their autumnal changes. You even get a peak at some sweetgum trees which are another of my favorites for fall color. (I can forgive them for the seed balls in exchange for that…

Maybe you can help us figure something out. Jaime sent me this picture of a plant growing where she wanted to plant zinnias. If the plant growing there is something good then she’d like to see it grow to flower but if it’s a weed well, you know what she’ll do to that weed! I’ve checked out several weed pictures…

The past weekend I set out to complete small project with a little help from my gardening assistant. The goal was to put together a small pathway made from cheap concrete stepping stones that would lead up to the front porch area of my garden shed. Prior to this the area was weedy. So weedy that regular mowings were necessary…

THis first of the irises to bloom this year are the reblooming white irises we have in the Japanese maple garden. It’s a small garden just to one side of our patio that ,of course, has a Japanese maple! It was a gift a few years ago to me for Father’s Day. The reblooming white irises came home with me…

The holidays are almost past and that means it is time to start thinking and planning for the spring garden. Below are 5 things to do to start planning for that spring garden. Aside from getting a better start each year making the to do list puts my mind on the sunny days ahead rather than the cloudy cold days…