Ideas, Info, Tools & Technology to Create Your Dream Garden
editorial
What Gardening Means To Me
Jan 23rd
What little girl could resist growing a Beauty Bush.
Today is my birthday. So, I thought I’d take time to write about what gardening means to me, why I’m such an avid gardener.
In all honesty I think I’m an avid gardener because my mother was, also. She loved to be outside planting things and started me off at a very early age. I remember helping plant pansies at around the age of five.
Not too long after that, maybe a year or two, I had my first garden. It was a flower garden and had all my favorites: pansies, marigolds, dahlias, snapdragons, More >
Preparing For The New Year And New Focus
Jan 2nd
Remodeling/redecorating both inside and out.
I’ve been contemplating what I want to start including in my blog for the new year. I’m thinking of doing a series of videos on my redecorating/remodel of the extra bedroom. That will give me the opportunity to hone my video skills, which I’ve not used for a while, and get some really good information out to people wanting to spruce up a room.
In looking at the schedule for the coming year, here are a few of the things on my to-do list: remodel/redecorating completed for rest of house; greenhouse up and functioning; storage buildings in More >
Time To Think Seeds – No GMO
Dec 12th
Yep, it’s that time of year. Time to start drooling over this years seed catalogs. I’ve already received several and have to reign myself in, as I’ve got quite a few packets of seeds left from last year.
One thing you should consider when looking at seeds is their safety and purity. There are studies starting to come in showing that GMO seeds are affecting, not only the natural world around us, but our very bodies. The GMO tags are being found in pregnant women and their newborn babies, some illnesses are being exacerbated by GMO products, etc. This is just More >
After A Hard Day’s Work
Dec 5th
Is your mattress ready for the junk heap?
I love my bed. As a matter-of-fact if I could take just one thing with me when I move, it would be my bed, really! I bought it 23 years ago and it’s still as comfortable as the day I bought it.
After working out in the yard, I often come in feeling a bit sore and stiff. One night’s sleep on my “magic” bed and I’m fit as a fiddle. When traveling abroad I dream about my bed at home. When I return my whole body anticipates the luxury of my mattress.
So, if More >
Bringing The Outdoors In
Nov 28th
Now that the winter months are approaching fast, dreary days are more common. The flowers are gone from the garden and the leaves have dropped from the trees. Most plants have gone to sleep for the season. In these greyer days there are many ways you can bring a spot of garden cheer to your house.
Bring nature inside with a traditional or contemporary wool rug.
Of course potted flower plants and cut flowers are one way, but they are very temporary. One permanent way you can bring nature inside is through your décor. Bringing nature to your décor is very simple More >
What’s In A Name?
Oct 25th
Shakespeare’s famous line is so true. A rose by any other name would still be a rose. Yet, somehow some names are really descriptive. For instance, my favorite flower of this season has to be the strawflowers. If you’ve never seen them, they may conjure up strange images, since most of us associate straw with something you feed animals.
Just a few of the dozens of strawflowers I've harvested.
However I don’t think you’d ever feed a strawflower to an animal, they are just too pretty. Just like their common name implies, though, the flower, even just picked from the plant, feel More >
Mom & Dad
Oct 11th
Thanks for the post from Kirk Wood
I got DIRECT TV for a Christmas gift for my parents. I knew that they would like it. I ordered the hunting channel package for my Dad. My mom jokes and says that she wishes that I hadn’t gotten them those. She said she has been forced to watch animal calling and tracking all of the time. Dad has even invited his friends over to watch and practice their animal calls. When my Dad is not at home and watching the hunting channels, my mom has found something that she loves to watch of her More >
Garden Envy
Oct 3rd
I just returned from a two-and-a-half week visit at my sister’s home in the Seattle area. Arriving there I was struck by how lush and green everything is. Unlike my poor gardens at home that were looking like they had been in an oven all summer, her gardens were filled with greenery and flowers galore.
She’s able to grow lobelia and alysum all summer long and her nasturtiums were still blooming, as well. Here in the mid-Atlantic those flowers bite the dust by late June. Her fuschias and begonias were dripping with blooms. Last year I almost managed to keep a More >
Film Buff
Aug 22nd
Thanks to Roman May
Movies have always been my thing and never more so than when I moved out here to the country where there wasn’t all that much to do. I love the idea of being able to hole up inside my house and watch an old Western or a modern-day romantic comedy and I know I’m getting to escape for a few hours at a time from my relatively boring life! I recently found a link at work that said Local Satellite Internet for satellite internet and it’s really helped me stay in touch when I’m at home. I’ve been More >
Summer Garden In Review
Aug 19th
I have to admit this was not one of my more stellar summer gardens. Oh, it’s still going, but so much of it has been hit by the long, hot, humid weather that there’s not much going on. Lots of diseases and pests this year, too, ugh.
I ended up with early blight on my tomatoes. Their still alive, but look horrible, with dead black leaves hanging all over them. I’ve treated them several times, to no avail. The summer squash produced exactly one squash each and then got killed by squash vine borers. The corn has gotten blown over in More >