It's that time of year again when the leaves are changing and the garage begins to look like doomsday preppers live here. My husband complains about it and I anticipated his reaction when he came home a few nights ago to find his garage workbench temporarily "altered." Not only has it been wiped clean and the empty chip bags disposed of, but it now has everything I need to keep my houseplants alive through the winter, namely water. In my experience, especially for a man motivated by food, having a good meal waiting on the day I begin infiltrating his man space is an excellent diversion. I've become a pretty good cook. His basement workshop has been "altered" as well. He's chosen to accept it in the same way he begrudgingly accepts that he'll lose a little turf to my garden each year. In ...
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A Traffic Stopping Front Yard Garden
In all my garden scouting, I very rarely saw front yard gardens. Most had the typical smattering of evergreens and deciduous trees, but few relied on perennials to carry a design. Oftentimes, front yard gardens are like mullets - business in the front, party in the back. Fortunately, the figurative garden mullet is much more appealing than the actual hairstyle. Homeowners often save the good stuff for the backyard or more intimate spaces not observable from the street. What a treat it was to experience a true front yard garden where the homeowner let it all hang out! In a good way, of course. The garden was designed by landscape architect Robert Milani for a home on Chicago's North Shore. There's nothing cookie cutter about the area. The one thing most homes have in common though, is a ...
Grateful for Goodbye and the Occasional Good Riddance
The title sounds rough and you may be wondering why the heck I go to the trouble of writing this blog, or gardening at all for that matter, when I look forward to saying goodbye to it. Sometimes sooner than later. The short answer is it's exhausting. But the longer answer, and the one I hope you'll relate to, is that saying goodbye for several months makes it all the sweeter when I return to it come Spring. Even on the days when I declare I'm DONE! I'm not really. Until I'm actually DONE DONE and everything goes to hell. It's the same with chocolate cake. By September, I'm feeling the itch to wind down. I've gone full steam since March and tucking the garden in for winter is pretty alluring. The anticipation of putting the garden to bed is the same feeling I got when my girls were ...
I’ve Got Voles…Again
Voles are cute and yet, I want to kill them. My thoughts weren't so violent before I discovered just how destructive those little buggers can be. They ain't so cute anymore. In early October, we had a wicked storm, the kind where the rain falls sideways, trees bend like licorice sticks and wind bellows like an Amtrak train at full throttle. When the storm finally moved on, we were left with water damage between the first and second floors (which insurance won't cover since they attribute it to faulty installation when the home was built 20 years ago!) and one leaning magnolia. I'm more upset about the tree. I have two Centennial Blush star magnolias that flank the corners of my patio. I planted them in 2016 and the one on the east side always seemed to struggle. When the leaves began to ...
Mangave for the Cold Climate Gardener
Mad in Love mangave mix - photo courtesy of Walters Gardens, Inc. Have you ever purchased a plant that wasn't originally on your list? Dumb question. We're gardeners. Lists are a distraction and feel so limiting. Therefore, I rarely stick to them. Which was the case last May when my mom and I visited Sunrise Greenhouse in Grant Park, IL. In addition to the coleus, banana plant, clematis and roses, a mangave landed in my cart. I've grown plenty of succulents and had heard of it before but I can hardly say I knew what to do with it. All I knew was that I had to give it a go. How hard could it be? As it turns out, mangave is one of the most undemanding, and quite surprising, plants I've grown. This is my Mission to Mars mangave the day I brought it home from the nursery. The water spots ...
Six Tips for Managing Food Allergies on Vacation
Vortex Doughnuts was an exceptional bakery in Asheville, NC, and quite possibly the highlight of my daughter's entire vacation. Their selection of soy-, nut- and egg-free doughnuts, as well as made-to-order coffee, had us wishing they were closer to home. I felt my hips expanding with every inhalation. Food factors into everything. How we socialize, celebrate, train, relax, connect, vacation. It's the vacation part that scared me most when my daughter, Abigail, was diagnosed in 2016, with Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) and allergies to soy, nuts and eggs. We can't fly by the seat of our pants and eat anywhere. Every move requires a plan of attack. While I still approach vacation with a bit of trepidation, I have a better handle on how, who and what to ask when it comes to ...
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