A great plant combo is key to pulling off a small garden space. Looking back on the previous year provides great insight and I get a better idea of what worked and what was just meh. Because my garden is small, full of shallow beds and tight angles, I have to really think about plant groupings for the best impact. I've matured from the one-of-everything gardener to one who considers how plants jive together. The result is so much better. It's easy to think of a small garden as one that would be easy to plant and I'm the first to say you're unequivocally WRONG. As a new gardener, I wanted one of everything, my planting style reflected it and the garden was a mess with no thought given to plant combos. I still like that somewhat unkempt, cottage vibe but one that looks knit together as ...
Grow Birdhouse Gourds to Make…Birdhouses, Duh!
This isn't a quick process, but with a little planning you can grow your own gourd birdhouse. I can see my daughter rolling her eyes right now. She's not a fan of the little wren I'm attracting to the garden. He's loud. Very loud. Like four-in-the-morning fog horn loud and to a teen who loves her sleep, his Reveille is the last thing she wants to hear. It's hard to believe that something so tiny can be so vocal. Napolean syndrome, no doubt. First the planning part, seed selection. And if this is something you're seriously considering, I'd suggest ordering seeds ASAP. Unlike any year before, seeds were a lot like toilet paper in 2020. Everyone's hoarding them and while I don't think birdhouse gourd seeds will be in short supply, no one could have predicted the sudden popularity of ...
Save Your Money, Sow Seeds Instead!
If you're like me, you've been buried in seed catalogs for the last few weeks, completely overwhelmed by the tens of thousands of possibilities concealed within those flimsy pages. I've since buttoned up my orders, mostly. There may be a few more stragglers in there but for the most part it's done and I'm really excited because I had a great experience last year creating a beautiful, layered new border mostly from seed that cost me about $20. Some were direct sown, while others like the Prairie Sun rudbeckia, were given a headstart indoors to get a jump on the season. I like instant gratification, especially after a looooong winter. The dry, full-sun area around the patio was screaming for a do-over. It was a long narrow border of Walkers Low catmint which has the not-so-attractive ...
Great Gifts for the Gardener
Great gifts do two things. They show you really put some thought into it and they give the recipient something they may not have bought for themselves. If you can check both boxes, you're golden. But when you're not a gardener and have a gardener on your shopping list, how do you decide what to buy? Well, that's where I come in. I picked a variety of gifts, all of which I have personal experience with in my own garden and feel confident in their quality and craftsmanship. Ok, that's not exactly true. The personal experience part, not the quality and craftsmanship. I'm secretly hoping my husband will read this post and give me a rain chain. More on that later. All kidding aside, I chose things for a variety of budgets and interests, all with a gardening/landscaping vibe to them. I would ...
Autumn Leaves are Lovely, But Acorns Fill My Heart
A few days ago, I was listening to a podcast and the conversation touched on the change of seasons and the way each is marked by the things we associate with them. Winter snow. Spring daffodils. Summer tans. Autumn leaves. While colorful leaves are the quintessential poster children of fall, it is the acorn that marks the arrival of autumn. Something about that little brown oak seed with the tan beret takes me to another season of my life, the one marked by the frenzy of small children. When my girls were small, keeping them occupied was challenging. Never one to plop them in front of the TV for hours, I looked to the outdoors for entertainment. That's not to say I wasn't grateful for the respite that a Disney movie offered from time to time. We played in the rain, built snowmen with ...
Sometimes the Corn Just Doesn’t Pop
According to the Illinois Farm Bureau, approximately 12.6 million acres of corn were grown last year. And this year I couldn't even grow 16. Plants that is, not acres. You know how it goes. Or maybe you don't and it's just me, but I envisioned ear after ear of glass gem corn long before I ever sunk a seed into the soil. My Instagram feed would be full of unusual ears with kernels that looked more like pearls than traditional yellow corn. How hard could it be? Corn grows in Illinois like kudzu grows in Georgia. Every year I like to try something new. My something new showed up at my master gardener's seed swap last February. There in a bowl sat hundreds of corn kernels in colors I had never seen. So I filled an envelope full of kernels without a clue as to how to grow it. My ...
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