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Taking My Backyard Garden Skills to Navarro Farm

April 10, 2022 By Heather Blackmore 9 Comments

Navarro Farm

The expression "Go big or go home" resonates these days. I had been looking for a job this last year. Something full-time. Little did I know I'd find myself managing the largest raised bed garden on a farm in Illinois. Twenty years of freelance writing and photography done ten feet away from my bedroom has taken it's toll. I've wanted a little more distance between my work life and my home life. With the girls away at school, there's no need for me to stay here doing something that no longer brings me joy. A quiet house gets lonely, fast. The idea of returning to full-time employment both thrills and scares me. When you're a work-from-home mom, you're the boss. You get used to it. The schedule, the errands, the flow. Transitioning to someone else's schedule is slightly daunting. ...

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Filed Under: Gardening, Uncategorized Tagged With: farm, farm to table, farming, Navarro Farm, raised bed gardening, raised beds, special needs, vegetable gardening

Tropical Plants for a Cold Climate Garden

December 8, 2021 By Heather Blackmore 4 Comments

Colocasia

I love big, bold foliage. The "extras" of the plant world. You'll find tropical plants woven into every garden bed, not to mention the containers on the patio. I tend to like plants, and some people, one might call "extra." They make life a bit more interesting. Plants that scream look at me have a place in every garden and they make the smaller, softer spoken plants stand out and look even better. Funny how that works. Too much of the big stuff however, just looks like a bunch of big stuff. It's overwhelming. So I find that a tropical plant here and there makes the garden so much more interesting and it satiates my desire for a little something tropical in every bed or container. Cold climate be damned! My love affair with tropical plants began several years ago with Christopher Lloyd ...

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Filed Under: Gardening, My Garden, Uncategorized Tagged With: angel's trumpet, brugmansia, cannas, coleus, colocasia, dahlias, datura, elephant ears, hibiscus, perennial hibiscus, tender plants, tropical gardening, tropical plants

Dahlia Fail and a Change of Heart

November 18, 2021 By Heather Blackmore 3 Comments

Dahlia bouquet

The dahlias are tucked away despite the fact that I swore off trying to overwinter them again after last year's dahlia fail. I killed all except one variety. It was my first attempt at overwintering dahlias and I thought the garage was the perfect spot. As it turns out, it's not. Chalk this fail, there have been many, up to some serious gardener error. Three crates full of clean, plump, labeled tubers by March had become three crates of shriveled, puckered pods. I learned two things from that experience – the garage is too cold for dahlia tubers and you have to check your tubers monthly. Ok three things. I stink at this dahlia thing. I went to all that effort to store them and basically forgot about them for months, expecting they'd be just as I had left them months before. Well, these ...

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Filed Under: Gardening, My Garden Tagged With: cut flower gardening, dahlia tubers, dahlias, overwintering dahlia tubers, winter storage

Tough Perennials for a Colorful Fall Garden

October 15, 2021 By Heather Blackmore 2 Comments

Japanese Anemone 'Honorine Jobert'

Place the word "tough" in front of a word and oftentimes you get a negative meaning. Meat. Disposition. Decision. Childhood. No one likes tough meat or a tough childhood for that matter! But put it in front of "plants" and every gardener listens. Tough plant you say? To survive in my garden, you (the plants) gotta be tough. I'm not a plant coddler but instead subscribe to the Joan Crawford school of gardening. So when I was planning my side yard last winter, I focused on tough plants for a fall garden. It's very specific, but being specific keeps me on point and narrows my focus. With so many plants from which to choose, it's easy to get overwhelmed. Here's my criteria: 1. I want flowers until frost. 2. I want to to see them from inside the house. 3. I want to do as little as possible ...

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Filed Under: Gardening, My Garden, Uncategorized Tagged With: anemone, asters, coneflower, drift roses, echincea, fall blooming perennials, fall color, fall flowers, fall garden, flowers, Japanese anemone, pollinator garden, pollinator plants, Roses, salvia, tough perennials, tough plants

The Verdict Is In on Species Tulips

September 24, 2021 By Heather Blackmore 4 Comments

species tulips with heuchera

This spring, I spent a lot of time observing and waiting. Such is the life of the gardener. But I was anxious to see how long the species tulips planted last fall would survive in my garden before their beheading. I have a rabbit issue. Which means I have a tulip issue too. Despite several attempts, I simply can't grow them. Ever. Or so I thought. The most success I've had was with two small patches of Darwin tulips planted years apart. The first, a red variety, was beautiful and ignored by everything except me. The sin bin, also known as the dark space beneath my neighbor's deck, wasn't part of the equation yet so I didn't have a rabbit "issue." But then another neighbor set his domesticated rabbit free after tiring of it. It was a Christmas gift they gave to their children and by April, ...

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Filed Under: Gardening, My Garden, Uncategorized Tagged With: Colorblends, fall planting, naturalizing bulbs, rabbit resistant bulbs, rabbit resistant tulips, rabbits, species tulips, spring garden, Tulips

Picking a Cover Crop for the Raised Beds

September 16, 2021 By Heather Blackmore 4 Comments

Glass Gem corn

Over the years, I've grown all kinds of crops in my raised beds. The glass gem corn (pictured above) is my most recent experiment. To me, everything in the garden is an experiment because nothing in gardening is a sure thing (unless we're talking about mint). Oftentimes, I've taken the soil for granted with the yearly expectation that the soil will continue to churn out the most delicious produce my family and me wait all year to relish. So this fall, for the very first time in my 20-plus years of gardening, the veg plot is getting a cover crop. Perhaps the relative success in the veg garden can be attributed to the modest amount of compost that I add every year from my small compost bin, as well as the organic fertilizers the plants receive both at planting time and throughout the ...

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Filed Under: Gardening, My Garden, Uncategorized Tagged With: cover crop, organic gardening, raised beds, soil, vegetable garden

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Hi there!

I'm Heather and I love to grow stuff. LOTS of stuff. Most importantly, a healthy family. I'm a stay-at-home mom with a passion for playing in the dirt. Read More…

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I love the chop and drop method of garden clean-up I love the chop and drop method of garden clean-up and I did a little of it today. You could also run your lawn mower over your perennial beds and I’ve done that as well. But we’ve had some rain and the ground is very soft. I went with the pruners to avoid compacting my already dense soil. Do you chop and drop? It’s such a budget friendly way to build your soil! #chopanddrop #springcleanup #gardentipsandtricks #soilhealth #healthysoil #budgetfriendly #garden #gardening #gardentips #soilhealth #gardensoil #smallspacegardening #chicagogarden #zone5b #hereshegrows
What better welcome home than several clumps of Fl What better welcome home than several clumps of Flore Pleno snowdrops? #earlyspringflowers #galanthus #snowdropseason #florepleno #springgarden #smallspacegarden #zone5bgardening #chicagogarden #springbulbs #bulbs #backyardgardener #hereshegrows
After visiting the @naplesbotanical garden, I want After visiting the @naplesbotanical garden, I want to hang orchids from all my trees this summer. Then reality sets in and I remember I live in a cold climate and all the orchids I see in my imagination will have to be brought inside for winter. So yeah, reality check. Aren’t those roots amazing?! #orchids #epiphytes #houseplants #orchidcollection #hangingorchids #orchiddisplay #orchiddendrobium
Happy Spring! American Goldrush rudbeckia is anoth Happy Spring! American Goldrush rudbeckia is another low maintenance perennial that gives way more than it takes. Despite my back and forth with plant choices for the redo of my patio garden, this has been a constant. I have several clumps of it throughout the garden and will divide it again for this space. Other plants in this very narrow garden include Allium ‘Millenium,’ Shasta daisy ‘Becky’ and James Galway climbing rose from David Austin. It’s a popular pollinator spot and so easy to maintain. #pollinatorgarden #pollinatorgardens #rudbeckia #allium #easyplants #garden #gardening #gardendesign #gardenideas #perennialgarden #perennials #perennialborder #zone5b #smallspacegarden #chicagogarden #hereshegrows
Twenty years ago, I was a young mom with two babie Twenty years ago, I was a young mom with two babies in diapers and this was where I began. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing and a lot of plants met their end here. The most important part is that I kept gardening and learning more every single day. I think that’s what I love so much. The not knowing. It’s an ongoing experiment and I’ve been in love with the process since the first time I buried my kitchen scraps in this area that I hoped would become something lovely and good. #mygarden #smallspacegarden #chicagogarden #gardening #garden #gardendesign #zone5bgardening #zone5 #perennialgarden #plantcombinations #urbangarden #sungarden #easyplants #latespring #perennialborder #gardeninspo #hereshegrows
My shady entry garden is heavy on foliage, light o My shady entry garden is heavy on foliage, light on flowers and it’s one of my favorite spaces. Hosta, heuchera and geranium macrorrhizum are some of my favorite low maintenance plants for dry shade. I love the patchwork of colors and textures and the randomness of the Everest alliums that dance above it all in the spring. #shadegarden #shadegardening #entrygarden #dryshade #easyplants #gardening #madeintheshade #garden #gardendesignideas #gardenideas #perennialgarden #foliageplants #chicagogarden #zone5bgardening #smallspacegardening #hereshegrows
Flowers are fleeting, but foliage is where it’s Flowers are fleeting, but foliage is where it’s at. You can’t go wrong with coleus, lungwort and colocasia. The coleus was a single plant that I pinched back several times to create this rounded beauty. #foliagefriday #foliage #gardening #coleus #lungwort #gardenideas #gardenplanning #gardendesign #entrygarden #gardengate #zone5b #chicagogarden #urbangarden #smallspacegarden #hereshegrows
I’m happy with how this newest part of my garden I’m happy with how this newest part of my garden is coming together. The Abies concolor ‘Blue Cloak’ was a birthday present I gave myself two years ago. The long blue needles are so beautiful. Eventually, that arbor will be covered in pink David Austin James Galway roses. I planted them bareroot last year so give this area a little more time and we’ll circle back to it. It’s hard to be patient! #garden #firtree #gardenideas #arbor #inmygarden #smallspacegarden #zone5b #chicagogarden #hereshegrows
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