Favorite Ornamental Grasses

By far, the most interesting things in my garden these days are my ornamental grasses. I have a lot of them because they are so low maintenance and they add great texture to the garden— in summer, fall and winter.

New Year’s Resolutions

Are you making New Year’s resolutions this year? Uzzi says I should resolve to stop strutting around like I own the world and also stop peeing in my beard. He’s just jealous.

My New Buttonbush

A good friend gave me an early Christmas present last week. A buttonbush!

Happy Potato Accident

Photo by Jessica WalliserI accidentally grew All Blue potaotes in the compost bin, and they did better than the ones I purposefully planted in the garden! I’m secretly hoping for an early frost this year, namely to kill off some of the stink bugs before they make it inside but also to put an end to […]

Fertilizer Factor

I spent the morning mowing the lawn. It’s a beautiful day here, and even riding the mower was a pleasure. I don’t often write about my lawn because I really don’t care that much about it. I’m not one of those people who think of the lawn as part of the garden. We don’t really do much to it except mow. Don’t get me wrong, I love the look of a lush, green, well-maintained lawn, but I don’t think a person needs to spend time and money to have that. It’s not worth it to me, I guess.

Stinkbugs Stink!

Stupid stinkbugs have ruined my corn! I was so excited to harvest my Jade Blue sweet corn, but when I peeled back the husk, the kernels are all shriveled and warped. The foliage is completely covered with stinkbugs and the white splotchy damage caused by their feeding.

Picking Melons and Watching Bats

We just picked our first two melons of the season and enjoyed them with our dinner. I couldn’t remember what kind they were so it was kind of thrilling to cut into them and find out what was inside. The outside looked nothing like a cantaloupe, but that’s exactly what the inside looked and tasted like, only not quite as sweet.

Cucumbers, Cabbage, Fennel … Oh My!

I harvested the first cucumbers of the season tonight—39 beauties! I could barely lift the basket when I was finished. I planted about five different cucumber varieties hoping that if some of them died from bacterial wilt, I would still have others continue to produce.

Berries and Larkspur

Our strawberry crop disappointed us this year. They didn’t produce many, and what fruits did appear were puny. I’m guessing it was due to all the rain we had this spring.

Watching Grass Grow

Progress, progress, progress. How I love it when garden projects move along as planned! I managed to sow just less than 35 pounds of grass seed last week and cover it with a dozen bails of straw.