Enjoying Tulip Time in Topeka

Happy Earth Day, friends!

It’s been a late spring, and I thought you deserved to see some beautiful spring flowers, so it was out of complete selflessness that I drove to Ted Ensley Gardens in Topeka, KS this week to take pictures of tulips in bloom.  It definitely had nothing to do with the fact that tulips are my favorite flower and that the 9.5 acre garden has more than 50,000 tulips on display.  Nope, my motivation was completely altruistic.  I enjoyed Tulip Time in Topeka for you.

Last year was the first fall I tried planting bulbs, and the ‘Spring Beauty’ crocus were a delightful promise of spring throughout March.  There has been a definite gap between the crocus fading and the rest of the garden awakening, though, so next year I have a plan: Continue Reading

Coffee cup and water garden in April

A year’s progress in the garden

It’s easy to look at pictures in gardening magazines, Pinterest, and Instagram and feel a bit discouraged when you compare them to your own garden.   At least I feel that way — there’s a big gap between where my garden is and where I want it to be.  I still have a lot of plants to buy, work to do, and time to wait for young plants to mature.  But it hit me yesterday that I have only been on my gardening journey for one year — and I’ve made an incredible amount of progress! Continue Reading

'Funky Pink' Begonia seedlings at 8 weeks.

Garden musings on a snowy April day

Today is second straight Sunday in April where the high is in the 30s and we have winter precipitation falling from the sky.  If I didn’t know any better, I’d think Mother Nature was intentionally trying to prevent me from having some beautiful spring garden pictures to share with you.   I can’t say that we haven’t had any nice weather lately — it’s just been all over the place.  I went from having to cover plants on Tuesday night (a 22° low), to a Thursday so warm Beau needed a dip in the pond, to again having to cover plants for a 20° low Friday night.  Craziness!   Continue Reading

When I Dream Daylily in bloom July

Easter (eye) candy for garden lovers

I don’t know where you are, but here in KC, Mother Nature is playing a cruel April fools’ day joke on us. It may be April,  but you wouldn’t know it from the weather outside.  As I write this, it’s 28° with sleet and snow falling from the sky.  What the heck?!? I got a glimpse of the Easter Bunny this morning and he was wearing a winter coat, hat, and gloves.  Sure hope those eggs didn’t freeze.

Luckily, the Easter Bunny brought me tulips and wine this year (my Easter Bunny is better than your Easter Bunny!) so I didn’t have to worry about frozen eggs.  What I do have to worry about is frozen plants: the low Tuesday night is supposed to hit 22°!  Remember all of those early-emerging plants I told you about last week?  I spent yesterday afternoon covering them with leaf mulch in hopes that they stay cozy until we get through this cold streak.

I think the best thing to do while we wait for this very un-springish weather to move on is distract ourselves with pictures of pretty plants and gardens, don’t you? Continue Reading

Summer flowers at the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens

Garden planning: 2018 edition

In 2017, I was a master of impulse gardening: “Ooh!  these plants are on sale!”/ “Time for a new garden bed — I need to fill the space!” It led to a lot of progress, but also, a few regrets.  Towards the end of the season, I realized that almost everything I planted was about the same height, and this winter the empty garden beds have been staring at me, begging me to do better next year.

While I can’t vow to avoid impulsive gardening completely this year, I am determined to be more intentional with my garden’s design.  After looking at thousands of garden pictures, I think I have my plan boiled down to nine elements I will be focusing on: Continue Reading

Waterfall into a stream as part of a backyard water garden.

My water garden dream come true

The year was 1999, and my brothers and I had a big task ahead of us: somehow convince my parents to fund and help us build a water garden at our house.

Okay, truth be told, my mom was on board —  it was really my dad we had to persuade.  I went into high-gear research paper mode, checking out all of the related books I could possibly find from the library and building out compelling argument backed up with a project plan.  Had it been a school assignment, I’m sure it would have been graded A+.  My brothers and I presented the idea to our parents;  our phenomenal presentation was met with, “We’ll think about it.”  Dang it. Continue Reading

Crocus Spring Beauty growth early March

Glimpses of spring

Happy March, my friends — we made it through February!  Though it is technically still “late winter,” we’re starting to see small hints that spring is just around the corner.  The Black-capped chickadees have started singing the two-note song that puts a smile on my face,  the daylight stretches into the evening a bit, and KC has seen some beautiful 60-degree days.

I’m starting to see tiny signs of life in my garden– while cleaning up sticks this weekend, I noticed that the Japanese Maples are covered in tiny buds.  Most are 6-12″ saplings, and I only permanently planted three last year–the rest I stuck in the ground, pot and all, hoping that they would overwinter.  It appears they all survived — score one for this newbie gardener! Continue Reading

Roots of a moth orchid before repotting

Orchids 102: repotting to keep them happy

Have you ever been to a gardening workshop where one attendee seems WAY too into it, asking a million questions, furiously taking notes, and snapping pictures of every little thing?  Well, perhaps that weirdo is a gardening blogger, because I’m sure that’s exactly how my classmates at a recent orchid workshop would have described me.  In my last post, I covered my notes on basic orchid care from the workshop;  in this post, I’ll share my step-by-step notes (and pictures) on repotting orchids. Continue Reading

Light pink moth orchid in greenhouse

Orchids 101: the basics of orchid care

You know how I say I’m a gardening enthusiast, not expert?  Same thing with orchids — I adore them, but I’m far from an expert.  After all,  I purchased my first orchid 6 weeks ago, so I’ve only kept an orchid alive for 6 weeks at this point.  However, I did attend an orchid workshop at Powell Gardens earlier this month where I learned from someone who is an expert —  and I took a ridiculous amount of notes to share with you. Continue Reading