Browse Tag: gardening

Inspiration from 7 Glorious Gardens on the 2018 JoCo Master Gardeners Tour

***WARNING: The photos contained in this post may cause garden envy.  Use extreme caution if viewing within driving distance of an open garden center.***

Master Gardener \ ˈmas-tər ˈgärd-nər \: 1) A title worthy of respect and admiration 2) One of my life goals 3) Owner of an amazing private garden

Perhaps amazing is an understatement — it certainly would be if all of their gardens look like the ones I toured on the 2018 Johnson County Master Gardeners Tour.  The 7 gardens on display were like something straight out of a magazine.  If you were in need of garden inspiration, this was the place to get it.  (And I certainly did!) Continue Reading

Raised vegetable garden bed with seed packets

Late Summer Project: Raised Garden Beds

I don’t know about you, but for me, Pinterest-inspired projects rarely turn out as wonderful as I have pictured in my head.  I’m not sure if the cause of this Pinterest/Reality gap is exceptional photography, an inflated assessment of my abilities, minor execution error, or some combination of all of the above, but I continue to use the site to inspire my project list.  And good thing I do, because my latest Pinterest-inspired project turned out better than I could have imagined! Continue Reading

Shade garden with gravel path

July Garden Update – dealing with drought, building a lotus bog, and adding a focal point

How is it late July already?  Between a new role at work, family in town, and various gardening activities, I’ve been slacking on the blog posts.  Don’t judge me too harshly, though; while I’ve not been writing, I haven’t forgotten about you — I’ve been out touring gardens, working on my garden, and taking lots of pictures (which means I should have plenty of awesomeness to help us get through winter next year!) But for now, I thought I should share a mid-summer garden update.   Continue Reading

Lessons at (and from) the Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens

Botanical gardens are amazing classrooms; kids can learn to appreciate the natural world, adults can learn to look up from our smartphones and appreciate the present, and gardeners can learn that it’s easy to have a beautiful garden when you have an army of staff and volunteers!

Beyond the lesson that we should give ourselves a break and not compare our own gardens with those that have full-time caretakers, we can pick up a few other ideas that are easier to implement than finding money in the budget for a full-time gardener. Continue Reading

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

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

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