Pick up most gardening books and you are likely to see the proverbial ‘blank slate’ touted somewhere in its pages as being A Good Thing. In most cases, it is – as anyone who has had to either hew down, or pay someone to remove, the other “proverbial” which is ‘mature trees’ that one doesn’t…
Gardeners are nothing if not resourceful, and unless one has money to burn (hint: Not me!) we always have that “Where/how can I use this?” question in the back of our minds. Not long ago it popped up in mine and although it took a little bit of time – okay, well, more like a…
Yes, despite the time of year I really did mean to type ‘projects’ instead of ‘presents’ … although being able to cross some things off my TGGR List does feel much like a gift! About two weeks ago I was able to have a few more taken care of, although not by any means completed.…
Our hot humid weather stands in stark contrast to the glacial pace of my attempts to move forward on the renovation work needed in both house and garden. It’s not for lack of trying; the first hurdle is getting estimates, but the worst hurdle is actually getting the work done. I’ve accepted the fact that…
Before embarking on any Money Pit remodeling tales of woe, I’d like to share a tale that had a happy ending (with apologies to Dr. Seuss for the title, even though the sheds in question are neither red nor blue.) Old Shed This 8’x12’ shed came with the house and had been passed down as…
I had every intention (you know, the kind the road to hell is paved with) of writing this TGGR* report in late April. It was going to be a two-parter, showing the front and back yard areas separately; I even took numerous pictures of the then-full-of-potential areas so that I could describe my plans for…
One result of last December’s Massacre of the Not-So-Innocents was that a Japanese maple previously shouldered aside by a hefty oak is now fully exposed to view from all sides. To be honest I’d barely noticed it before, but now it’s visually unavoidable. And, of course, the poor thing never had a chance to grow…
The Great Garden Renovation, hereinafter referred to as TGGR (pronounced “tigger”) resumed in earnest late last month as winter appeared to be slowly departing. I say “appeared” because gigantic snowflakes are falling fast and furious as I type this, with about 6″ expected. But at least there was one day in February when I could…
The Chatsworth Lady 