In the Garden

Fall is here, the colors are beautiful, the temperature is perfect, and all is well…until the leaves start to fall. We are tree lovers most of the time, but there sure are a lot of leaves to deal with right now! Solutions include gathering the fall leaves and putting them into … [Read more...] about Too Many Fall Leaves? Build A Compost Bin!

This next project was pretty much a no brainer. Once the Heirloom Garden Bench and the Flagstone Garden Retreat were completed, it was clear that there was a need for a bit of color and more natural beauty in the space. Fortunately, I remembered we had an old … [Read more...] about Making A Rusty Iron Planter Beautiful Again

My woodland garden, like most gardens, is a work in progress. It seems that I’m continually dividing and moving plants, adding new varieties, and clearing spent blooms and dried leaves. Often I’ll just go there to walk around, relax, and observe the latest changes. Our family has … [Read more...] about Building A Flagstone Patio as a Garden Retreat

As a student of gardening for quite a while now, I read a lot, attend classes, and regularly get head-to-toe-dirty while working in my yard. And, even though I often have questions, I’ve developed a bit of confidence in my ability to maintain healthy garden beds and keep our … [Read more...] about Should I Put Used Coffee Grounds On My Garden?

When fall arrived, it seemed that everywhere I looked in my garden, I saw dried plants offering up a bounty of seeds.  Some seedpods were bursting with seeds and seemed eager to be gathered and separated for planting next year.  Collecting seeds is a great way … [Read more...] about How To Collect And Store Your Favorite Plant Seeds

We finished building a rain barrel stand to support our 58-gallon water barrel. Now, its time to install the rain barrel and a downspout diverter to collect rainwater from the roof. We're using a solid base of pavers to safely support both the stand and a full rain barrel. By … [Read more...] about How To Install A Rain Barrel To Collect Rainwater From Your Roof

We had just started the process of installing our new barrel stand and rain barrel when the project came to a quick stop. We discovered a sizable hole in the side of the plastic drainpipe at the base of the downspout.  The damaged flexible pipe was allowing water to … [Read more...] about Replacing A Broken Flexible Drainpipe

I was fortunate to spend my most formative years in the country. During elementary and high school years as well as college breaks I enjoyed our 30 acres of land as well as the adjoining farmland. Crops filled some fields, but there were still plenty of open woods with trails to … [Read more...] about Build A Deer Fence That Works And Looks Good

My neighbor called me one afternoon and told me that her husband had just seen a very tall tree fall over in my backyard! I thanked her for calling and quickly went to check it out. I didn't hear when the Wild Cherry tree fell, but I was still concerned about the potential … [Read more...] about Our Wild Cherry Tree Fell Down!

It's January, a new year with lots of possibilities ahead. My place of choice to contemplate this sort of thing is in my garden. So, I headed outside to get a close-up view of my winter garden. I was curious to see how the shade loving plants as well as those on the sunnier side … [Read more...] about A Close-up View Of My Winter Garden