Recycle. Repurpose. Reuse.
In my mid-20's I became interested in both hostas and heirloom garden plants. My boyfriend at the time owned his abandoned family home. He told me about a hosta that his late mother had planted there many years before and he encouraged me to dig one up and replant it in my own tiny flower… Continue reading Discovering Hosta plantaginea ‘Grandiflora’: “The August Lily”
Winters in Northeast Ohio can be brutal. A visit to the glasshouse at the Cleveland Botanical Garden will warm your spirit and offer an escape to make you forget the snow and ice-covered landscape outside. The winter show, “Orchid Mania” is held annually. Whether or not you have ever had any desire to grow orchids,… Continue reading “Orchid Mania” at the Cleveland Botanical Garden
You don't like tomatoes? If your only experience with them are tomatoes from the grocery store or the wedges you get in your restaurant salad, well then, I'd have to say that I can't blame you. What passes for a tomato in most places during most of the year is a tasteless fraud with a… Continue reading It’s Time to Plant the Tomatoes! (Even if you Don’t Like Them)
Once in a while I manage to interest my husband into building something for me. Over the years, my bookish professor/writer has turned out to be a halfway decent carpenter. With warm weather finally arriving, he wandered into the barn this weekend where he found some cast off pieces to be just right for crafting a… Continue reading Recycling Cast-Offs Into Handcrafted Garden Benches
I'm usually too busy to make garden art during the summer. The dead of winter, however, is a great time to look ahead and fashion some artwork for the yard. This past weekend I dug around through the pile of scrap wood in the barn and put together and painted this travel sign. It's nothing… Continue reading Looking Ahead to Garden Art
There was an old outhouse on our property when we bought it. This summer, in an effort to save it, my husband put on a new roof and gave the outside a coat of paint. Then I went to work on the inside. It isn't really usable. There is no "hole." But it's a great piece… Continue reading Check out our old outhouse project!
After a new well pump, a $3000 investment in a water system, and fighting the battle of low water/no water for several months, a city water line came past our house. We bit the bullet, disconnected our new investments, and tapped into the new line. Water problem solved. In the fall, I started digging flower… Continue reading Pack it up and Move on in — part 4: A Patio Project and a Garden Fence
The driveway garden was a puzzle. From the day we moved into the house, we had no idea how we were going to address the small grassy area on the street side of our driveway which is backed by a hedge of spring blooming forsythia. Both dry and shady because it was beneath a thick branched… Continue reading The Low Maintenance Garden Experiment: Dry and Shady Driveway Border
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