Garden Journal

This is a sampling of what’s actually blooming now: Mount Tacoma, Angelique and Blue Diamond tulips, pulmonaria (Raspberry Splash, I think), jacob’s ladder, and Jack Frost brunnera, which really brightens up a shady corner. The Mount Tacoma white double tulip is an heirloom, pre-1924; I like to think that it’s happy to be here, with […]

These are from a few weeks ago; it got a bit hectic here! Viburnum, first in bud and then in bloom, peach blooms and apple (I think? maybe cherry?) buds, checkered fritillary with Ollioules tulips. The viburnum had a lovely scent; the peach buds are just a ridiculously pretty color.    

Our local garden club had a topiary workshop last week — super fun. You start with a form, stuff it with damp moss, wrap more damp moss around the frame and tie it on with fishing line, which disappears into the moss. Then you use a dibbler (bulb planter – you can get them and

It’s usually difficult to get a full pic of the house and garden because there are cars in the way of where you’d want to stand, but yesterday, a space actually opened up. So here’s about the best moment of the year in my garden — it was just a little better a few days

This morning, I took the tropicals outside — it’s a lovely feeling. The house now feels less crowded (it’s a Victorian, so the rooms are small, and seem even smaller when crowded with my tropical plants over the winter), and the back deck is full of inviting greenery now. (Also some party detritus, which I

Two nice neighbors this morning — one of them apologetically explained to me that the hyacinth she was picking from my garden was one that a dog had knocked over and broken (totally fine, of course, but it was a funny moment), and then said, “You know your house is our favorite.” And then another,

Hellebores are never boring.  

I feel like I’m finally moving from a beginner gardener to an intermediate one, along with my garden, which is five years old this May and started to look not entirely spotty. A lot of what I’m doing these days isn’t adding new plants, but moving and tending the ones I have — pruning back

If you know any Chicagoans, you’ve probably heard them complaining about our recent weather. It’s not just been a long winter, which we’ve had before — it’s a weird one. For a day, we’ll think it’s spring — last week, temperatures climbed up to 70 degrees. And then it storms, or hails, or, like last

I know I said last week was the best week in my garden, but I think it’s actually this week. Or possibly the one after that. Asking a gardener to choose a favorite week is like asking a reader to name her favorite book — cruel, and unnecessary. Each week brings its own sweet glories