From the category archives:

Hardscaping and Projects

What I am doing differently this year

May 14, 2009

Dottie over at D and G Gardens and Crafts blog asked me what I was doing differently this year in my garden. I’d have to say there are no dramatic changes, just a shift in emphasis. I’m trying to work harder at maintaining what I have, rather than adding a lot of new plants. I [...]

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Hand-painted Adirondack chairs build community spirit in Clinton, NY

January 27, 2009

If you’re looking for a way to jazz up your garden this summer, you would do well to follow the example of the good people of Clinton, NY. For the past two years, the Clinton Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the Kirkland Art Center (KAC), have been running an event they call Art Rocks. [...]

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The No-Dig Garden Experiment

September 30, 2008

It all started when Jenn said my new bird bath needed some phlox. “Gosh, she’s right,” I mused. “And I have some bright pink phlox in the front bed that I want to move out before I dig out the goldenrod infestation. Those pink phlox would look perfect by the bird bath.”
Bird bath transforms septic [...]

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What a Garden Project in Progress Looks Like

July 10, 2008

One of the things I did in June was tackle a part of the north border that had never been cultivated. I had dumped leaves there for several years, but otherwise whatever the birds planted that could tolerate shade was growing there: garlic mustard, aster, goldenrod, creeping bellflower, and jewelweed.
My goal was nothing less than [...]

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Birdbaths at the Ithaca Agway

April 28, 2008

On April 19th I met my sister in Ithaca, NY. She is a graduate of Cornell University, and has made many visits since then. We were going to the ACNARGS meeting in the afternoon, but first she wanted to show me a few of her favorite places.
One of the places she wanted to take me [...]

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The Fence that Isn’t a Fence: Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop

December 29, 2007

I have always loved picket fences. They just look so neat and orderly, and they let flowers peek through. When we first moved here I would look out the window and daydream about a picket fence around the front and at least part way up the sides of our property. I would debate within my [...]

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Glug, glug, glug

November 16, 2006

Upstate NY is drowning! At least, my county is. It’s been raining all week, so the ground was saturated, and then this afternoon it really started raining! Must be the kind of downpour they get in Texas all the time. I can’t even check how fast it was coming down, because everyone in town is [...]

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Earth-sheltered Greenhouse

October 23, 2006

Here are plans to make an Earth-sheltered Greenhouse from a man in Idaho. He actually built it into the side of a hill to help moderate the temperatures inside. It looks like he dug it all out by hand. (Click on Image Gallery for close-ups.) He must have wanted vegetables badly! I’m pretty sure if [...]

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Homemade EarthBoxes(TM)

March 28, 2006

Thanks to Reading Dirt, here are instructions to make a Homemade EarthBox(TM), which is a type of self-watering planter.

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Build a Garden Bench

March 10, 2006

There are lots of spots on our property that need a bench that don’t have one yet. The most I’ve done so far to rectify this is to collect plans for building garden benches. Yesterday I got the latest issue of Lowe’s self-published magazine, The Woodpost. (You can sign up here if you’re interested.) In [...]

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Renovating a Garden: Where to Start?

February 22, 2006

Donna Marie emailed:
I am desperate! I have recently bought a property with a huge front and back garden. Both gardens are completely overgrown. Huge bramble bushes and unidentified shrubs loom out at me each time I walk out onto the tired old patio at the back of the house. The [...]

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I can’t believe I did this

February 12, 2006

I’ve wanted a birdbath for a long time, but most birdbaths I’ve seen just didn’t appeal to me. They either seemed too crude or too faddish, and every single one that didn’t look shoddy was too expensive. I really liked the classical good looks of this one, but it was $375 in an upscale catalog, [...]

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Garden Whimsy

January 26, 2006

Art in the garden. Just hearing that phrase brings to my mind classical statues reigning from alcoves sculpted into centuries-old hedges, or huge, abstract monoliths sitting on perfectly manicured lawns, both completely alien to my way of thinking and my way of life. But there is also garden art that is more casual, personal–eccentric, even–and [...]

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