Each Christmas I try to create some of the gifts and decorations for our family. It usually saves money and I really feel the spirit of Christmas as I work on my projects. This year, one of the things I tried was an outdoor decorative arrangement for the front entry. To be honest, I got […]
Garden Notes
Easy Composting
I grew up in northern Wisconsin on a farm. My parents did their composting very simply. All coffee grounds, ashes from the wood stove and kitchen scraps were put on a pile just over a hill behind the house. Of course this was not very attractive. In the spring, my mom would spread out the […]
Fountain Grass – Pennnisetum Hameln
One of the best things about having friends who garden is the selection of great plants that are always being shared. I firmly believe that when you get a new plant from a friend, it always does well. My reasoning is that the plant being shared is already thriving in your area’s soil and water […]
December Spring?
I was clearing out some of the overgrown brush in my garden when I noticed a few flowers blooming on my forsythia shrubs and was dumbfounded. I do know that we’ve had strange weather this year, a few really cold and frosty nights in November and now weather that has been unseasonably warm with quite […]
A Path Less Traveled
When we moved into our new home, I noticed that unlike the eastside Milwaukee duplex where I had lived previously, this new home had a really wide overhang. That in turn produced an area close to the house where nothing grew due to lack of moisture. That empty dirt space looked weird to me so […]
Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’
Rudbeckia (Black-Eyed Susan) is a long-blooming plant with lots of golden orange black-eyed daisies that create a bright spot of color for many weeks in late summer. Their coarsely textured, hairy leaves make it easy to distinguish rudbeckia from coneflowers who otherwise look very similar. Easy to grow, rudbeckia naturalize well and require little maintenance. […]