I heard that lovely “beep…beep…beep” sound today that I associate with spring. No, it wasn’t a bird call. It was Chris, my UPS driver backing up after dropping off two big boxes of bulbs. Spring! I love to walk around with the little dogs and see nature awake. I snapped my annual shot of a cute [...]

I have been doing a little bit of blog housekeeping this week. There is so much more I need to do, but I’m here to tell you that I finally finished up (I think) the 2012 garden album.  From the composite page you can click on a photo to see a bigger picture. If you [...]

Well, right now it’s pretty dang cold. But my heart is warm this Valentine’s Day. I’ll be a cooking fool preparing food to take to my parents’ house this weekend. And then there’s that romantic dinner. Happy Valentine’s Day. Robin

I’m sitting here with seed and plant catalogs scattered around–Plant Delights, Botanical Interests, Baker Creek, Cook’s Garden, John Scheepers… My Lee Valley 10-Year Garden Journal is open to February. My Excel spread sheet plant inventory is open on my computer screen. The collection I affectionately refer to as my Seed Vault is on the floor under [...]

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that most people’s garages aren’t all that attractive. Unless you’re one of the 1% who has a warehouse garage with sparkling stainless steel cabinets and shiny painted floors or are one of those weirdly disciplined people who don’t ever let clutter get out of [...]

I used an online random number generator to pick the winner of the $50 Lowes gift card. The giveaway goes to Kelly, another mom of two Papillons, Betsy and Ella. Congratulations Kelly! My brother actually won the first round. But his comment wasn’t even the kind of loving comment I told all my Facebook friends to [...]

Don’t miss the Lowe’s Creative Ideas $50 gift card giveaway on the mums post here. Just leave a comment and you could win.

Later on this evening we’re having a big birthday celebration Chez Bumblebee. It’s my husband’s mmmmm birthday celebration and I want to do it up right. His favorite meal. Favorite wine. Favorite cake. Candles. Flowers. Oh, and those flowers? We have some mums! Mums might be the Rodney Dangerfield of the flower world. They don’t [...]

Some of nature’s wonders require that you stop, pause and look closely. This isn’t one of them. There’s a reason the Buddleia is called a butterfly bush. It’s covered in swallowtail butterflies! This butterfly bush is the Buddleia davidii ‘White Splendour’ (I think). It is approximately 8′ in diameter and nearly 10′ tall. It was relocated a [...]

Who doesn’t live an iPhone? But what can it do? This is a simple test using a photo and WordPress apps to share some of what’s blooming here. Hello? Are you there?

In the past two days: Time spent in the garden: 0 Time spent exercising: 0 This has got to stop.  All work and no play makes Robin a very flabby gardener. Robin

It’s hot. The chickens are panting. The garden looks thirsty. The gardener is crabby. Robin

Dear People Who Keep Contacting Me About Guest Posts: Here’s my answer: No. Details: This is my personal garden journal. The only time I have ever had a guest blogger is when my 12 lb dog Sophie grabbed my computer to complain about me. Analysis: I’m not someone you want to mess with. After all, [...]

I love my pet chickens. I don’t always love what they do to my garden. If you have visited here before, you may know that I’m in the habit of letting the chickens go on walkabout for a few hours in the late afternoon and early evening. This is the time of day they have [...]

Remember spring? April, May and June were so very lovely. Winter departed early giving us a chance to get outdoors, tidy and plant our veggies weeks before we would normally consider emerging from inside. I, for one, was exhilarated by the fireflies in April, the balmy May breezes, the lovely June evenings eating dinner on the patio. [...]

There is so much to be done in the garden this weekend. But before I head out into the humid heat, I thought I would just share a few updates from the garden. June is hydrangea season around here. The two Nikko Blue hydrangeas situated at the back of the house are heavy with blooms. [...]

If you’re interested in the DIY projects some of my fellow garden bloggers and I are doing for Lowe’s Creative Ideas, here’s a roundup of the May posts: Robin’s Nesting Place – Sprucing Up Foam Planters Robin’s Nesting Place – Rockin’ Hummingbird Garden Our Little Acre – Pipe Dream Planter – see May 28, 2012 [...]

I am, by nature, a very tidy person. ”Everything has a place. Everything in it’s place.” That’s my motto. But tidy in the garden can be a little difficult to accomplish sometimes. Unlike some plants in my garden, my shoes don’t grow and grow until they are tumbling out of the closet. My books stay tidily [...]

I am a fool for heavy pots—I mean containers. Clay pots, iron pots, wooden pots, concrete pots. I like pots that won’t blow away in the wind and that make you think twice about rearranging the garden furniture. So during this, My DIY Summer*, I vowed to begin my quest with my new-found fascination with [...]

2012 is the year of My DIY Summer. That’s right. If I can do it myself, I’m doing it myself. I am going to be digging, building, painting, fixing and whatever for the next few months. By happy coincidence, I’ll also be a Lowe’s Creative Ideas blogger this summer. My May project is underway in the [...]