An update for November, 2024
Read MoreThe leaves on the Amelanchier canadensis in the Wildlife Garden are glorious!
I'm so glad I live in a World where there are Octobers...
An October update plus tips for your October garden
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Sweetpeas in September? Evidently!
Hooray for September!
Hello!
So I know many of you enthusiastically planted sweet peas with me back in the spring. And I’m wondering how your sweet peas turned out.
Mine: not so much!
There are a few things that I think contributed to my sweet pea failures.
Timing. I planted them out late. I had LOTS of seedlings, but I was worried about a late frost, so I kept them in The Greenhouse too long. I should have planted them out in the ground sooner.
Shade. I love where I planted them, but I don’t think they get enough sun. Not until the vines got taller. So I may have to move them for next year.
Soil. I didn’t add compost to the soil where my sweet peas were growing this year, and I think that would have helped. Compost holds in moisture and it provides slow-release nutrition, too. So next year: a good layer of compost.
At any rate, after all of that work, I got about SIX sweet pea blooms — and they didn’t start blooming until nearly the end of August. That is just strange.
So, lessons learned for next year! I was so worried about them roasting that I think I babied them too much!
I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend! Here’s to a fabulous month ahead!
September Resources for you:
Cheers!
Angela
Wondering where to find me? Here’s the breakdown:
Stories: daily project updates
Reels & Posts: a few times per week, bigger project updates and lots of gardening education
Highlights: plant and product recommendations, project updates collected in one place
YouTube: I am hanging out here a lot more of late!
Longform Videos: monthly Gardening Checklists, gardening education, big project recaps
Shortform Videos: a few times per week, bigger project updates and lots of gardening education
Blog and Website: you are HERE!
Pages: big project recaps, how-to projects, reviews, and idea lists; use the search and the top navigation to find all kinds of goodies!
Blog: monthly updates with links to new content
ORC blog: weekly updates when a project is underway
The Dog Days of Summer
Friends,
I hope you are staying cool because it is HOT out there! Yowza! We are having such a hot and dry summer that it has been unpleasant and really unsettling. Here in a climate where wild fires are worrying, I am watching the weather every day. Phew!
I am also in the pool every single day! And if you are wishing you had a pool this summer, it isn’t too late. Don’t forget about my DIY Stock Tank Pool Guide which has all of the details about how to set up your own stock tank pool.
Our latest DIY project: an outdoor kitchen! It was a simple DIY project, and with the help of Lowe’s, my sponsor, we are now cooking outside for every meal. It’s so much better than heating up the house!! Check out what we did here:
Hoping you are well!
Cheers!
Angela
Wondering where to find me? Here’s the breakdown:
Stories: daily project updates
Reels & Posts: a few times per week, bigger project updates and lots of gardening education
Highlights: plant and product recommendations, project updates collected in one place
YouTube: I am hanging out here a lot more of late!
Longform Videos: monthly Gardening Checklists, gardening education, big project recaps
Shortform Videos: a few times per week, bigger project updates and lots of gardening education
Blog and Website: you are HERE!
Pages: big project recaps, how-to projects, reviews, and idea lists; use the search and the top navigation to find all kinds of goodies!
Blog: monthly updates with links to new content
ORC blog: weekly updates when a project is underway
July Update
An update on our deck project
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June is Bustin' Out All Over!
Hello!!
I mean, seriously! June is Bustin’ Out All Over here — the roses have been blooming for a few days (early) and are overlapping with the peonies and the gardens are positively humming with bees and bugs of every kind. It’s glorious!
As I suspected, we did not even come close to finishing the ORC. Oh, well! Someday that laundry room will look grand, but for now I have too much gardening and too many other projects happening all at once.
Here’s the June project list:
New Deck: this is a BIG one! The demolition of our old concrete patio is done, and we have started to put in the footings. I’m so excited about this project! It’s the last big piece in our backyard master plan, and it’s going to be fabulous. This project is sponsored by Tanzite, a Canadian stone decking company, and we are anxiously awaiting delivery of our materials.
To follow along: updates in Instagram stories several times per week, and I’ll have other content coming, too.
Waterwise Lawns: have you watched Rebecca McMackin’s TedTalk about lawns and native plantings? If you haven’t, do! It’s wonderful. My favorite quote in her talk: “Lawns should be area rugs, not wall-to-wall carpet.” I could not agree more! And we are taking on what is left of a lawn in both our front and back yards this month. It’s a little insane, frankly, but I can’t wait to show you how this will unfold. We will use two different approaches — both waterwise and both DIY. More on that to come, too. This is a partnership with my friends at High Country Gardens, too.
To follow along: updates in Instagram stories once we start the work, and I’ll have a big blog post and video guide when it is all done.
Phew! If we get through all of this in one piece, It will be quite the accomplishment! But it’s going to be a good month of progress, completion, and change!
As always, I have a monthly checklist for you, too! Here’s your June Gardening Checklist! And please do me a favor: every like and subscribe really helps a small account like mine. Will you please click the link, like and subscribe? That would mean the world to me!
I welcome questions and queries, and I’m so thankful for your ongoing love and support! Happy spring!!
Love,
Angela
Wondering where to find me? Here’s the breakdown:
Stories: daily project updates
Reels & Posts: a few times per week, bigger project updates and lots of gardening education
Highlights: plant and product recommendations, project updates collected in one place
YouTube: I am hanging out here a lot more of late!
Longform Videos: monthly Gardening Checklists, gardening education, big project recaps
Shortform Videos: a few times per week, bigger project updates and lots of gardening education
Blog and Website: you are HERE!
Pages: big project recaps, how-to projects, reviews, and idea lists; use the search and the top navigation to find all kinds of goodies!
Blog: monthly updates with links to new content
ORC blog: weekly updates when a project is underway
May I Bend Your Ear?
My gracious! It’s been quite the month!
First things first: the ORC is just not happening. There’s still time to get it done, but we have too many projects happening consecutively AND it is Maycemeber — if you have kids in school, you know what THAT means! So, the laundry room is partially done and is very much on hold.
Yes, I’m loving having countertop in my entryway, thanks for asking!
But what am I doing?
Well, let’s talk about it!
To begin, we are just a few weeks away from the one-year anniversary of the Wildlife Garden project, and I am taking stock of this big project with all kinds of content coming including plant lists, planting instructions, and a whole lot more! So stay tuned!
Additionally, we are getting ready for a HUGE backyard project — the last piece in our master plan. I’ll be unrolling this on Instagram, so be sure you’re following me there for all of the details!
And then there’s all of the busyness of gardening in May! That’s one of the things about gardening in Colorado — there is a lot of hurry-up-and-wait-now- GO! With late spring snowstorms and freezes, it feels like May is an absolute avalanche of gardening work!
So there we are!
Wondering where to find me? Here’s the breakdown:
Instagram:
Stories: daily project updates
Reels & Posts: a few times per week, bigger project updates and lots of gardening education
Highlights: plant and product recommendations, project updates collected in one place
YouTube: I am hanging out here a lot more of late!
Longform Videos: monthly Gardening Checklists, gardening education, big project recaps
Shortform Videos: a few times per week, bigger project updates and lots of gardening education
Blog and Website: you are HERE!
Pages: big project recaps, how-to projects, reviews, and idea lists; use the search and the top navigation to find all kinds of goodies!
Blog: monthly updates with links to new content
ORC blog: weekly updates when a project is underway
As always, I welcome questions and queries, and I’m so thankful for your ongoing love and support! Happy spring!!
Love,
Angela
A field of Texas Bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) near Dallas last weekend
April is for Gardeners
Here’s your April Gardening Checklist!
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