MONDAY MUSINGS

I'm sure you're confused about what Monday Musings are. Well, they are Friday Finds when you were too busy on Friday to do Friday Finds but didn't want to wait a whole week to share some goodies. And god forbid I not use alliteration in a headline.

I decorated the house for fall.

Yep, that's it. I've never been much a theme decorator beyond Christmas. I hate storing decorations. Decor that can go in the compost pile suits me well.

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Margaret Roach has an excellent post/podcast on the proper way to plant trees. A lot of the thinking on this has changed in recent years and I find myself frequently in the position of defending the "new way" of planting trees and shrubs.

Few people are fortunate enough to have big windows in their basements, but even without them this space would be pretty darn fab.

I've been listening to Monty Don ("Gardeners' World" presenter and Britain's favorite gardener, or so they say) narrate his new book Nigel: My Family and Other Dogs. Monty is quite a talented writer and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing him narrate this book, which is rarely how I feel about author-narrated audio books. It is about the dogs he's shared his life with and quite a bit about his garden as well. In it, he works his way through the life and times of most of the dogs he's shared his life with, which means it also deals with their deaths and shed tears more than a few times while listening. If you're a dog lover you will too, but with such an enjoyable read/listen, it's worth it. I highly recommend it, especially if you're a gardener who happens to share their life with dogs.

I struggle with hair products but have settled more or less into a few things that work for me. But I was struggling to find something to use occasionally as a clarifying product. After reading a lot of good reviews I gave this "purifying scrub" a try. It's got a weird texture (like a body scrub), but it does lather up and my hair has never felt cleaner. My stylist has been encouraging me to stop washing my hair every day, and I try, but I don't love it. With this there was absolutely no need to wash my hair the next day. This stuff is crazy expensive but you don't need much and it is so worth it.

Our downstairs bathroom vanity. 

This is a pretty amazing round up of bathroom vanities. I hope to never need one again, but something like this sure would have come in handy when we were redoing our bathroom. In the end, Mr. Much More Patient helped build one custom because we had to keep it very shallow.

FRIDAY FINDS

Well, in case you didn't figure out it after the absence following my last post, I did make it to Florida, although by the time you read this I'll be on my way home. It was a short trip but at this time of year, any bit of sunshine and warmth is welcome.

Speaking of warmth, the USDA has changed the plant hardiness map again. I think the last change was just a couple years ago and there were some rather drastic changes. This is a nice map because you can enter you zip code and get a close-up view of your zone (after you get through an annoying captcha code).

Are you sick of me talking about Monty Don yet? If not, here's my Monty man talking about nurturing the soil and our fellow human beings.

Here's some great advice to consider before buying a rose.

And if you need to be doing some gardening, well Heather has a few suggestions of things you can be doing now.

This is a fascinating interview about willows. I can't say I've ever thought too much of the lowly willow but this has me rethinking that opinion.

And I leave you this Friday with a glimpse of some of the lovely orchids I saw at the Naples Botanical Garden. That lady slipper in particular was absolutely amazing.

BRITISH GARDENING TELEVISION FANS, HAVE I GOT SOMETHING FOR YOU

I can't tell you how happy I am that so many of you have been enjoying the British gardening television shows I've been linking to for the last year. It makes me feel like a normal human being, because when I see a new show pop up on my Youtube feed, I get downright giddy, immediately drop everything I'm doing and sit down and watch it.

And I found another one that I think you'll really like. It's called "Monty Don's Big Dreams, Small Spaces." Just the title encompasses so many things that I love: Monty Don? Obsessed. Big Dreams? Well, yeah, who doesn't have big gardening dreams? Small Spaces: Check.

Sadly there are only five of the hour-long shows. Each episode features two families who are creating new gardens over the course of a year. My man Monty shows up in the beginning to help them with their plans, once or twice in the middle of the project to pitch in and then comes back a year later to see how the garden ended up. The gardens ranged from low-budget overalls to $20,000 dream gardens. Some of the concepts and designs were downright strange, but to Monty's credit, even though you knew he was thinking, 'This is not going to work,' he never tried to talk people out of their dream garden but tried to help them make the design more practical.

So here's my question: What would you do if Monty Don or any other serious gardening expert came to your garden and suggested ways you could improve it? I know I'd be taking notes and probably doing exactly what they suggested. I found it interesting that that's not the case in this series. There were some homeowners who were so set in their plans, no matter how impractical, that they weren't going to listen to a thing Monty said. That sort of blows my mind.

Anyway, give it a watch and see what you think of it. I like it because it's gardening on a bit more approachable level.

And I have even better news for you. I figured out how to set up a Youtube channel with playlists of all my favorite gardening shows. So now you don't have to wade through a mass of links in posts. You can just go to the channel. I got most of the shows I've mentioned before linked there into playlists by show and I'll add more as I find them.

I've added the latest in "The Great British Garden Revival" to that playlist and you may want to check out a show that is airing on a different network called "Show Me Your Garden." There's only one episode up so far but I'll be on the lookout for more. The quality isn't as good as in the BBC shows, unfortunately.

It sounds like "Gardener's World" is set to return in March, which seems like it's ages away.