THE SUN SETS ON 2016

For most of my life, the start of a new year has been an "eh" moment. It's going to happen whether I like it or not, I don't find the year that's ending to have been particularly better or worse than most other years. Although I'm always hopeful for a good year ahead, I don't generally feel more hopeful than I did the previous year.

But this New Year's Eve is different. 2016 really was kind of a bummer. Of course there were wonderful high points (we won an important sailboat race we've been competing in for years and have gotten so close to winning before but never had), and a lot of just good things (my family is healthy, I life in a house I love and through this blog I was able to meet and work with truly wonderful people), but from a global perspective 2016 was sort of a drag.

I can think of no other picture from this year that is more suitable for New Year's Eve. As the moon sets on 2016, the sun rises on 2017. It's gonna be a good year, dammit. 

2017 will be a year of change for us personally. There has been a series of events in our personal lives late in 2016 that mean new starts in 2017, and although that can be scary, I'm terribly excited about it. As for the blog, I have ideas for new features that I can't wait to roll out. I can honestly say I've not been this excited for the start of a new year for a very long time, and whether that's because parts of 2016 were a downright bummer or because I'm expecting so many exciting new things in 2017, I can't say and I guess it doesn't really matter.

I've never been a fan of most New Year's Eve celebrations, but as we've done on occasion in the past, we'll get together with some neighbors to celebrate. I can't even guarantee that we'll officially ring in the new year because I have reached a point where I don't need to see midnight to toast the coming year, but we'll be with friends (and we can walk home).

And when Sunday dawns, it'll be 2017. I can't wait. Odds are I will end up painting a wall January 1. Not only does it need to be done, it seems very appropriate for the start of a new year.

Thank you for swinging by this space this year. It's a privilege to have so many people reading about my trials and tribulations and my occasional ramblings. I know sometimes there are typos (let's be honest, most of these posts are written after 11 p.m.) and you're very nice people not to point them out to me. I hope you'll hang with me next year too.

Now ... tell me about your New Year's Eve plans and how you're feeling about 2017! 

2015: A GARDENER'S YEAR IN REVIEW

There are just two hours left in 2015 and although I might be a just bit late on pulling together a little 2015 retrospective, I'd be remiss in not doing so.

In January I talked about the perennial of the year for 2015: Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Biokovo'. I love that plant then and I love it now. And it's still on any list of easy-to-grow plants that I'd recommend for just about any garden.

In February, I prepped for seed-starting season by interviewing Renee Shepherd of Renee's Garden Seeds. She is a font of knowledge on everything from garden trends and the best way to grow vegetables. 

In March I kicked off my partnership with Troy-Bilt as a member of their Saturday 6 team with a trip to Charleston, South Carolina, that had me completely falling for the place. 

I also told you about the one vegetable that everyone should grow. 

April saw us finishing up the biggest DIY project of the year: the garage pergola. We have gotten a ton of compliments on it and I really love it. 

Gardening season was starting up again in May and I took the opportunity to talk about one of my favorite things when I offered my Guide to Window Box Design. 

                          

In June I found myself at one of my favorite blogger's gardens and it was so great to see it in person after feeling like I know it from reading Linda's blog. And meeting an online friend in person is always a great time. 

It's becoming a bit of a July tradition for me to visit the great garden at the Hotel Iroquois on Mackinac Island. Every year it's different and it's always fun to see it. 

2015 will be forever known as the year I really fell in love with sweet peas and in August I shared a little info about how I grew them. 

In September I shared four things to do in your garden to ensure a better garden next year. 

October was when I discovered how helpful Google Earth can be in identifying design issues in your garden. I'm still working on a plan to fix the issues I identified then. 

It was finally time to go back inside in November and took on a pretty gross cleaning project that made such a difference: cleaning the fireplace surround. 

And suddenly it was December and once I got over how quickly the year flew by, I shared my tips for the real person's guide to renovating. 

And here we are, minutes away from 2016. I look forward to another chance to right my gardening wrongs, try out exciting new projects and get to know you wonderful people. 2015 was pretty darn great, so let the fun continue in 2016.

Happy new year to all you wonderful people out there! I truly appreciate you spending a little bit of your day here.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS FOR GARDENERS

Traditional new year's resolutions are for the birds, as far as I'm concerned. I gave up making them ages ago. Basically, I try to be a better person than I was the year before.

But I thought it might be fun to make a few resolutions for gardeners. These are specific to me, but I suspect they translate well to most other gardeners.

1. I WILL NOT TAKE ON MORE GARDENING THAN I CAN REASONABLY HANDLE.
I will not get caught up in my zeal for gardening and plan new gardens and garden renovations and 89 new container plantings in February and then actually try to execute them when June comes.

(I totally will. It cannot be helped).

2. I WILL NOT BEAT MYSELF UP WHEN I TAKE ON MORE GARDENING THAN I SHOULD HAVE.
There are worse things in life than being optimistic about your garden.

3. I WILL ACCEPT THAT GARDENS ARE EVER CHANGING IT AND WILL NEVER BE FINISHED OR PERFECT.
There is no better cure for perfectionism than to become a gardener.

There will still be some weeds, and a bare spot here and there. Seeds will grow where they shouldn't and won't grow where they should. Shrubs will stay as small as I expected or grow as large as I had hoped. And it will all be OK. I will strive to accept that joy in gardening comes from the doing, not in it being done.

4. I WILL CLEAN MY TOOLS WHEN I'M FINISHED WITH THEM.
Every time.

5. I WILL SEEK INSPIRATION IN OTHER GARDENS.
A garden that belongs to a gardener who never saw another garden could never be as beautiful as one that belongs to a gardener who takes a little piece of everything he or she sees and brings it home.

Are you making any resolutions for 2015?

2014: A YEAR IN REVIEW

Wow, how did it get to be December 31 already? It seems like the year just flew by. Come to think if it, since I was 25, they all seem to have flown by.

It was a good year on the blog. I've been doing this since April 2009 and I wrote (a few) more posts this year than any other. I hope to keep that up in 2015, but I never like to set a schedule because I don't want to start writing stuff that you don't want to read.

Anyway, let's take a look at the highlights of 2014 on The Impatient Gardener.

JANUARY

To keep myself busy during the cold winter months before I allow myself to really start dreaming of gardening, I made this really simple little magnetic chalkboard for the inside of the pantry.

FEBRUARY

I wrapped up what was probably the biggest indoor project of the year when I put the finishing touches on the small hallway outside the kitchen. For such a small space it sure was a pain to fix up. In the end it got smooth walls, a fresh coat of paint all over, a fun blue planked ceiling, a new light and a new thermostat. It wasn't pretty, but in the end it was so worth it, even though I still find drywall dust in odd places.

MARCH

The ugly vanity in the ugly bathroom got (another) coat of paint. I still hate it but it's much better navy than it was pickled pink. I'll be happy the day that the vanity, and the rest of the bathroom, are tossed out.

APRIL

Finally, after what seemed like the crappiest winter in history, it was time to garden. Indoors, anyway. For the first time, I started a lot of things from seed last year. Overall, I really enjoyed it because it helped the gardening bug a little and I had a lot of success with some of the things I grew from seed (and not so much from others).

MAY

The garden finally came to life (albeit slowly) in May. I was rejoicing in every swelling leaf bud and bit of green I could find.

JUNE

I showed off the wood planter we built. It ended up being heavier than heck and way more expensive than we planned, but it was still a fraction of the price we would have paid for something similar. It was a really satisfying project.

JULY

In July I finally finished up the back yard garden renovation I'd been working on. By creating a little more form in the shape of ovals, I defined the space much better and finally made the edge of the property much nicer to look at.

AUGUST

It was a pretty good year for containers and I shared some of the progress in August.

SEPTEMBER

I grew a perfect tomato. I grew very few tomatoes last summer, but this one was damn near perfect.

OCTOBER

Thanks to growing parsley from seed, I had a welcome abundance of it. I saved the harvest in a variety of ways and we're still enjoying it.

NOVEMBER

I experimented with a new way to ward off deer this winter. So far it's been successful, but since we've had no snow, the deer have plenty of other food to eat. We'll see what happens the rest of the winter.

DECEMBER

I added a little color to the drab landscape by decorating the outside containers. I'll enjoy them until March.

Not bad for a year. How was your 2014?

2013: A year in (blog posts) review

I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful holiday season. From a work perspective, this whole holiday-in-the-middle-of-the-week thing is for the birds, but I certainly enjoyed having a whole weekend in between Christmas and the new year with no social engagements. It was a fruitful weekend as far as projects and personal rejuvenation goes.

But before I start telling you about what's new, I thought it would be a good time to look back at 2013. It was a good year as far as blogging goes. I published more posts than any other year since I started this blog (in April 2009!). This blog started as more of a journal and a way to keep track of my garden but it has transitioned to something else entirely. I now do projects I don't think I ever would have taken on otherwise if only to just tell you about them. As always, I strive to show you the good, the bad and the ugly, and there's been plenty of each.

Let's take a look at what happened in 2013.

In January I showed you a lot of the ugly when I bared it all in my laundry "room." The laundry basket system we installed still works really well for us to corral the clothes, but I have to admit that the clean clothes bins only really get emptied when they are overflowing and nothing more can be shoved in them.

Remember what it looked like before?

February was a productive month. I started by doing a little redecorating in the living room. We got a new area rug and I had a chair and ottoman recovered. It was a welcome change after many years of sort of a French Country color scheme.

One day in February, I came home from work and painted the back door black. Sometime that afternoon I got the urge and the next thing you know I was doing it. I still love it and wish I had done it sooner.

And at the end of the month I did some more painting, but this time on fabric when I painted the cushions on the chairs in front of the fireplace. I'm happy to report the paint has held up really well and no one who has sat in them has noticed they are actually painted.

March certainly came in like a lion at our house. A late winter storm dumped a foot of heavy, wet snow on us, wreaking havoc on the landscape. The damage caused by that storm was a huge concern, but turned out to have a silver lining. We had to cut down several trees damaged in the storm and it turns out I don't miss them at all. In fact I wish we had cut them down (particularly the cedar that was leaning on the house in the storm) years ago. And it gave me an excuse to create a new garden!

Later in the month, I was chomping at the bit to get back in the garden, but the weather was not cooperating, so I came up with this list of things to do while biding your time waiting to get to serious gardening.

In April, I wrote one of my favorite posts of the year, Pinterest gardening tips NOT to follow. I think I need to do more of these because I continue to see absolutely ridiculous gardening tips pinned on Pinterest.

I also got overly excited about installing the slide-out trash bin in the kitchen.

Spring finally came in May and I was happy to finally get something planted. The onion starts went into the new raised vegetable garden.

I also launched the Garden Appreciation Society—my way of encouraging you to enjoy your garden in a new way, by bringing some flowers inside—in May. I had a great time with this and really enjoyed seeing all the amazing bouquets you came up with too!

And in the quickest, most thrown-together project I've ever done, I made a huge obelisk. It's still standing, by the way.

There was lots of gardening in June, but the really big news was inside where we finally finished the kitchen. We had our fair share of setbacks with it, but I'm so happy we did it. I just love everything we did in there.

In July I finally gave you a full tour of the garden, but it was an as-is tour. Realizing that if I waited until it was looking perfect, you would never see it, I just grabbed the camera one day and did it.

August got a little competitive when my mom and I tried to figure out who had the bigger Incrediball hydrangea blooms.

In September I showed you how the window box changed over the course of the summer. I was pretty happy with how it turned out this year. I can't wait to start planning what will be in it next summer!

Sadly, fall came (only sad because of what comes after fall) so I was mostly working on inside projects again. In October I shared how I salvaged a stained marble table top on a cute little vintage table I found on Etsy.

I must have had tables on my mind this fall, because in November I also redid the kitchen table and shared how to I got a weather wood finish on it.

And suddenly it was December. I might have put off Christmas decorating until the last minute, but when I see the projects I was busy finishing up, I can see why.

I started off the month by creating a custom storage solution for the junk drawer. Love it!

I also took advantage of some warm weather at the beginning of the month to finish the exterior Christmas decorations. I tell you, putting up that window box was one of the best things we've ever done. What would I blog about if it weren't for that thing?

I finished what is perhaps my favorite DIY project of all time (and I'll give you a tutorial on it after the new year)—my orange cane chairs. It was fun showing off my new chairs to our friends and family that stopped over during the holidays.

And the last big project was adding a new mantel "sleeve." It's been up for a couple weeks now and I feel like it's what the fireplace really needed and I'm looking forward to seeing how I do decorating it once the Christmas decorations are finished.

What a year! I'm actually shocked to look back and see how much actually got finished. Sometimes I feel like I'm starting a lot of projects and not finishing too many, but maybe I did OK after all.

Thanks so much for reading this blog, commenting when you do and for making me not feel like a complete geek for sharing it all with you. I hope you had a great 2013 and I wish you an even better 2014!