WHAT TO DO WHEN THE GARDENER IS READY TO WRAP UP BUT THE GARDEN ISN'T

This is a challenging time in the garden for me. We've not yet had a frost, so although things are looking a little ragged, there's nothing that's dead and looking terrible. Which means I'm faced with the conundrum of going against my gardener's gut reaction to do everything I can to keep plants looking good and the practical voice in my head reminding me that there is a lot of work to be done in the garden before the snow flies.

And of course, the lovely fall weather we've been having makes it all that much more difficult. Because when it turns, it's going to turn quickly. And even a hardy Wisconsin gardener like myself doesn't really relish being in the garden with winter gloves on.

The Calamintha 'Montrose White' in the foreground of this photo has finished flowering, but it still looks good otherwise. It will be difficult to cut it back at this point, but there's so much to be done in the garden. 

I was formulating a plan of attack for the fall garden chores the other night at 4 a.m. as I stood in the back yard begging the newest member of the family to pleeeeaaaase go to the bathroom. We got a 3-month-old Newfoundland puppy last weekend so we are in the throes of potty training, which is far more tedious than I had remembered. Anyway, I was noticing that other than a bit of flopping here and there, most of the perennials are looking fine and it seems a little sad to be planning to go in there and hack things back.

I know this picture is blurry but little Dorothy is in the perpetual motion stage of life so it could be awhile before she sits still enough for a good picture.

There are a lot of different ideas about cutting back perennials in fall, and from what I've read I believe it probably is better for the health of the plants to let them stand for winter. But sometimes the health of the gardener is more important that the health of the garden (which probably will be OK no matter what), and in my case I know that spring is so busy that anything I can do in fall to decrease the spring workload is well worth doing.

So, even though things are still green, I think this weekend I'll start dismantling beds one by one. I'll cut back things like Nepeta, but I will leave Sedums and Echinacea standing for winter interest. Dahlias, of course, have several more weeks in the garden. Not only are they still flowering, they need to be killed off by a good frost before you can dig them for storage.

As I go through, bed by bed, I'll also pull as many weeds as I, again so it's one less thing to do in spring. In a few weeks, when we're drowning in fallen leaves, I'll run them through the chipper-shredder and create a lovely mulch for my beds. The areas that I mulched with chopped leaves last fall had noticeably fewer weeds in spring, so that's another investment in my spring time.

Still, cutting back plants that still look OK is hard to do. But the knowledge that it will be far more tolerable a job at 60 degrees than at 35 degrees is enough for me to get over it.

FRIDAY FINDS

The rabbit struggles continue here. I have borrowed a few traps but the little buggers aren't big enough to set them off. They are absolutely decimating any annuals I've planted in the ground and it is getting so frustrating! Deer repellent seems to have no effect on them. If you have some proven ways to manage them, I'm all ears.

I had to take a break from gardening last weekend to give Odin a bath. This is a full half-day activity but the pay off is a clean, fluffy, good smelling dog. It's not often that I get a clean dog and a decent looking garden at the same time! By the way, those white alliums that you see in the foreground ('Mount Everest') are real winners. Going to have to add more of those.

I also got very late in planting in the vegetable garden, just planting many seeds in the last week. But I figure better late than never. I'll just have these crops later in the season.

Matt is clearly more on the ball than I am this year and his sweet pea pictures are to die for. My sweet peas are currently 8 inches tall.

This cake is beautiful!

I might do that cake thing, but this? Gimme a break. 

I look forward to each and every post from Deborah Silver this time of year, when her amazing container creations spill forth. Don't miss her latest post. 

Lastly, in case you missed my latest video, here it is. I was supposed to be in it, but as you'll see at the end, I had a bit of a miscalculation in trying to shoot it myself. Whoops.

Will you be spending time in the garden this weekend or are you into "relax" mode? Either way, I hope you have a great weekend and avoid some of the crazy weather that is popping up all over the country.

WHAT'S KILLING MY BOXWOOD? MYSTERY SOLVED

As you know, I've been working on the circle garden. I've not showed you much progress lately, but I hope to finish up the planting this weekend and I'll be able to show you some real progress.

I have, however been planting bits of it, including the first thing that went in: a centerpiece boxwood in each section.

Almost immediately, they started declining instead of thriving. The foliage turned brown, there was no noticeable new growth and they may have actually been getting smaller.

Boxwoods in various stages of ill health after I dug them up. They were just planted a few weeks ago.

So I went through all the usual checks in my head: Did I water enough? Was there something wrong with the soil? Was there a cold snap that affected them?

And nothing added up.

And then one morning the mystery was solved.

Want to take a guess as to what was going on?

I'll give you a hint. Here's the culprit.

Odin showing off his "handiwork." 

Yep. It appears that Odin, who is funny, usually cute (although he's badly in need of a bath and trim at the moment), good-natured and generally a very good dog, had been helping with the watering of my boxwood. And from what I can find online, it's not unusual for dogs to have this kind of attraction to boxwood.

Odin, like all our dogs, has been trained to stay out of the garden, but that only works when it looks like a garden. Since the boxwoods went in first, I think to Odin that looked like a bathroom surrounded by soil. Now that there are other plants growing there I've not noticed him even venturing close to the area.

So, as much as it pained me (boxwoods are not cheap), I went out and bought four new boxwoods and replaced them all. I'm putting so much work into this garden this year that I just won't be able to stand looking at half dead boxwoods there.

There's hope for the original boxwoods. I think they'll probably come back, but it will be quite a while. I've replanted them elsewhere in the yard for now.

FRIDAY FINDS

It's weird to have Christmas on a weekend. I love it from a work standpoint (taking off in the middle of the week and having to come back is a drag), but from an organizational standpoint it feels odd. Like there is a lot of Christmas stuff I still want and need to do and given the date, I feel like I should have more time, but this weekend is really the last shot.

Anyway, no surprise, Friday Finds is pretty Christmas heavy. Merry Merry!

Loi's sparse Christmas tree. Loi Thai photo

I think Loi's Charlie Brown tree is pretty much perfect and the garland on his banister is to die for.

I have no idea what in the world an Asian perogi is, but it sounds pretty yummy.

I'll be baking lots and lots of Christmas cookies this weekend (although I'm scaling back from previous years to only what I plan to give away; we neither need nor eat a lot of extra cookies), and I think most spritz cookies are boring. This one may have a needed kick.

I agree with this. I love orchids, particularly varieties other than phalenopsis.

Emily Henderson (ex-HGTV designer and fab blogger) bought a new house and just finished the kitchen. She's calling it "Modern English Country" and I can't decide if I love it or not. What I do like about it is that it seems like a much more approachable kitchen than most kitchens you see in the blogosphere. That's not to say that I don't like other kitchens, but there is a warmth and a "normalness" to this kitchen that seems real. But I have to say, I'm always shocked when I see bridge faucets in kitchens. Who wants to have to turn on two taps to get water and then balance the temperature?

Also on the agenda for this weekend is taking the Christmas card picture (I know, I know, I'm so late!) You can see what we've done in years past, but I really can't imagine a cuter picture than this one of my friend Kelly's new Newfoundland baby Piper. Kelly had our Rita's sister and she died just a few months after Rita. It makes me so happy to see this little cutie bring Kelly and her family some joy. And she's just too cute not to share.

Have a great weekend everyone! What's on your to-do list? Lots of running around or are you one of those organized people who will get to sit back and just enjoy the season while the rest of us crazies pull our hair out?

GOODBYE, FRIEND

I thought I better check in here just so you all know I'm still around.

I have lots of excuses for my weeklong absence here, but excuses are a bore. I'll be back soon with lots of gardening, a fantastic giveaway and more.

But for now, I just want to take a moment to remember our Newfoundland Rita. She died rather suddenly Monday morning. She was 11½ but was as healthy as a horse. Just a week ago she had a great checkup and excellent bloodwork. We expected we'd have years to gaze into her deep brown eyes and give endless tummy rubs. But it was not to be. She was a comedian who made us laugh every day of her life and brought us endless amounts of joy. Rita was fine in the afternoon and gone eight hours later (a bleeding, previously unknown mass likely on her spleen was to blame).

I'll be back shortly with the subject matter more typical for this space, just as soon as the tears stop falling quite so freely. I'm glad I snapped a photo of her with the crabapple with planted for her a couple weeks ago.

FRIDAY FINDS

It's Friday Finds time, something I haven't had time to do for a couple weeks. I'm a little behind on my blog reading as well with craziness in the garden, at work and in life. All good stuff, just busy. I wouldn't have it any other way.

How about a pretty picture to start? The 'Coralburst' crabapple we planted last year is doing great and putting on a beautiful show. When our dog Hudson died we planted a Picea glauca 'Hudsonii' for him and Mr. Much More Patient decided we should plant a tree for our dog Rita while she was still with it so she could enjoy it too. We couldn't find a tree with Rita in the name so we opted for something pretty and girly instead. We've taken her picture by it while it's in bloom the last two years and I hope we'll have many more photos like that.

Although the area around the tree is mulched, that whole area is getting really weedy. The weed torch will be making an appearance this weekend too.

The weather has been wonderful here so most of this week's finds are all about summer. Bring it on!

I like to drink cocktails and experiment a bit in summer. Last summer I perfected a real dacquiri (not the sugary fruit laden variety but simple, crisp and limey). This gimlet sounds pretty good.

Are you using a spiralizer? Tell me if it's worth it. I hate to have kitchen gadgets everywhere so if I'm going to use them, they have to be something that's worth the space.

If you're into white gardens (as I predicted many people would be in my Garden Trends for 2016), here are some very pretty ones.

You'll notice a new addition to the sidebar over there ------------>
I've created a very small Amazon shop featuring some of my favorite gardening gear. Honestly it's as much to help me find the things I buy frequently as anything else. Some of it is flashy and some is rather mundane (garden twist ties, for instance), but once I find something I like I tend to stick with it. Those are affiliate links which means I may get a percentage back if you buy something. That helps me buy plants to tell you about! ;)

I enjoy this blog because you never know what you're going to read about. It might be tiling a bathroom, digging a fence post hole or chickens. It's just a cool chick doing cool stuff, mostly on her own.

That's it folks. There is SO MUCH TO DO this weekend! I have to finish up container planting, oodles of work in the garden, find homes for all the plants (I can't keep up with the watering anymore so stuff needs to get in the ground), sailing, my nephew's high school graduation and so much more. What's on your agenda this weekend?

FRIDAY FINDS

How to make beautiful, delicious (and chemical free) colored sugars with edible flowers.

Deborah Silver photo

Deborah Silver (who I like to call the Queen of Containers) never fails to disappoint. Look what she did for autumn.

Rusted steel in the garden is such a great look.

I like fashion but I am not a fashionable person and to be honest, my style motto is generally "Try not to look like a slop and be dressed at least somewhat appropriately for the occasion." Accessorizing befuddles me. Yet this time of year is when I start thinking about updating my wardrobe a little bit (or at least replacing jeans that have unwashable dirty knees). I like to consult a few fashion bloggers before I spend any money. I'm a fan of You Look Fab because you can find advice for an age, shape or style and it's not overly trendy stuff.

Since I won't be getting my arm workout via weeding, paddleboarding or sailing during summer, maybe I'll give this series of exercises a try.

This little guy (whose name is Odin; I don't think we had decided on a name when I first mentioned him on the blog) is now 4.5 months old, 50 pounds, mostly fur, very sweet and starting to be plenty naughty. His sister Rita is still not thrilled with the new member of the family, which may have something to do with his habit of attaching himself to her ear and pulling. There have been a lot more walks for the whole family, which is a good thing (the whole household was getting pretty lazy before Mr. Energy came along) and Rita is discovering the liberal treating policy in the house to be working to her advantage as well.

LABOR DAY WEEKEND LABORING

Geez, you would think I was vying for the "Most random posting blogger" award or something. I left you hanging all last week! I'm sorry. Life. You know?

It is hard to believe that Labor Day has now come and gone. It has been such a lousy summer weather wise. I know I am a professional weather complainer, but I feel like I'm justified this time. I can count on one hand the number of times the temperature got over 80 degrees at my house. And the nights, which were frequently in the 50s, were killers for the vegetable harvest. The tomatoes have been sparse and the few I have harvested have not tasted very good.

But there will be more time for looking back on summer when summer is really over. Since I contend that it never really started, I'm just going to keep waiting and pray for a really warm September and October.

The big project at our house this weekend was moving 20 yards of topsoil. This is a job we knew we had coming and we knew we had to get done but other than the satisfaction of having it finished, there wasn't much joy in it.

We wanted to fill in grass around the driveway and grade the yard a little bit in the process. Fortunately the only thing that made this job tolerable is that we were able to borrow a machine (I don't know what these things are called) from Mr. Much More Patient's employer to move the soil around. All we had to do after that was rake it out and compress it a little (to avoid odd settling later). That was enough work all on its own.

After that we just had to seed it and mulch it. Unfortunately we ran out of mulch. I always buy too little of everything for a project and need to run out for more. Except it was Labor Day and nothing was open. So mulch will wait.

In addition to the satisfaction of having a big job checked off the list, there's a certain amount of satisfaction that comes from having done this ourselves. Mr. Much More Patient got a quote from a landscaper to do this job. It was about $2,000. So far we've spent less than $400 ($300 on the topsoil, plus seed, a little mulch, stakes and ribbon to cordon it off).

Anyway, here's what it looks like at our house right now.

But there is a complicating factor. And that's this.

We picked up the newest addition to our family on Friday night and have been busy acclimating him to the family and remembering how much work puppies are! His big sister Rita is not at all pleased at this point but we have hope she'll come around soon. Poor little guy still doesn't have a name!

Interesting factoid: If you spread dirt all over your yard and then get a puppy you will end up with a very dirty puppy/house and little foot holes all over your future lawn.

GOODBYE TO A GOOD FRIEND

I try not to get overly personal here and I hate to do posts that can be kind of a downer. But I would be remiss in not remembering a great friend here.

Yesterday we had to say goodbye to what was certainly one of the world's greatest dogs. At just about 10 years and 7 months old, our Newfoundland Hudson was sound in spirit but his body was failing him. He suffered a lot of orthopedic issues in his life and they all caught up with him. If he had been a smaller dog, we could have carried him in and out of the house, but this is one of those things you sign up for when you get a giant breed dog. The fact that he was in great health otherwise made this decision that much more difficult for us.

I know that everyone's dogs are special to them, but Hudson and I had bond from the moment we met. He was a proud beast, who wanted nothing more than to be given a job and carry it out. He did that literally, by carrying in our groceries, getting the newspaper and delivering flowers to me when Mr. Much More Patient would bring them home for me. Most Newfoundlands are excellent swimmers and have a natural instinct for water rescue, but Hudson was special even in that regard. At 8 months old I took him to water rescue training (Newfoundlands can earn titles for water rescue) and he did almost every exercise immediately. We tried three times to get that water title before his joint problems and the resulting surgeries got in the way, and we failed every time on the same exercise: the one where he had to leave my side to go out and take a line to a drowning "victim."

That's the thing, he never wanted to leave my side. We achieved other things together. He got a draft title in one try, by my side. We explored the beach together every weekend. We swam in Lake Michigan together, him towing me (and any neighbor kids who were around) over and over again. It was never clear who was having more fun.

As anyone who has had a beloved pet will tell you, the problem with pets is that in the end, you always have to say goodbye.

A friend posted something on my Facebook page this morning: The luckiest people in the world have shared their life with a good dog.

I am indeed fortunate.

A new old-looking tabletop

I'm not sure I've ever done a project in which I had no real expectations for the outcome. That's just not the way I roll. So going into refinished the kitchen table with no real idea of what it would look like at the end was not something I undertook lightly.

You may recall that we purchased our kitchen table from the Restoration Hardware outlet. It was a pretty good deal because it had pretty bad damage on the corner. Turns out that was fine with me because I knew it was too big for our space and that we'd be cutting that part off.here.
You can read all about how we customized the table for our space

Originally I painted the entire thing, and you can read more about that process here. I finished it with Polycrylic, which is a water-based coating. I chose that after testing several products on scrap piece of wood. It was the only finish coat I could find that didn't make the paint crackle or yellow. Or so I thought. Within days of applying it, it turned yellow. It bugged me then, but then it got even worse. It yellowed even worse with age. It had to go.

My original intention was to just paint it white again. And then a couple weeks ago I saw this table online (for the life of me I can't find the link now but I'll keep looking) and my interest was piqued. But the big question was, could I make my maple veneer table that was currently white look anything like that.

The kitchen with the white table.

The only difference in terms of a starting point between trying to do a weathered finish and repainting the table was that I'd have to strip it first. So I did a little tester of stripper to see what was hiding underneath (for instance, did I leave a bunch of swirl marks from sanding it originally?). And when the stripper did its thing, it looked fantastic. This had potential.

So here's where it ended up. What do you think?

Refinished table.

While I liked the white table before, I'm loving this new look as well. More and more, I'm discovering that juxtaposition is my thing. I love a little bit of shiny and new mixed with vintage or weathered. It just works for me. So I like the fresh white table base with the weathered wood top, even if it doesn't really make sense.

Click here for a tutorial on how I did it.

You might notice the black furry thing under the table in those last pictures. That's Rita. There's a good chance she was stuck. Whatever the reason, it was clear to me she had no intention of moving.

Wrapping up Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. My holiday was completely lovely. Insanely good food to be found at every turn and great times with family. Perhaps the nicest Christmas I can remember in recent history.

Unfortunately work calls, and has been calling in a big way this week. Deadlines never wait, you know. But I wanted to pop in and show you our Christmas card (you can see some past cards here, but it's been a few years since I showed you any).

The printing didn't turn out as good as I would have hoped and I wouldn't count it as one of our better efforts, but it's getting hard to come up with different ideas to do with the dogs. I'll be so sad when the time comes that there won't be two dogs in the Christmas photo.

The holiday decorations are about to come down here, even though I just got them up. Although I wouldn't mind if they stayed up until New Year's Day, I don't think I'll have time on Tuesday to take things down (I have a date with my couch and the Rose Bowl game; Go Badgers!)  and I would not be happy if they were up until the following weekend. But I did want to show you something new I did this year. I've never decorating the stairs before and while I don't think I'd like a big garland hanging on the banister, I thought these boxwood wreaths (purchased at a great price at Home Depot the weekend after Thanksgiving) would spruce things up a little.

Even the dogs had a great time opening presents (even though two of them were toys we already had; I know that sounds horrible but we have SO many dog toys and they loved them).

Hudson, you have a little tissue paper stuck to your lip.