Design

I love these beautiful rooms designed by Robyn Karp . They are all elegant with such clean lines and pretty color. I especially love that rug in the top image...a little walk on the ocean! - Robyn Karp Interiors

The old Southern red oak near the house has a number of bare branches, twigs really, that have been favorite perching places for ruby-throated hummingbirds over the years. There are two feeders nearby, as well as flowers to visit, and this particular branch is perfect as a foraging perch, apparently. It's also easy for us to notice them sitting there. This morning, I saw a pair of brown thrashers courting, while I was checking things in the garden, and thought I'd change lenses to get a better image. Of course, only one thrasher was visible preening up in one of the hemlocks by the time I returned, but I was able to take a few shots of 'our' male hummingbird, waiting for insects and monitoring his territory. Hopefully, he has a mate somewhere nearby.

Summer evenings in the Southern U.S. are full of sounds -- cicadas, crickets, tree frogs, with an occasional late katydid. The crickets and tree frogs are melodious; the cicadas produce a harsh whirring sound, hard to describe. The evening light is a deep purple now turning a peach-apricot color, with clouds hinting of a good chance of thunderstorms. The last two evening's 'isolated' thunderstorms passed us by, so hopefully we'll get more than a few drops tonight. The clouds look thick on the weather radar. It was a good day in the garden. I put extra lime in the bed near the breakfast room, to make the midwestern Penstemons from yesterday's foray seem more at home. One of them was labeled Penstemon 'Sour Grapes'. The nursery owner told me it was Penstemon cobea, an adaptable plant of limestone glades and outcrops from Central Texas north to Missouri. An Internet search suggested, however, that P. 'Sour Grapes' is of hybrid origin, possibly...

It started with the farmer's market this morning. I wanted to check on a type of tomato that was being sold at Thursday evening's market (of course, the tomato fellow must have been at another market this morning). But a local garden club had plants for sale from a small nursery that I hadn't heard of before, so after buying some thread-leaved coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata ), a pink-flowered form called C. rosea , lemon verbena, and dwarf thyme, I thought I'd go check out the nursery. Much to my delight, they had all sorts of things that you usually don't come across locally, so first I broke my rule about not buying big plants in small pots (because they're usually pretty pot-bound) and some of these had been subjected to less than ideal conditions (it's been so hot and dry, it's hard to keep up), and second, it's quite a subpar time to be planting perennials, in early summer with hot, dry conditions predicted. But I added a perennial foxglo...

I love this lovely aqua bathroom created by Minneapolis designer Martha O'Hara . The great nook, the fabulous bathtub, the built-in cupboards...what is not to love?! - O'Hara Interiors

We love all sorts of greens and broccoli relatives, at least I do, and my gardening companion eats them happily, when stir-fried with olive oil, onions, and garlic. I've certainly got plenty of garlic. This was the large 'main' harvest, now cured and inexpertly braided. Now I just need to find a place to store the harvest; the garden shed is MUCH too hot, and the basement seems too dark and dank, although it's quite dry. Perhaps, I'll have to rig up a 'herb rack' to hang from the 'mudroom' ceiling? This sounds like it will require crafty things with vines or twigs, not exactly my area of expertise. The Brassica oleracea cultivars that produce brussels sprouts and kohlrabi should be delicious, and kohlrabi, at least, is supposed to be easy to grow, and harvestable within 60 days. Hard to believe, but worth trying as a fall crop. Brussels sprouts are quite frost-hardy, so they should be a decent fall crop for our region, although I don't know a...

Who knew the Ikea cabinets and linoleum could look so cool?! Love it! - Domino

I harvested almost the last of the garlic, along with all of the remaining bulb onions yesterday. The garlic (a German porcelain type) was smaller than the June-harvested ones, probably because the hot, dry weather limited clove growth, in spite of watering. But I've been quite pleased with my harvest and have LOTS of garlic for the coming months, enough even for devoted garlic lovers. There are also quite a few harvested new potatoes that will stretch for a month or two, along with fresh onions. I'm not quite sure how to properly store onions and potatoes for a long time, and they're so tasty fresh, it's hard to get motivated to do the research. I think I'll add a second trellis of yard-long beans, for fall production, and another set of cherry tomatoes & roma tomatoes to the vacated space, after adding lots more compost. I'm also going to put kohlrabi, brussel sprouts, and broccoli (oops, and parsnips, too) in beds that I won't need for rotation in f...

Wouldn't this be a great guest room to have in your home? It is so serene and calming, guests are sure to feel perfectly at home...but still so pampered! Love those tufted headboards. - PointClickHome

I just received more seeds (hooray!) -- I love getting seeds for new things, and this shipment includes kohlrabi (Dyna Bio), something called Ruby Streaks mustard, French Sorrel, Giant Winter Spinach (hope springs eternal here in our acidic soils), and parsnips (Cobham Improved Marrow). I've tried growing parsnips before (last year in an equally droughty summer), so this may not be the year to try again. The drought doesn't get much worse than what we currently have. There are many places that get a lot less rain than we do, normally, so I hate to whine, but the U.S. Drought Monitor place shows the area where we live as one of the worst areas in the country. Look down to the Southeastern U.S., where the big red patch is; we live there.

Close to the summer solstice, our evenings outside stretch past 9 pm; I've just now come in at a quarter-past nine. Our northerly neighbors have later summer evenings, but the trade-off comes in the short winter days. Recently, talking with a garden writer/speaker who lives in New Hampshire, I asked him about the winters. His response was revealing; he said that was his planning and resting time, and the seasonal cycle was one he enjoyed. Summer was a time of gardening, while spring and fall were speaking and traveling times. I find even our short winter days difficult, so I'd be a poor candidate for northern winters. We did have a great trip (in our winter) in southern Patagonia a few years ago -- it was light until past 10 pm -- a fabulous tonic! I'm taking a group of summer interns on a evening hike tomorrow -- we'll listen to the nocturnal symphony as the day turns to dusk and then dark. Lovely.

Just like me, designer Kevin Haley grew up in Minnesota. But now he's designing projects for Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio. Lucky guy. These images come from his own sanctuary-like home in LA. I love the light just oozing in. - Kevin Haley Interior Design and Elle Decor UK via Apartment Therapy

It's really time to get rid of more grass. The drought is an incentive, not that we ever water our drought-tolerant Zoysia. But the frequently-trampled patches that used to be full of honeybee-friendly clover have become hard-packed clay punctuated by unattractive tufts of something unrecognizable. And as we're walking more around the house (post-garden shed) and taking Mocha (the pampered Golden retriever) out the kitchen door more (the main vegetable garden side), we're wearing down a path more than ever. I've been planning a flagstone patio on the porch side for awhile, mirroring the front walkway that I put in last fall, but I'm thinking I'll extend it around the house in an informal path, replacing the scruffy grass between the house and main vegetable garden with some sort of mulch or gravel/mulch mix beyond that. Flagstone there would be too much, competing with the house and the main vegetable garden's stacked stone edge. And the slope below the h...

I recently discovered VT Women , a magazine out of the Netherlands. I have no idea what anything says, but once I found their inspiration section, I was hooked. These images are all so pretty!!

I heard a remarkable keynote speech (at our statewide Master Gardener's annual conference) this evening by Roger Swain on 'Planting Villages' -- about how plants can connect neighbors, encourage interaction between them, and enrich our lives as a consequence. One of his points was about having a front garden that is welcoming to passers by. I know the names of my neighbors, but we don't know any of them well, and although we've created a wonderful garden (from our point of view) that suits us, most of it is behind the fence, and I don't know if our front garden welcomes people walking down the bike path (really a walking path) along our road. This is what it looked like when we first moved in. But, now, I do know people have noticed our meadow in front of the garage, and the buckeye in bloom, and the striking yellow sugar maple near the road in fall, so maybe we're having an impact in any case. At least the folks coming down the small hill across the street ...

This image shows that a great room doesn't need to cost a ton of money. The way-cool blue chairs are from a Kansas City yard sale while most of the artwork was created by friends. Love it. - Apartment Therapy

We're not far from the remarkable biodiversity in the Southern Appalachians. Supported by abundant moisture and an ancient mountain range, it's one of the most species-rich places in North America. A recent visit to a short stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which stretches from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park up to the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia yielded some great plants and 'natural gardens.' A favorite spot was a seepage slope, covered with sundews, Michaux's saxifrage, a mountain St. John's Wort, and a rare Krigia , among others.

Before I started growing them myself, I used to think that onions and potatoes were about the same home-grown vs. buying them. Boy, was I wrong. Fresh onions and potatoes are nothing like their stored versions, fresh being deliciously succulent (full of water in their cells, I guess) vs being cured (or dried out). I harvested the last potato bed this afternoon, but plan on replanting the smallest potatoes as 'seeds' for potentially a fall harvest. I tried a fall planting last year, and had a nice (small) harvest. Fresh-picked squash are another revelation; the eight-ball squash, green scalloped squash, and yellow squash that I harvested (and we ate) for dinner this evening, cooked with fresh garlic and onions, are hard to beat -- not a bit of toughness in the skins. Something called 'mixed summer squash' that I sowed in early June is now started to produce fruit. I think they were Curcurbita moschata , normally grown as winter squash, but hopefully delicious as young...

Desire to Inspire included the top image in an inspirational post devoted to fun chandeliers. Designed by Rees Roberts (who also designed Chino Latino , one of my favorite places in Minneapolis), these bedrooms are so simplistic and colorful. Love how the color just POPS.