Welcome to The Compulsive Gardener Blog!
Upcycling in the Garden: Creating a Rustic Stone Wall From an Old Sidewalk
The update on “The Rockery” — a redesigned entrance garden featuring a rustic dry-stacked stone wall made from a repurposed concrete sidewalk. We chose plant…
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Finding Peace in the Garden During Dark Days
To immerse myself in the healing garden, I’ve started a new project–reviving a neglected front garden, using repurposed cement “stones” from an old sidewalk to…
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December Gardening: seasonal tasks and harvests
As the crispy dry autumn morphs into wet green winter here in our summer-dry climate zone, I start to awaken from hibernation along with the…
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Scented Garden Plants for Mediterranean, Summer-dry Climate Zones
Take a calming moment to envelop yourself in the scented garden. Get recommendations for aromatic plants that do well in summer-dry, Mediterranean climate zones. Cleveland…
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Late-Summer Garden Photo Gallery: Sunflowers, Cosmos, and Heirloom Varieties
Photo gallery of the organic garden in late summer. Lots of heirloom veggies, sunflowers, cosmos and butterfly plants. Time to get the winter garden started!…
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Hot Gardeners (the literal kind) and Hoof Prints In the Veg Patch—a summer update
Be safe while gardening in the heat! Heat illness can be serious, so please take steps to prevent danger to your health while working in…
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Grow Shade for Heatwaves–a review of the hardiest trees in our garden
Shade trees are a great relief during a heatwave. Plant a shade tree to cool the air around your house or city. Learn the benefits…
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A Palette of Spring Colors
It’s a odd dance, doing garden blogs–the season when you have the most to share is exactly when you have the least time to share…
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The Garden Springs to Life–time to get our hands–and seeds–in the dirt!
My kitchen table has become pregnant with potent life forms. All those seed packets I bought over the winter, the leftover ones from recent years…
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nice blog
I’m a small step better off than Rudi, in that we have a tiny garden, all potted plants, and a paved courtyard. Nonetheless, we have an orange tree, a (young) lemon tree, strawberries, two tomatoes in tubs, and as many plants as we can get to attract butterflies and bees. Alas, our milkweed got destroyed during the laying of the courtyard, so we’ll have to start from scratch again. I love your blog with its lovely photos, and excellent observations. We tried the bidet, but found it unsuccessful, but I will research the one you got. I’m also deeply concerned about climate change, and the deforestation of the planet. I first came across the topic of global warming when I studied meteorology for my degree way back in 1972. Since then I’ve kept up to date and have lectured to anyone who’ll listen of the topic. Very few unfortunately. I’m still studying it, reading anything I can lay my hands on. We have bought solar panels, and I drive an electric car. That’s my contribution. My lovely wife still hangs on to her hybrid, beut hey, she’s halfway there! Thanks so much for the effort you put into your blog. Keep it up!
Derek
Hi Derek! Nice to meet you. Your garden sounds wonderful. I’m a big fan of tiny gardens, as you called it. It sounds like it’s rich with all you are growing there. I’m curious which kind of bidet you tried. An actual bidet toilet or one of the attachments that retro-fits a standard toilet? Maybe others would benefit from your experience of what didn’t work. … That’s impressive that you have known about climate change since studying meteorology in 1972! That must be hard though too, how long we have had to act and yet so much more we could have done. Like you, we also have solar panels, although they are about 20 years old now and a few have had to be replaced. Back when Earth Day was a new thing, we found a guy who was retrofitting cars to electric and got one. After that we had one of the first GM EV1–the model the documentary was about that got recalled. My spouse just got the GM Bolt with close to 300 mile range. I still have my hybrid plug-in Prius. But, we don’t drive that much anyway. I really appreciate you taking the time to read and sharing what you did. I will look now whether you write your own blog and check it out.
I discovered your blog through your comment on The Nostalgic Gardener’s blog and was pleasantly surprised with the content. We don’t have a garden ourselves, but we do have a balcony where we do a bit of gardening. The content of your blog is very diverse, creative topics are also given a place. It would be great to follow your blog.
Sincerely,
Rudi
Oh… how sweet Rudi! Thank you. I like your Nature Photography site as well and just followed you too. Sel does a great blog at The Nostalgic Gardener! I love balcony gardens. Would love to see a photo if you feel like sharing. I’ll check your blog to see if you have already posted there.
For any who are reading, you can find Rudi’s site here: https://picpholio.wordpress.com/portfolio/macro-detail-photography-1/
For The Nostalgic Gardener, visit here: https://thenostalgicgardener.com/