Kylee Baumle's Blog, page 18

"Fine Foliage" Book Giveaway

You know how excited Jenny and I were that Indoor Plant Décor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants made the Amazon Best Books of 2013 list about a month ago?  Well, I know a couple of other authors who knew just how we felt.  Christina Salwitz and Karen Chapman wrote Fine Foliage: Elegant Plant Combinations for Garden and Container and their book made the list, too!

I did a review of it over on Horticulture 's website, back in April:

Besides being a neat little package of horticultura...

Need Garden Gloves? Here's a Giveaway!

A few weeks ago, Kara, over at Angela's Garden,contacted me and asked if I'd like to host another glove giveaway just before Christmas.  Since I have a pair of my own and like them, I quickly said, "Sure!"  I always love hosting a giveaway of things that I use and like.

So here we go...

One lucky reader will win a pair of Classic Leather Gloves, valued at $29.  These are made of washable, lanolin-infused kidskin (that means they're soft and will stay that way), with padded palms,...

P. Allen Smith's Rustic Collection ~ And Our Library!

Christmas comes earlier this year.  No...wait...it just seems like it because Thanksgiving was later than most years.  As a procrastinator extraordinaire, I like that it did, but with fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I'll still be right up to the last minute preparing, just like all the other years prior.  I know there's a solution to this problem I have, and I'm workin' on it.

I did get the Christmas tree up by Thanksgiving, which is always my goal, so that we can...

Wordless Wednesday: LEAVES

Wingthorn rose
(Rosa sericea)

Weeping larch
(Larix decidua 'Pendula')

Pin oak
(Quercus palustris)

Dwarf Fothergilla
(Fothergilla gardenii 'Mt. Airy')

Burning Bush
(Euonymus alatus)

Ginkgo biloba

Ginkgo biloba

Cotoneaster

Japanese maple
(Acer palmatum var. dissectum 'Inaba shidare')

Japanese maple
(Acer palmatum 'Full Moon')

Japanese maple
(Acer palmatum var. dissectum 'Orangeola')

Japanese maple
(Acer palmatum 'Autumn Moon')

Japanese maple 'Harp Strings'
(Acer palmatum 'Koto-no-ito')

Japanese maple
(Acer palmatum 'E...

Peeking Under the Leaves

When you have over 100 trees on an acre, that makes for a lot of leaves in the fall.  That might be an annoyance to some, but we take it in stride, as we have for the 36 years we've lived here.  Since we've enlarged the gardens over the last ten years or so, we've actually welcomed the fact that we have plenty of leaves.


Leaves return rich nutrients back to the soil if allowed to decompose.  How do you think that beautiful, dark, loose soil that you find in a woods got there? ...

SweeTango® Apple - Let Your Taste Buds Dance!

If the only apple I'd ever tasted was 'Red Delicious', I don't think I'd eat very many apples.  It tastes okay, but once I had a 'Granny Smith', I turned my back on 'Red Delicious'.  There were other apples that came later - 'Gala', 'Fuji', 'Idared', and many more.  Then along came Honeycrisp™ and it was game over.

I can pinch pennies with the best of 'em, but I like Honeycrisp™ so well that I'm willing to pay a higher price for them because they really are that much better, acc...

"Indoor Plant Décor" - It's Everywhere!

Well, not everywhere, but Jenny and I continue in our march towards world dominance and I'm happy to say it's progressing quite nicely.  More news on that in a bit.

Background: Croton / Bloom: AbutilonUp here in the soon-to-be frozen hinterlands of Northwest Ohio, plant lovers have brought their gardens inside, where they can live happy as clams until we all go back outside together, sometime around April or May. Tender perennials and tropicals now occupy all kinds of indoor space next to...

Coach Vince Dooley: The Man and the Garden

At this time last year, I'd never heard of Vince Dooley.  In case you haven't either, he was the head football coach at the University of Georgia for 25 years (1964-1988) and  its athletic director from 1979 to 2004.  With Coach Dooley at the helm, the Bulldogs won six Southeastern Conference titles and one National Championship (1980).  He received numerous awards, including being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1994.

Coach Vince DooleyYou'd think I'd at...

My Favorite Plants: Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow'

Spring growth on Euphorbia x martinii 'Ascot Rainbow'
Euphorbia x martinii 'Ascot Rainbow'
Common name:  Spurge
Type of plant:  Perennial
USDA Hardiness Zone:  5-9
Height:  18-24 inches
Spread:  18-24 inches
Light:  Full sun to part shade
Soil:  Acidic, Neutral, or Alkaline
Water:  Average to dry
Bloom time:  Spring (late April, early May in my Ohio garden)

Why I like it...

I bought this plant on the recommendation of Heidi Grasman from . ...

It's Tulip Time!

What?  It's fall!  Tulips bloom in the spring, but if you want them then, you need to plant the bulbs NOW.  One of my very favorite bulb companies, Longfield Gardens, sent me some tulip bulbs and I planted them yesterday.

We have a strip of This, That and The Other growing at the south edge of our property, which we put there as a sort of privacy feature. (That's really a much too sophisticated name for what this is.)  Since we live in extreme rural America, part of our per...