Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

We all make mistakes in the garden on occasion. In fact I do it on a regular basis. Usually my mistakes are those where I forget to do something or I intend to come back and finish something but run out of time to get back to it. My biggest mistake is typically taking on too much for what my…

Similar to the “Things to do List” in form my “Things I’ve Neglected List” contains the stuff I should have already accomplished but didn’t for some reason (Greenhouse shed construction). The garden chores that have be displaced by the aforementioned project still need to be accomplished and I really hope to when I get the time! Things I’ve Neglected (in…

It appears that our local deer population has undergone a small expansion with the addition of a new fawn. Lately the deer have been keeping to the outskirts of the yard and haven’t been bothering the vegetable garden or any of our plants. Many of the plants in the other gardens have scented foliage and are considered deer resistant. The…

The last thing I want to do in the heat of July is a list of chores but to help the garden through the blazing summer sun there are a few things I have to do. I suspect that you will be doing at least some of these things too! Watering: In the morning is the best time to water…

Since summer has now officially come and gone and I only started this site a week ago (give or take a day or two), I thought I would share an easy project that I did this summer from another old wooden palette. Originally I was going to turn it into a compost bin, but after using the palette laying on…

The colors are out and some trees are spectacular! There are all sorts of colorful trees for the fall that just can’t be beat. The maples are some of my favorites. Here are some suggestions for trees with great fall color:Maples: Sugar Maple (Acer Saccharum): beautiful yellow orange foliageRed Maple (Acer rubrum) red foliage (of course)Japanese Maples (Acer Palmatum).Sweet Gum…

Here is another sneak peek at the Arbor Project for the Better Homes and Gardens 48 Hour Blog Challenge. Today’s look is just one of the elements in my planting scheme.  I’ve had a fondness for Scotch Moss (Sagina subulata) for a while but never really had a place for it, until now! I managed to divide the four clumps…

Middle Tennessee and much of the south is expected to receive a freeze tonight.  We all know how damaging a freeze could be and we have no to look no further back than 2007 to see the results.  That year many gardeners lost trees like Japanese maples and crape myrtles due to the flow of sap in the trunks freezing…

It’s time to show you the construction phase of the vertical garden arbor that I’m building for Lowe’s Creative Ideas! In the previous post I listed the materials and dug the holes for the project so if you’re just now finding this project you may want to start with part 1 of this gutter garden project! Working on the Gutters…

I took a few more red twig dogwood (Cornus stolonifera) cuttings yesterday. One of them did not even need rooting. You can see the mass of roots on the bottom of this little guy. The base of this stem was touching the ground which stimulated root growth. When this happens it is simple task to clip the branch with the…

Creeping Phlox – April 2011 I wish I could have gotten to this post earlier but Monday’s storms kept the computer off for most of the day. It’s pretty difficult to type a post without electricity! As of this morning 18,000 people in Middle Tennessee are still without power. Over the weekend the weather was absolutely perfect for outdoor activities….

One of the greatest places to find fall color is on the campuses of our country’s learning institutions. Each of these beacons of knowledge are aesthetically landscaped to entice new students to come and to give the students and faculty that attend a sense of nature to enhance their education. This idea is alive at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. At…

Imagine my anguish when the other day I walked around the yard and saw strips of bark peeled off the trees due to the damaging effects of the deer. These furry four-legged creatures are so majestic to watch and observe as they scamper through the fields. The problem is our yard isn’t a field! You probably remember my post the…

Time to gather your seeds! Get a good paper or clean plastic bag and head out to the garden. If you have more than one type of plant to gather seeds from you should grab some extra bags. After your perennials or annuals have finished for the fall, collect the dead heads on them to use next spring. Just cut…

This post is a post I’ve been dreading.  Mainly because this year has been tough, probably the toughest I’ve ever had to live through.  My garden projects fell by the wayside.  My projects and ambitions just didn’t matter when compared to the situations that the course of life brought us through.  But we’re getting through things, day by day.  I…

Fothergilla is a relatively recent addition to the garden. When I was working on the Fall Color Project last autumn I saw the fantastic fall color of the fothergilla’s foliage and fell for it! (Is that enough F words for you?) The fuzzy springtime flowers are just a bonus since I mainly wanted it for the fall show.  They appear…

Here is Part 4 in The Home Garden’s series of posts about how to garden on a budget.Often when people go to the plant nursery they look around and see what they can get for that immediate impact in their landscape. They see larger more established plants and can easily see how they will fit in their garden. If these…

Here is an inexpensive little project I’m working on that hopefully will work to hold a tomato plant. This homemade tomato cage is made from the pliable branches of a sycamore tree my neighbor limbed up. I offered to take the branches to dump in a pit in the backyard and mentioned I might use a few of the branches…