Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Several weeks ago I wrote a post about one of my favorite shrubs, the Japanese Dappled Willow ‘Hakuro Nishiki’ (Salix integra). It’s a fast growing variegated willow that works well as a privacy screen and is hardy in zones 4-9. It’s deciduous so it will be bare over the winter but the new growth in the spring time is fun…

Technically my title is completely incorrect!  We did have snow in January and February but this is the first snowfall of the coming winter season.  And technically this isn’t even officially winter yet.  I’m just breaking all the rules for this post! I’m going wild! Anyway…yesterday we had a light snowfall.  It was the kind of snow that was so…

I’ve finally gotten around to one of the chores I’ve been meaning to do for two years! Amazing how that works isn’t it? You intend to do a project in the garden then you get distracted with other projects and it becomes to late to accomplish. Today I finally mulched the west side of the planting bed outside of the…

Tomato planting season is almost here for Middle Tennessee so I thought now would be the perfect time to share some things you need to know about growing a great tomato!  Tomatoes have always been my favorite crop from the garden.  I like tomatoes fresh, cooked, preserved – it doesn’t matter how – I like a GREAT Tomato! There are…

Whenever you start to design an Edible Landscape/Garden it helps to have some inspiration to use as a guide.  You may have a ton of ideas in your head, but – trust me on this – sometimes those ideas don’t always work!  It’s never a bad idea to have some backup ideas or to just research those ideas to see…

A line of storms came through last night dropping the temperature nearly 20 degrees in an hour. Strong rain and wind blew all over Tennessee. Here in our yard we received about an inch of rain throughout the day. Fortunately our damage was minimal. Probably the worst thing affected was our sleep. The neighbor’s fence gate blew open and their…

I was looking back at photographs of the past year in the garden and found these shots of the front sidewalk garden. When the weather is cold and rainy outside it’s nice to look back sometimes and see how things were where they were in bloom. The sidewalk skirts the garage portion of our house and takes you up to…

How big is a moonflower bloom? Let me show you! If you use the lens cap of my camera as an indicator this moonflower bloom on our arbor is roughly 6-8 inches in diameter! Below the moonflower is a purple sweet potato vine. I think the dark foliage and bright white blooms look great together. Perhaps this year I’ll attempt…

Rocks are a great landscape feature to add to your yard and garden. They come in all sizes and don’t need any real maintenance. You can put moss on the rocks or let them rest as silent monoliths watching over your garden. You can use them for edging, for paving stones, stepping stones, and retaining walls. There are just so…

Every year I write down my ideas for gardening projects.  It helps me to put down some thoughts and map out where my garden needs to go throughout the season.  I won’t be able to accomplish every project on the list but it does give me some direction.  At the end of the year I’ll go back and see how…

Talk about a great use of an old factory space. These two green roof gardeners took the roof of a bagel factory and turned it into a vegetable garden. It’s a very cool idea! Go take a look at the Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn!

In our haste to welcome the new gardening season many gardeners only think of the flowers beginning to bloom. The flower buds and blooms sure are interesting but why not take a look at the evergreens? Our collection of evergreens is relatively small but here are a couple that we have in our garden that are showing some nice color:…

Along one side of our property there is a narrow strip of land between the house and our neighbors’ properties.  There isn’t much room to do a whole lot of gardening (or so I originally thought) and this side of the house felt exposed when we bought our home in 2007.  This is how it looked a couple years ago…

As you might guess from the title I paid a visit yesterday to a fellow garden blogger’s garden to visit none other than Clay and Limestone’s Gail.  She invited me up to collect a tree for our garden that she didn’t have a home for after her patio area remodel.  The tree was a serviceberry.  A great tree to add…

The weather this past weekend was perfect for outdoor gardening activities! Unfortunately we are still a good six weeks away from safe outdoor planting and many of the tasks on my long term spring agenda need to wait until the frosts are done, but there is always something that can be done! Garden preparation! By far the biggest job my…

The Middle Tennessee Plant Swap is tomorrow. I’ll write more about it later. Here is what I’m bringing:4 Russian Sages 2 Red Twig Dogwoods14 Japanese Dappled Willows (Salix integra) 12 Euonymous fortunei (‘Emerald Gaiety’) 4 Blue Spruce Sedums8 Purple Leaf Plums4 Nandinas (courtesy of the birds) 2 Chrysanthemums of an unknown color and variety.I’ll tell you about what I bring…

Why do I like Red Twig Dogwoods (Cornus sericea or Cornus stolonifera)? If you look in the picture below the reason should become red-ily apparent. The multibranched shrubs stand out with a bright red coloring that looks fantastic in the wintertime. When the trees are bereft of leaves and the stems are left, the red twigs won’t disappoint for winter…