Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

I know those of you in Canada and the Northern U.S. see snow fairly regularly, but in Tennessee it doesn’t happen often. When it does it’s usually fairly substantial. In our area of Tennessee, which would be the Southern Middle region, we picked up 3-4 inches of the fluffy white stuff. For me it brings back memories of growing up…

Surely one of the greatest mysteries to appear in the history of the state of Tennessee. Recently strange shapes have appeared across the landscape. Covered with a cold and white mysterious substance these shapes reportedly have been erected by the mysterious “snowpeople” (the exact gender cannot be known except by manner of dress. Top hats and pipes tend to indicate…

These two crepe myrtles are holding strong to their color. Although these bright red and orange beauties are not mine, I did manage to get a couple seedlings from them to plant in my yard. Most people think of crepe myrtles for their summer flowering colors, but these two are evidence that there is more to a myrtle than meets…

Have you ever wondered exactly how tall a raised bed should be?  Here’s the answer: 11 and 5/16ths.  Yep that’s right, 11 and 5/16ths.  Of course not!  The real answer is that the height of a raised bed is dependent on a number of factors which makes each situation different.  Today’s Friday Fives post is another raised bed design post…

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…

OK, you might be thinking to yourself that this headline “How to Buy Mums” is about a topic we don’t even need to discuss. Really, how hard can it be? You go to the nursery, pick out a full bushy plant full of blooms. You walk to the check out counter buy it and go home to plant it. If…

Once you have your seedlings growing strong and you’ve properly hardened them off (more on that next week) it is time to plant your seedlings in the garden.  But where should you plant them?  It may seem like a given that you’ll just go out and stick them in a hole and watch them grow, but it’s not always that…

Recently I was invited to the 48-Hour Challenge with Better Homes & Gardens. For my project I chose to build an arbor! I’ve highlighted a few aspects of it over the last several weeks but I haven’t put down a play by play of our challenge. Hopefully you can follow along and if you want to tackle this project you’ll…

For several years now I’ve written about the value of planting in raised beds.  One of the most viewed posts on Growing The Home Garden is my post Designing a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden: 11 Things to Think About.  It has 11 design tips that will help your vegetable garden layout achieve its maximum potential.  Hopefully you’ll find them useful! …

Viburnum dentatum is one of my favorite shrubs in our garden.  It’s not as showy as the Japanese dappled willow or the purple beautyberry.  It’s not as flashy as roses nor does it provide year round color like the ‘Otto Luyken’ cherry laurels.  But it does have an important role in our garden.  This viburnum never fails to flower prolifically. …

It’s taken a few years before my premonitions came to fruition. It’s not that I wanted it to happen I just expected it.  It was inevitable and couldn’t be avoided.  The ‘Bradford’ Pear tree in my front yard split. No storm brought damaging high winds that would wreak havoc among many species of trees. There were no diseases making the…

Recently I started some heuchera seeds while we were suffering through the record setting deep cold of the last several weeks. I had to do something garden related to lighten my spirits that were quickly being squashed by the weather’s entrapments and starting some seeds seemed to be a good choice.  It’s easy to start a small container to bring…

Last year for Mother’s Day I redesigned a garden area for my mom. Their fence garden needed a little revamping and I’m really happy with the results. Here is what the area looked like before: Here’s how it looks now! In the above picture we set the border stones to give an edge for the garden.  The stone also helps…

Here’s a clever idea for a theme garden: A Music Garden! And what better place for a music garden than in Music City, USA (AKA Nashville, TN) the home of country music. An article in today’s Tennessean highlighted this garden that was planted back in the spring with plants named for various songs and music themes. from The Tennessean: for…

It’s Sunday and another family wedding is complete! The happy couple said their vows yesterday before the thunderstorm arrived. Since the wedding was outdoors at my mother-in-law’s house it was fortunate that the rains only came during the reception that followed. Rather than talk too much I’ll show you the results of our wedding preparations.Here is the arbor with the…

Every fall it happens, mums (Chrysanthemums) galore appear in the box stores and nurseries. It’s a tradition that rings in autumn like college football, corn mazes, and garden blogger fall color projects (OK maybe not the last one, at least not yet!). But what do you look for when you buy your mums in the store? A full bushy plant…

While I haven’t written about it in quite some time we have a large hillside that so far we’ve left pretty natural. Over the last two years I’ve gradually cut into the slope in an attempt to cut down on the worst of all weeds, ragweed. Right now the slope has large pathways cut into the top that have natural…

Wild animals have always fascinated me and I think there are not many that have the beauty and majestic nature of the birds of prey. While we were at the Bloom ‘N Garden Expo on Saturday there was a table set up from a wildlife rescue group. I wish I remembered the name of the group so I could give…