Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

‘Autumn Joy’ Sedum seed heads persist through winter. This time of year the flowers are mostly faded and few things have retained enough foliage to be markedly interesting.  But those faded flowers have left something behind – seeds!  Seeds can do a few of very cool things: They sustain the plant species for the coming year as new plants are…

No I’m not referring to the stimulus package here. I’m talking about what possibly could be the most handy tool you ever use for spring gardening – the tarp. As my gardens have grown over the last several years I’ve added many more plants. As all gardeners know with more plants comes more responsibility and more work when spring cleanup…

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…

Tall ironweed (Vernonia gigantea) is one of the few non-yellow flowering wildflowers blooming right now here in Tennessee. This extremely tall and purple member of the aster family can be seen throughout roadsides and fields in much of the country during the late summer or early fall. It stands anywhere from 3 feet up to 8 feet tall and occasionally…

Everything has it’s own time, even seeds. They just don’t last forever! Fortunately though many seeds do last a long period of time and you can use seed from previous years to grow your garden. I’ve had tomato seeds germinate that were over 10 years old. Best of all they produced healthy tasty tomatoes! I’ve had echinacea seed as well…

This post will mostly be a show and tell for my seed starting progress. If you haven’t started your seeds yet you still have time to get them going. Starting from seed is an easy way to save a few dollars in your vegetable garden budget. A pack of tomato seeds might cost you $2-3 and you get 20-30 seeds…

Since today is St. Patrick’s Day and tradition dictates that we do all things green and as Irish as possible here are a few things green from my garden! We have green in the vegetable garden in the form of sugar snap peas, spinach, and lettuce! Other things haven’t come up yet for a visit like the asparagus (which I…

Elizabeth over at Gardenrant, a well known writer and garden blogger, has posted some picturesque fall photos for the Garden Blogger Fall Color Project. What could epitomize fall more than cobblestone buildings and walls mixed with glorious maples in the rustic farmlands of Route 104 in New York. Farming implements and woodpiles appear in peaceful fall scenes. Just what we…

Since I have very little to show for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day in December I’ll display a review of each Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day post over 2008 that I’ve done. Inside this post you will see one or two pictures from each post that in my view are the best of the blooms. Unfortunately I missed a few months like…

Welcome to my Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day Post for September 2008. On the 15th of each month Carol at May Dreams Gardens encourages her fellow garden bloggers to show what’s blooming in their garden. Please stop by her site to see what else is blooming around the blogosphere!We’ve made it through August and survived with the minuscule amounts of rain…

Today I thought I would show you the before and after since yesterday I teased you on the details of the front porch garden remodel. It’s current state is still classified in the unfinished category but it is well on its way to becoming a welcoming front porch garden. First let me show you the before pictures: The crabapple is…

This year’s wacky weather has given way to quite a lot of speculation about when the actual peak time for the leaves is. I’ve noticed that this year hasn’t really had a peak color moment. The normal sequential leaf change has been extremely erratic and some plants still haven’t begun to change while others no longer even have leaves. Fortunately…

Maybe you can help us figure something out. Jaime sent me this picture of a plant growing where she wanted to plant zinnias. If the plant growing there is something good then she’d like to see it grow to flower but if it’s a weed well, you know what she’ll do to that weed! I’ve checked out several weed pictures…

What posts stood out to me this week? Read on! I was struck by the beautiful setting in Rob’s post at Our French Garden in the Beautiful Dordogne. The rest of the post is great too but you know what they say about first impressions! This week was Carol’s Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day which is always worth a look at…

It’s time for another seed starting update for our basil and peppers in peat pellets. I plant basil and peppers every year for our vegetable garden. I find that basil is indispensable as a seasoning and for making pesto. Basil also has a some companion planting benefits when planted alongside the vegetables in the garden (particularly the tomatoes!) Peppers are…

Have you ever wondered “How in the world do I keep the squirrels from emptying out our birdfeeders?” It’s a common problem that so many of us have while trying to feed our fine feathered friends. We spend all kinds of money adding seed to the feeders to feed the birds only to have it thrown all around on the…

Along the posts of the arbor project we added a little decoration. Welcome to Japanese Maple Leaf Decor 101: How to Stain an Arbor! First we put the initial coat of stain on the 4″x4″s then placed a leaf of a Japanese maple on the still slightly damp wood. Then we removed the leaf after a second coat of stain…

While this post might be more interesting to me (for record keeping purposes) than anyone else it contains the list of seed varieties I planted on Monday Feb. 15, 2010. They were planted in peat pots and seed starting medium and are currently under lights indoors in a roughly 70 degree environment. Warmer temperatures might hasten the germination process but…