Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Caryopteris cuttings root very easily from internodal cuttings with greenwood or semi-ripe wood. The best time to take cuttings is the the late spring to early summer to allow time for roots to form and the plant to get established before fall. Caryopteris was one of the new perennials I added to my garden last year. It did very well…

One of the most despised “weeds” in the lawn is the dandelion.  All sorts of chemical companies offer ways to get rid of them and get your “perfect” lawn.  It’s too bad that we seek to eliminate this little flower because they have so many healthy benefits!  What is a Dandelion good for?  I’m glad you asked! The Benefits of…

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…

Every year I notice these little green insects, aphids.  Well, sometimes they aren’t green, I’ve seen them in orange and yellow and they come in red, brown, and black too.  Whatever fashion sense these insects display one thing is for sure: you don’t really want aphids on your plants!  Aphids are a soft-bodied insect that love to suck on the…

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…

Recently I came across a crape myrtle on sale and decided to add it to our front garden. It’s a variety called ‘Tuscarora’ that can reach about 15 feet wide and up to 20 feet tall. There are a wide variety of crape myrtle trees available but ‘Tuscarora’ produces beautiful reddish-pink, almost watermelon-colored blooms. It’s very similar to a tree…

The cold temps are keeping you indoors and you are going stir crazy.  You need to do something in the garden, with the garden, or for the garden and the seed catalogs showing up in your mailbox just aren’t good enough to get your gardening fix.  Then do this – plant an indoor garden!  Recently I put together a small…

In the spring time one ground cover really stands out due to its prolific flowering. Creeping phlox or Phlox subulata really punches out the color for a couple weeks in spring then fades into a nice lush and green carpet of foliage. You can use it on slopes, around mailboxes or as a low growing front border plant. It has…

To say that this month has been difficult is an understatement. My time in the garden has been minimal and its current state is more akin to a wild meadow (and that’s being kind) than a well tended garden at the moment. Fortunately we still have some very reliable blooming flowers to show for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day. I’ve included…

This weekend was a busy one in the garden! The weather was sunny, although with a fair amount of wind on Saturday but Sunday afternoon was very pleasant.  This time of year is always exciting.  Gardening activities are resuming in earnest and a lot can be done to prepare for a great gardening season.  On Saturday we began working on…

It’s time to highlight a few more neat posts from the garden blogging world! Let’s get right to it! If you’re a fan of paths (and I don’t know any gardener who isn’t) I noticed two posts this week about paths that might interest you. Carol of May Dreams Gardens recently decided to remodel her gardens and is incorporating  a…

Last weekend I put together a small front porch for my garden shed. It’s nothing fancy – just a small platform measuring 8’x4′ made from pressure treated lumber. It’s wide enough to fit a couple chairs when needed and provides a platform for entering the garden shed. The deck is free floating and can be moved if needed. It isn’t…

I have always believed that one of our country’s greatest resources is our state and national parks. You can see why when you take a stroll down to Georgia and visit Dot’s (Strolling Through Georgia) trip to the Amicalola Falls State Park. The colors there are in varying hues of gold, red and orange. There are scenic views and of…

I put another short shed update on the garden shed page yesterday. It’s short but if you’re interested in seeing what’s coming next for it feel free to take a look!

The mockingbird has been causing trouble again. The suet was the issue of contention in the backyard because our resident Mockingbird King claimed it and all the surrounding territory. No other birds were allowed near the feeders, even if they only wanted sunflower seed for which the king has no desire. When the mockingbird gave us (or more importantly, the…

Every year I like to create a list of garden projects that I plan to tackle for the year. It’s a list of goals that I would love to accomplish but often due to time I find I planned for more than I can do. My goal list helps me to organize and prioritize what I need to get done…

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…

All the telltale signs of fall are upon us. The leaves are beginning their changes and one of the first to highlight the season is the sassafras. It’s a beautiful fast growing native tree here in Tennessee and as you can see sets up the wild areas of our yard with some fiery color. But leaves aren’t the only signs…