It’s always fun to go back and look at the year. It helps to examine what went well or what didn’t. Usually I end the year with a post on how my garden projects went but this year I thought I would mention what the top posts on Growing The Home Garden were for 2013. Once our newest arrival came along my project time became very limited and I just didn’t accomplish that much! Below you will find the top ten garden posts visited in 2013 on this blog. While many of these posts were written before 2013 they contain content that seems to remain popular over the years. I hope you enjoy looking back at these posts!
Designing a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden: 11 Things to Think About
In this post I wrote some tips to designing a raised bed garden. There are things I learned over the first couple years of gardening that I thought would be very useful for those who are just setting up their raised beds.
Making A Dry Creek Bed Drainage Canal
The dry creek bed post being so popular this year really surprised me. Someone posted it to Pinterest and a lot of folks thought it was worthy of pinning. Thank you to everyone this year who has shared something from this blog this year. Sharing our content is one of the best ways to show you appreciate a blogger’s writing. The dry creek bed post was about a small project I made to divert rainwater from a gutter away from the house and make a bed more suitable for sedums.
Propagating Rosemary In Water
I love propagating plants and lots of people love rosemary so it’s no wonder this post did well. Rosemary is very easy to propagate.
Why You Should Plant a Bradford Pear Tree But Some People Do Anyway
Don’t plant a Bradford Pear Tree. Just don’t. I won’t go into the reasons why you shouldn’t plant one here but if you are interested in learning more you can read the post. And there are a lot of really good reasons not to plant a Bradford pear tree!
Coleus Cuttings: Are they the Easiest Cuttings You’ll Ever Root?
Coleus very well could be! Coleus is another very, very, very easy to propagate plant. It’s a perennial that you can overwinter indoors by taking a few cuttings. Then you can plant the saved cuttings outdoors to grow another year. It also grows very easily from seed but you don’t have the advantage of knowing exactly what it is going to look like!
Visiting the Mother Plant: Japanese Dappled Willow
I’m a fan of the Japanese Dappled Willow ‘Hiroku Nishiki’. It’s an easy to grow shrub that can create a deciduous privacy screen in just a couple years. If I were to do the border over again I would mix in some evergreens and some fruiting shrubs for a mixed border but the dappled willows have done a wonderful job at providing a summer privacy screen. Willows also propagate very easily!
Best Materials for Building Raised Bed Gardens
There are lots of ways to build raised beds and in this post I wrote about a few of the best materials for them. Every material has its strengths and weaknesses. The better materials tend to cost a bit more but last longer over the years.
Garden Designs and Layouts
This is a small collection of raised bed layouts and designs. Some of the designs were implemented in my garden at some point but others are just speculative designs put together over the winter while longing for spring! Maybe some of these will spur some ideas for your vegetable garden this year.
How to Propagate Salvia from Cuttings
I love salvia in the garden. So do a lot of people although many apparently like it for reasons other than its aesthetics! It’s a beautiful plant that in its culinary form is great for dinner dishes but otherwise provides great ornamental value and serves as a pollinator magnet!
Crape Myrtle Propagation By Cuttings
Here in the south crape myrtles are a must. These prolific summer blooming trees are easy to grow from cuttings or from seed. If you would like to learn how please take a look at the post!
I want to thank you for reading Growing The Home Garden this year. Whether you subscribe, follow on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest your visits, shares, and comments have greatly contributed to this blog and I can’t thank you enough. Because of you and people like you we’ve had over 280,000 visitors this year! It always astounds me when I look at the numbers. Thank you again for all you do and I want to wish you the best of luck in 2014! Have a Happy New Year!