Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Very early in their blogging experience Garden bloggers find that the digital camera is their best friend. When I started blogging back in October of last year I discovered that illustrating my posts was essential to having a successful blog. People thrive on pictures. I’ve noticed that when a post has pictures more people are likely to read through the…

This weekend we were in West Tennessee attending a friends wedding and took a side trip to visit some of my wife’s relatives. While there I saw a horrifying site. At my wife’s grandmother’s house is a wonderful old oak tree that casts a welcoming shade on hot summer days, or at least it used to. On the right is…

Recently I started a few nasturtium seeds as a part of the Grow Project hosted by Mr. Brownthumb. Renee’s Seeds offered to send seeds for several volunteer garden bloggers to try. Each month throughout the season I’ll update you on the progress of the nasturtium seeds as they grow. Seed Starting Mix on left, Potting Mix on the right Today’s…

Below you will find six plants that are some of the easiest to care for and grow in the garden.  All are drought tolerant and are very seldom bothered very little by deer or rabbits (two of my greatest nemeses!) In addition to their drought tolerant and pest resistant properties these plants are very good at attracting beneficial insects like bees,…

During these gray overcast days of a winter almost past, seeing the first daffodils of spring bloom in our yard is like watching the sun sprout from the earth. Our garden is behind most at this point but that’s OK because it means that there will be more blooms overlapping each other than usual! When did your first daffodil bloom…

It appears that our local deer population has undergone a small expansion with the addition of a new fawn. Lately the deer have been keeping to the outskirts of the yard and haven’t been bothering the vegetable garden or any of our plants. Many of the plants in the other gardens have scented foliage and are considered deer resistant. The…

This week is guaranteed to be a busy one in my garden. The massive quantity of rain that we’ve had lately has sprung forth a corresponding amount of weeds to pull. The good thing is that the weed pulling should go fairly easily in the moist ground.  Next Saturday I’ll be hosting our garden club meeting to talk about building…

I am always trying to find new uses for old things. To a some extent I’m a recycler, to an even greater extent I’m a pack-rat. It is just a hard thing for me to throw something away that I might want to use someday. Knowing this, it should come as no great surprise that I tried to find some…

I just posted on the greenhouse shed page with a new report on the siding installation. The garden shed is shaping up! Adding the siding really changes the look for the better – much closer to what I’ve envisioned. There’s always more to do but progress is being made! I forgot to mention in the post but I also installed…

Welcome to Worst Weed Wednesday! Today is the day that you can rant all you want about weeds, how much you despise them, how you would like to eradicate them (and do), and what kinds of things you say to them (please keep it PG or PG13!). I’ll update this post as more folks rant on the worst weeds in…

This week we’ve gotten some serious work done on the patio area but there is quite a lot still to do; isn’t there always? Thursday I brought a truckload of sand to cover the gravel. The sand helps when setting the stones in place by creating a soft layer that is easily manipulated for leveling the stones.Here is how it…

There’s no rhyme or reason to the pictures in this post. It’s all random and just for fun! Or does saying that give it a theme or a reason? Hmm…. Verbena bonairensis beginning the process of reseeding in the self-sowing garden. Celosia in the reseeding garden! The front garden on October. I’ve noticed that this year there is a definite…

Due to mowing last evening a more detailed post about plant propagation was not possible – coming soon though! For now enjoy the poppy! For more poppy pictures look here: Performance of the Poppies! And check out Nell Jean’s Poppy post at Secrets of a seed Scatterer!

While the snow has just started here in Spring Hill, TN I’m thinking about the nice warm days of our growing season and all the neat stuff we get to experience as gardeners growing in the south.  I’ll add to this list every few days with a new thing that I miss about the growing season.  Please share in the…

This week my daughter and I put together a couple more raised beds in the garden. They aren’t exactly what I planned to do in the vegetable garden layout that I made a couple months ago but the addition of the extra beds has definitely improved over the layout I had last year, at least in terms of space. They…

I’m always looking for new plants to experiment on to see if I can get them to root.  Yesterday I took some cuttings from a grape vine at my mom’s house.  Grape vines are pretty popular with home gardeners who want to grow their own food in the backyard so I thought I’d give them a try.  I haven’t successfully…

In my second year with our garden I experienced the joys and wonders of living with deer. In the three and a half years since I’ve learned a lot about protecting plants from deer but I still suffer from their exploits frequently. Most notably this year the deer discovered my vegetable garden for the first time. Maybe you noticed the…