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The Wonders of a Heat Mat! (for Early Seed Starting)
This year I invested some money into heat mat. I’ve heard for years how bottom heat speeds up seedling and root growth and I thought it was high time I got my act in gear. So toward the end of last year I ordered one. And let me say, I’m enjoying it already! It’s not really time to start seeds,…
Sowing Shade Garden Seeds
Last week I put together a couple flats of shade garden plants that I’m attempting to grow from seed. I’ve had pretty good success before with my heucheras and thought I would give a few other shade plants a try! A couple years ago I intended (but never got around to) to begin sowing shade garden plants and began saving…
Propagating Perennials: Russian Sage, Salvia, and Coneflower
Spring is a great time for what? PERENNIAL PLANT PROPAGATION! OK, I get excited about making new plants and I wanted to share a little of what I’ve been working on in the garden. Spring really is a great time to take cuttings of your perennials, in fact it might be the best time. If you have never tried propagating…
Autumn’s Morning Light Through the Trees
Here are a couple pictures of the morning sky through the newly bare trees. The trees with leaves are either oak or eastern cedar depending on where you look. The cedar of course is evergreen but the oaks tend to hang on to their leaves until much later. This old tree is marked for cutting but sometimes you can find…
The Weekend Garden Gameplan
Oh I know, I’m keenly aware of the Superbowl coming up but this post has nothing to do with it. You see Saturday is destined to be a day outdoors – nothing short of the weather forecasters getting it completely wrong can stop that. We all know that never happens… The temperatures are said to finally be reaching the 50’s!…
The Off-season
I’ll simply title this next picture the off-season. If you garden, you know exactly what I mean! The leftovers of an Echinacea purpurea (Purple coneflower) seed head after the birds have visited.
Vegetable Garden Layout Comparison
Last year I came up with a layout for our vegetable garden that I later decided wasn’t as effective as I hoped. This year I made a better raised bed layout that focused more on the convenience of the gardener and it is working great! The central path makes getting around a breeze and the smaller paths around each bed…
Oak Leaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia)
I’ve been a fan of oak leaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia) for a long time. The large oak shaped leaves and white flowering panicles are two of its best traits but in the fall its color changes are very nice too. The leaves change through a range of colors from the year round greens to the autumn golds and reds. Our…
Rooting Arrowwood Viburnum (Viburnum dentatum Propagation)
Arrowwood viburnum (Viburnum dentatum) is one of my favorite shrubs (among too many to list) for good reason! It’s easy to grow, it’s dark glossy leaves change to various colors in red hues during the fall, and it provides nourishment in the form of berries for our local avian population. This variety is called ‘Morton’, a ‘Northern Burgundy®’ viburnum which…
From One Fan of Turkeys
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you and your family have a fantastic Thanksgiving filled with fun, family, and of course food!
Perennial Plant Pruning
Through a moment of lazy logic I decided to defy conventional perennial pruning practice. Decided is the wrong word…perhaps forgot to would be better! I even posted about the proper way to take care of mums including pruning several weeks ago when the mums were fading. Did I do what I said? Nope, sure didn’t. Now I think that I…
Lady Beetle Larvae: Garden Helpers
Don’t be afraid, unless you’re an aphid. These little larvae are on the side of good and fight the evildoers in the garden. They may look creepy at first but these little lady beetle larvae are some of the best friends you could have. They eat even more than the adults do! Lady beetles love aphids as well as mites…
A Plant Propagation Tip: Make a Mini Greenhouse
A couple weeks ago my wife stopped an bought us some croissants at the grocery store for dinner. The croissants came in a clear plastic box container. It was a little over a foot long and a little less than that wide, but the dimensions don’t really matter. The plastic box was tall enough to work in an idea I…
Green Gardening for St. Patrick’s Day
We are told all the time about what you can do to be “greener.” Things ranging from changing the light bulbs in your home to setting the heat back a few degrees are common tips we hear but what about in the garden? There are several things we can do to enhance our environmental “greenness” in the garden and here’s…
Illinois Fall Color From Prairie Rose’s Garden
It’s time for more fall color, this time from Illinois! Rose who writes the blog Prairie Rose’s Garden just posted her pictures of fall. Colors in her area come from a range of plants including maples, locust trees, burning bushes, and several other colorful plants from her garden. But of all her colorful plants you have to see her maple…
Building a Vertical Garden Arbor with Gutters (Part 2)
It’s time to show you the construction phase of the vertical garden arbor that I’m building for Lowe’s Creative Ideas! In the previous post I listed the materials and dug the holes for the project so if you’re just now finding this project you may want to start with part 1 of this gutter garden project! Working on the Gutters…
How to Grow Russian Sage – from Planting to Propagation
Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia or Salvia yangii), is an absolutely awesome perennial plant that I have always enjoyed in my garden. With its silvery-green foliage and tall spires of lavender-blue flowers, Russian Sage has a knack for standing out among the perennials. It has serrated feathery leaves and aromatic scent that make it a popular choice for those looking to…
Mulch Madness
You read it right! It’s not March Madness – or maybe it is – but it’s also MULCH MADNESS! This morning I picked up 20 bags of mulch and fit in my Honda CRV. That’s a yard and a half of mulch ready to go on the gardens. And at a $1.34 per bag it was quite a bargain!
