Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

While this won’t happen every Friday (I don’t have enough sponsors) I do have something that some readers and bloggers may want to try in their own homes or gardens. If you remember a month or so back I tested some products from a company called EcoSMART. The specialize in making insect repellents, organic bug killers, and other products that…

This week I began testing a new (to me at least) gardening technique! Using black plastic tarps in the garden to kill off the weed growth underneath. The concept is a simple way to prepare a garden bed for planting. The use of garden tarps is something that I discovered when I read The Market Gardener by Jean Martin Fortier…

It that transitional time of the growing season where the spring weeds are coming to an end and the warm season weeds are beginning to arrive.  This time of year is also when many of our warm season crops and plants are coming up too.  Sometimes it isn’t easy to distinguish between a weed and a seedlings planted from seed…

Meet Prunus caroliniana, better known as a cherry laurel. This evergreen tree makes an excellent privacy screen and is great for attracting birds. It’s a native to the eastern United States from Florida on up to North Carolina. It very low maintanence as my parents can attest. Just plant it and water it then let it grow. They planted cherry…

Last week I was out of town teaching and was forced to come home early due to a awful case of food poisoning (watch out for those buffets!) When Saturday rolled around my outdoor work plans were drastically changed. I had planned on getting some mulch on a few spots but just couldn’t stand being in the heat and humidity…

I don’t know about you but I’m ready for spring. Notice I said spring not spring gardening. I haven’t done everything I need to do to get ready for the new gardening season but I’m already lamenting the cold temperatures that we are destined to have for the next two months (January and February). When March comes we usually have…

Let’s be real, foliage is more important than flowers!  Foliage is there 3 out of the four seasons and unless you have some fantastic re-blooming plant that blooms incessantly from spouting to leaf drop you aren’t going to have something interesting all the time – unless you plant with foliage.  Color, leaf texture, leaf shape, and leaf size all make…

It’s getting close now. Can you feel it? Seed starting time! In preparation for my seed starting activities of 2020 I thought it would be fun to tell you about my favorite tomato and pepper varieties for Growing The Home Garden. In this video I go through some of my tried and try peppers and tomato varieties. They may not…

The majestic oak is one of Tennessee’s most beautiful native trees. It’s also an extremely useful tree for our local wildlife as it can host over 200 species of insects and animals. You can see why you would want to cultivate more oak trees! Recently I gathered some acorns from a nearby tree on our property. The oak tree is…

As gardeners we deal with all kinds of issue that can make gardening frustrating and difficult.  One of those issues is pests.  Pests come in many forms from thousands of kinds of insects to birds and animals.  No method of pest control is 100% effective all the time so gardeners need be creative problem solvers in the garden.  The best…

Even though the summer is upon us it’s still a good time to propagate plants. The key is to keep cuttings moist and at a steady temperature until roots have formed. Then they can be easily acclimated to outdoor temperatures. I do all of my cuttings inside our house on the windowsills or under a grow light to keep the…

Today’s post is going to be a bit geeky.  I hope you can get past that because I think one of the most important parts of running a successful nursery business (or any business) is good financial management.  No matter how much you enjoy gardening you don’t want your business to lose money.  Planning on the front end for the…

While I can assure you that my back is perfectly fine (at the moment!) I do need to have some work done on the back of the greenhouse shed. A few more things have been accomplished since my last greenhouse update but there are always more tasks to tackle (it seems like I’ve said that before). Since last time I’ve fitted a…

Flowering of the Purple Homestead Verbena If you haven’t tried growing ‘Purple Homestead’ Verbena in your home garden you really should! I’ve used this purple flowering perennial in three places so far and can think of many more locations I would like to see them. ‘Purple Homestead’ has found homes in our landscape in the mailbox garden, our front garden,…

Fall is definitely at its peak here in Middle Tennessee! Rhonda at Adventures in My Garden has some great fall color in her own backyard. The view from her back porch is spectacular and would be envied by anyone who likes autumn leaves. Is there really anyone who doesn’t? And the quote she picked out by George Eliot to start…

We all know we should compost. Most of use know the things we can compost. So here’s a couple ideas to help you compost! 1. We have a compost bucket outside our back door. The 5 gallon bucket stands ready to collect the compost until we can take it to the big bin in back. There are compost buckets you…

Things are growing very nicely in the vegetable garden. The tomatoes (which are our favorite crop no matter what else we try) are growing like crazy, the zucchini has almost produced it’s first zucchini, and the cabbage are …well…you’ll see… Here are two of my raised beds full of tomatoes. The bed on the left contains mostly Roma tomatoes while…

Last week was the first Seed Sowing Saturday on The Home Garden! Starting Seed Sowing Saturday has  definitely motivated my planning, thinking, and preparations for the seed starting this year. I failed this week in one element of my seed plans – the planning! I had intended to put together a list of the seeds I was going to purchase…