Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Last weekend I pulled out the tomato plants (all but three) and did the yearly Bermuda grass removal. Bermuda grass is one of the two most frustrating parts of my vegetable garden, the other being the deer. Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon) grows and spreads through rhizomes (under the soil) and stolons (above the soil). Any piece of the roots or…

This July has been very strange for us here in Tennessee.  We ended June with intense heat and dryness which continued into July then the weather changed.  Rains came back and with them came the hope of producing a quality crop from the vegetable garden.  To achieve the best results from the vegetable garden there are a few things that…

I finally managed to get my Indoor Hanging Wall Planter Project up on the wall!  I ran out of screws so I’ll have to run to the store to pick up a couple more and make sure it stays up securely.  It’s fine for now but I definitely need those screws attached before adding pots and soil for plants.  I…

Have you ever wondered “How in the world do I keep the squirrels from emptying out our birdfeeders?” It’s a common problem that so many of us have while trying to feed our fine feathered friends. We spend all kinds of money adding seed to the feeders to feed the birds only to have it thrown all around on the…

The last several days Mother Nature and I have had an interesting relationship. There were times when we’ve gotten along but other times are far from a friendly! Take for instance Thursday morning when I was laying bricks in the shed.  I had just finished with the second wheelbarrow load of bricks and returned to the brick pile to get…

We’ve all been stuck indoors too long.  It’s February and here in TN we should be getting 50 degree temperatures for highs but instead are stuck in the lower 30’s or below.  In order to help alleviate the cabin fever and feed the gardening fix I put together a little project for one of our upstairs windows.  I built a…

The organic weedkiller winner is… as selected by the random number generator at Random.org… which came up with the number… (I’m drawing this out a little)… (just for fun)… (are we having fun yet?)….   3… which means that…. Meemsnyc from the blog: Gardening in the Boroughs of NYC is the winner! Congrats and email me your mailing address ASAP…

There is a trend emerging, a very good trend, toward homeowners filling their garden with edible plantings. Homeowners are trading out ornamental plants for the practical plants that produce food and nourishment for themselves.  How does a gardener begin with changing their landscape into a practical edible garden? You might be surprised. Try creating your “foodscape” by starting at the…

It’s a horticultural crime.  A serious crime.  One with lasting repercussions on the garden and your landscape. What is crape murder? It is the unnatural and unsightly mass pruning of wonderful crape myrtle trees.  These garden trees are hacked down in the prime of life destroying what could potentially be an amazing tree.  Why do people desecrate such a noble…

…SNOW! Yep the southern Blizzard of 2011 got us pretty good this time. We have somewhere around 4-5 inches of snow on the ground. Here are a few pictures of our winter wonderland! Snow on the Arbor Snow on the Blue Garden Shed Snow on the butterfly bush Snow on the eastern cedar Snow on a hemlock Snow on a…

When it comes to vegetables from the garden sweet potatoes are a family favorite. The delicious sugary sweet baked sweet potato is an amazing side dish! Or we sometimes roast sweet potatoes with other vegetables to make a delicious dish in our favorite iron skillet. The nice thing about sweet potatoes is how easy they are to grow. In 2020…

Last year I wrote a post called What is Your Gardening Niche? It was a little post about how every gardener has their one area either of expertise or interest (most likely both) that he or she just can’t get enough of.  I remember several people decided to write their own posts based on it like Anna (Flowergardengirl) who wrote…

The plant of the week this past week was correctly guessed by several people. It is a honeysuckle vine. This particular one is sprawling up the lamp post outside my parent’s home. I suspect that it is a trumpet honeysuckle or coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens). It was there before they purchased the house so I can’t be 100% sure of…

I am by no means and expert on the subject but over the last couple months I’ve learned a lot about feed scrapers and content theft. It’s an insidious problem that just seems to get worse. Mr. Brownthumb recently invited me to do a guest post on his blog GardenBloggers (a great place for garden bloggers to get blogging tips)…

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to Gloria Ballard, the garden columnist at The Tennessean newspaper for including me in her latest article! It has some great information on Fall Planting of Vegetable Crops. Please stop over and read her article online at The Tennessean: Second Season Springs to Life in the Garden or visit Gloria’s personal…

Through the generosity of other gardeners and the creative use of old materials you can do a lot! Last week a friend of my parents was cleaning out their basement and found some things that they passed along to me. One of the items was a kitchen sink. It’s really more of a bar sink with a slightly bent faucet….

Insect pests (like aphids) are always frustrating to find on your plants. I’ve dealt with aphids many times before but I still never like to find them again. Inevitably I do. Aphids are one of the most common insect pests in every garden. If you garden you will eventually find them on one of your plants. I’ve had them on…

A morning sun picture taken on Saturday October 4th, 2008.