Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

I found these little insects today resting and munching on our Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly weed). They are known as milkweed bugs or Oncopeltus fasciatus. According to the University of Arizona Extension the milkweed bugs feed on: Seeds and tissue of the milkweed plant (Asclepias spp.). In captivity, the bugs feed on shelled sunflower seeds. I’m trying to figure out the…

I do a lot of thinking. Too much probably but I have ideas and they have to work themselves out in my head or in the garden one way or another!  The gardening “off-season” is when I plan.  It’s when I take those thoughts in my head and entertain them before discarding the impractical ones.  You know, like the idea…

If you’re reading this now you may be wondering why it’s been so long since my last post. Well, today I thought I’d use this post to give you an update on why my posting has diminished over the last year and where I see it going over the long term. For many years gardening has been my obsession, my…

Here’s the situation. I have two pots on my front steps which each house an arrangement of Dusty Miller and cordyline.  The problem is the cordyline is looking a little worse for wear.  It’s not supposed to be hardy here in Tennessee but so far it’s stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive despite cold temperatures in the mid to lower 20’s. It’s…

A couple years ago I bought a fantastic native plant at a local native plant nursery. It was a red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) and is great for attracting everyone’s favorite tiny garden visitor, the hummingbird. The flower clusters are red (you probably expected that from the name: red buckeye), tubular, and bloom in early spring. Red buckeye trees grow best…

The first yellow crocus of the year has emerged from the front garden! Many more blooms to come!

This past Saturday I went to the Nashville Lawn and Garden Show.  The weather outside was a snowy overcast mess so what better way could there be to spend the day than to go somewhere with gardens and plants?  We brought the whole family up and had a great time perusing the garden displays, playing with ducks and chickens, and…

This Vegetable Garden To-Do list may or may not be relevant to you. If you’re in zone 6-7 it probably is, if not it might be useful later – or maybe you already did it! It’s just a collection of things that I desperately need to complete in the vegetable garden. Maybe desperate it too strong of a word but…

Welcome to my Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day Post for September 2008. On the 15th of each month Carol at May Dreams Gardens encourages her fellow garden bloggers to show what’s blooming in their garden. Please stop by her site to see what else is blooming around the blogosphere!We’ve made it through August and survived with the minuscule amounts of rain…

If you like Heucheras or Coral Bells as much as I do then take a look at this video from Fine Gardening Magazine. In it Alan Armitage talks about the heucheras in the trial gardens at the University of Georgia. Heuchera ‘Silver Scrolls’ and Heuchera ‘Rave On’ stand out as two perennials I will have to add to my garden…

Yesterday in a walk around the yard we discovered some signs of the spring to come. Daffodils are sprouting up all over, the verbena is greening up and some sedum sprouts are peaking from their winter slumber. Maybe it’s early, but the temperatures have felt like spring. Historically our worst winter weather tends to happen in February and March but…

The moment I found out what that particularly green feathery weed in my yard was, it was war! RAGWEED! It was everywhere in our yard. The front, the back, the sides, underneath hollies in all the garden beds, and pretty much everywhere else you looked it was there. Like an alien entity overlooking our planet while planning its method of…

Like a picture, a walk in the garden is worth a thousand words.

My recent fascination with the snowy owl visiting our town isn’t something new, I’ve always been interested in birds and wildlife. Gardening and nature to me are so closely woven together in the tapestry of life that you don’t get one without the other, and if you do you’re doing something wrong. Nature in all it’s glory ultimately controls what…

Yet again I could not resist the urge to look for discount plants, and I found some! I picked up three more ‘East Friesland’ salvias, three ‘Caradonna’ salvias, another viburnum, and two ‘Patriot’ hostas. My total for these nine forlorn plants was $8.74 after taxes. The salvias were all in great shape for being on a discount rack. The hosta…

Newly formed Oak Leaf Hydrangea leaves stretch skyward as if they were hands imploring the coming cold temperatures to be gentle.

Rosemary is a wonderful plant for gardening. I love it as a ornamental shrub as well as an edible herb. The problem is it CAN be finicky. Sometimes the winter cold is too tough for rosemary and it sadly dies over the winter. Fortunately there are techniques you can use to make sure your rosemary comes back year after year….

Ah Sunflower, weary of time,Who countest the steps of the sun;Seeking after that sweet golden clime Where the traveler’s journey is done;Where the youth pined away with desire, And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,Arise from their graves, and aspire Where my Sunflower wishes to go!by William BlakeThis post is was inspired by the wonderful poems and quotations provided daily…