Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Fall is creeping closer and closer each day which brings to mind cool evening breezes, pumpkins, festivals, the Fall Color Project (more on that later), and of course the fall vegetable growing season.  Most gardeners seem to garden almost exclusively in the spring or summer and don’t even consider the fall.  It’s probably since starting plants this time of year…

Melinda over at Elements in Time has issued a challenge to bloggers to grow one more thing than they did last year and talk about it each week! I’d probably talk about it anyway but this seemed like a good idea to see what others are doing in their gardens. Go over and check out what it’s all about!

Since I’ve been doing posts on trees this past week for Arbor Day (April 25th) I thought I would take a second to talk about one threat to your trees, tent caterpillars (Malacosoma americanum). They are quite common in Tennessee and many other areas of the country. Watch out for these little caterpillars on your hardwood trees. Once they form…

It’s been a very busy week for me and I haven’t had much time to write but I did want to post a few photos of what is growing in the garden. Today is a rainy soggy mess in the garden and not very well suited for gardening so looking back at the garden photos from the week is the…

I know most people have already put their tools away and their beds are ready for winter. It may be too early to even think about next year, but the off season (winter) is planning time for next year. It’s time to figure out what worked for the 2007 season and think about what to plant in 2008. The University…

Last year at a meeting of the Tennessee Garden Blogger Society (this does not officially exist but it seemed appropriate!) Gail brought some plant goodies to share. One of which was her Practically Perfect Pink Phlox. It’s now officially made its presence known in our garden. Thanks Gail!

It’s time for another edition of Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day brought to you by Carol of May Dreams Gardens! August is one of those times of the year before the fall flowers really start to get going where plants are kind of in transition but there are still many things in bloom. Today we’ll step back a bit and look…

Plant propagation can continue at almost every time of the year, the winter is no exception. This is especially true if you have a little space in your house to put your cuttings or can manage to manipulate them into interesting centerpieces! In this post you will see how to propagate Leyland cypress from cuttings. A Brief Bit About Leyland…

Is there a flower more typical of fall than mums?  Probably not!  There are definitely some flowers worthy of autumnal appreciation but the mum is the most common one you’ll find this time of year.  I put together a little project for Lowe’s Creative Ideas that uses mums and reuses my dad’s old wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow planter project was easy…

Over the next several days (until the voting begins on the Better Homes and Gardens 48 Hour Blog Challenge) I’ll be giving small previews of my Arbor project. It’s ready to go and I’m very pleased with the result. Here’s a first look at one aspect of the arbor: Solar Lights: Solar lights are one of those garden details that…

The garden is gearing up for growth are you ready?  Have you prepared the garden and gotten everything set to grow?  I haven’t but the warm weather is going to be here this weekend and I’ll be making some headway into my garden’s preparation.  When to prepare the garden varies depending on where you live but several of these tasks…

As a garden blogger sometimes life is frustrating. During the winter you reach for things to say, stuff to talk about and begin dragging back old pictures of the previous year just so that you can produce something for people to read. Then before you know it the growing season is in full swing and you’re practically left behind with…

When researching plants for our new house holly trees kept coming up as ideas for foundation plantings. I want to focus more on native plants, not exclusively, but with a conscience effort to lean toward native species. So I started looking to native holly trees. Native trees offer more support for local wildlife and are generally better adapted to our…

Recently I was asked some questions about gardening with children and while there are certainly quite a few tips I could mention about the subject there is one idea that stands out above all others in my mind. Do what the kids love!  Every kid is different and each one has as many different ideas as to what makes a…

It’s time for another seed starting update for our basil and peppers in peat pellets. I plant basil and peppers every year for our vegetable garden. I find that basil is indispensable as a seasoning and for making pesto. Basil also has a some companion planting benefits when planted alongside the vegetables in the garden (particularly the tomatoes!) Peppers are…

With the rise of gardening in America lots of people new to gardening are taking up trowels and digging in the dirt. Some people are just returning to gardening while others are trying for the first time. Here is just a little advice for those starting off to help you along. 1. Start Small. Don’t bite off more than you…

For the last part of my Winter Garden series I have a special treat planned. I arranged for snow to fall upon Middle Tennessee so I could illustrate how great a winter garden looks! OK, of course I’m joking but snow is very cool to look at on the garden (please forgive the pun). The weather forecast called for chances…