Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

One of my favorite shrubs is the Japanese dappled willow (Salix integra).  In the springtime its new foliage emerges with variegated green and cream leaves that persist through the fall.  The leaves darken some as they grow older (or for those who prefer different terminology “grow more mature”) until they bare themselves when the light levels drop and cooler temperatures…

“Sending out an S.O.S., a chipmunk in a bottle” Although not quite the words of Sting and The Police the alteration was definitely appropriate today. I was walking through the garage after having planted three small boxwoods and I heard a strange scratching sound. My first thought was that a lizard had gotten stuck in the window. Then I began…

The gardener returned to the garden today from his voyage across Tennessee.  From his home, to the lands of the cedar glades, and to the western lowlands he crossed the miles in only trio of days.  Friends from long ago were coming to visit from the northern winterlands and he had to return in time to see to their hospitality. …

Here are few things happening in my garden that are worth a look at through the photos. No real theme for this post just a chance to look at some garden pictures! Beautyberry Bush Morning Glory Red Zinnia Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

This weekend we were in West Tennessee attending a friends wedding and took a side trip to visit some of my wife’s relatives. While there I saw a horrifying site. At my wife’s grandmother’s house is a wonderful old oak tree that casts a welcoming shade on hot summer days, or at least it used to. On the right is…

My gardens haven’t seen any rain for several weeks now.  The grass is brown and I even commented to my daughter that it sounds like crunchy snow.  Of course the reality couldn’t be further from the truth – it’s hot!  No snowball could survive in our back yard today with temperatures expected to rise into the triple digits.  Droughts do…

Over the holidays we went to the West Tennessee town of Trenton to visit my wife’s grandmother. Her home rests in the middle of several acres of rich Tennessee farmland where they typically grow either soybeans, corn, or winter wheat depending upon the whim of the farmer. The crop is most likely determined through a system of crop rotation. Soybeans…

When to plant your vegetables is very important knowledge for all gardeners.  It can mean the difference between a great harvest, a late harvest, or no harvest!  It’s critical to know certain facts about the plants before you plant them. A little knowledge can go a long way to creating a great garden so let’s examine a little bit abut…

The other day I had an idea.  Instead of taking my pruned Russian sage branches and just dumping them in the compost, I thought what if I tried to make cuttings from them? I’ve propagated Russian sage cuttings very easily in the spring from softwood cuttings and even some during the summer but I’ve never tried hardwood cuttings.  This may…

As you can see from the picture to the left that this tree has taken a beating. Last fall when the deer were out in force a buck decided to rut against several of my favorite trees. Coincidentally all the deer damaged trees were young trees that I had planted in the yard including two maples, a dogwood and one…

This time of year I spend some time looking back at old photos from the garden. It’s fun to see how stuff looked back when it was growing, when leaves were on the trees, and at the most a cold wind only brought you down into the 80’s on the old thermometer. So if you’re like me and can’t wait…

The Plant of the Month for December over at Gardening Gone Wild is all about sedums!  Sedums (also called stonecrop) are a type of succulent and are capable of storing water in their leaves which makes them very drought tolerant here in Tennessee.  We have several kinds of sedum in our garden with one of my favorites being the Dragon’s…

To me it has always seemed that winter makes up for the lack of color in the skies of the sunrise.  What do you think? Are the colors of the sunrises and sunsets a substitute for the flowers and foliage of the spring, summer and fall?

Water gardening is a subject that I have very little knowledge of but thought many readers might enjoy learning about so I asked Mark Best of Garden Pond Advice to write a guest post on water plants. Water gardening is not a new subject but it is becoming increasingly popular in the everyday backyard garden. I hope you enjoying reading…

As autumn’s colors have wrapped us in a cloth of color we have peeked into the foliage around the gardening blogosphere. Participants from Canada to Florida and Illinois to England have offered up wonderful illustrations of fall’s foremost feature. It’s time to take a look back and see where all that fall color came from and where it went! I’ve…

This post will begin a series of several posts that I believe are “must have” garden plans! These are plants that I think are great for the garden in some way. Maybe they are beneficial for growing other plants, have some important benefits, maybe in the case of vegetable produce are delicious, or are simply beautiful plants to have around!…

This week we had our peak fall color.  Not to be confused with a peek at fall color which we will do also!.  Our fall color is loaded with maples, sassafras, and a few other trees along the way. We’re gifted to have our property situated on one side of a woods that gives us a great fall color view….

The evolution of a garden is an interesting thing to look back at from time to time. For this month’s Gardening Gone Wild Garden Design Workshop: Made in the Shade I thought I would take a look back at where my corner shade garden was and where it is now. Here it is last year before most of the work…