Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

I needed to get a few things done in the garden today but I had a limited amount of time to do it. The oldest girl (2 years) went down for her nap just when the youngest one (just over 5 months) woke up from her nap. When their naps overlap is when I can get something done, but that…

Back in the fall I decided to take some arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) cuttings and test to see how well they would root over the winter. Propagating plants over the winter as hardwood cuttings has some big advantages so it was definitely worth trying. How I Took the Arborvitae Cuttings I used the same method for taking cuttings that I wrote…

“Blame it on the rain, yeah yeah.” OK I apologize for bringing up old Milli Vanilli lyrics, but those words have been going through my head for days and I figured I would share the pain. I’m in a state of depression about my vegetable garden right now and it’s all because of precipitation. This was July and is now…

Last year I bought a packet of California poppy seeds. I planted the poppy seeds in the fall just like I do my red corn poppies and here they are now. The blooms are bright and nothing short of spectacular. The foliage isn’t too shabby either. It reminds me very much of the foliage of my ‘Powis castle’ artemisia, silvery…

Recently I happened to by driving by our property and noticed a huge change, one that I hadn’t planned. Suddenly a good portion of the front of the land was cleared. It was something we were going to have to pay for eventually when installing the water line for our future home but we didn’t hire anyone to do the…

It really seems that spring has sprung already. The warm temperatures have brought everything to life, I only hope that the plants aren’t doomed by the next freeze happens to come along. It’s reminiscent of the spring of 2007. Back then we had an early warm-up followed by a hard freeze that damaged a significant number of Japanese maples and…

How would you like to add a firepit and a grill to your garden at the same time?  Well today you get your chance!  The people at Serenity Health and Home Decor have given me the go ahead to give away this amazing firepit/grill. All you have to do is comment in the comment section of this post on Growing…

I’m glad you asked! I’ve been updating you on the status of the raised bed garden over the last several days but I have mostly written about the structure of the garden like the mulched paths.  I haven’t really written about what is growing in there.  It’s time to remedy the situation! The first picture is a little radish sprout….

Today I had an odd thing happen. I was working in the garage when all of a sudden something slammed into the wall above the garage door. How a bird could mistake a wall for open air I don’t really know. Of course many birds aren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed. After all where else would the expression…

This formerly beautiful coreopsis that I raised from seed last year was nearly completely devoured by leaf beetle larvae.  I don’t know enough about insects to identify which species of leaf beetle it is but I am positive it is a Calligrapha. The damage is pretty devastating. The leaves are spotted with holes and very few leaves have escaped untouched….

For those of us who garden in the summertime almost exclusively for the purpose of tasting that juicy red perfect tomato from the vegetable garden there’s a pretty good resource for you. It’s an Ebook called How to Grow Juicy Tasty Tomatoes written by Lucia Grimmer and Annette Welsford. Together the two tomato aficionados have assembled a handy resource for…

Yesterday MeemsNYC asked me in the comment section of my What Would Thanksgiving Be Without the Nuts? Plant them of course! I gathered up a small box of acorns and brought them home with me from my in-law’s house. You’re probably wondering why would he gather up a bunch of acorns to plant when they self sow readily on their…

It’s fall and the gardening season is winding down, but it’s not too late to save a few dollars for next year. There are lots of techniques gardeners can do this time of year to save money for next season. Today I’m going to give you five ideas that will help you save money on next year’s gardening budget! So…

‘Bruce’ Plum This weekend I am proud to say that our edible landscaping situation has been improved by two plums! We planted two (hopefully delicious) plum trees along our sideyard. To get proper pollination you have to plant two varieties that bloom within the same window so that they may cross pollinate. The two plums trees were Prunus salacina ‘Morris’…

Along the posts of the arbor project we added a little decoration. Welcome to Japanese Maple Leaf Decor 101: How to Stain an Arbor! First we put the initial coat of stain on the 4″x4″s then placed a leaf of a Japanese maple on the still slightly damp wood. Then we removed the leaf after a second coat of stain…

Recently while upsizing my tomato seedlings into larger pots I needed some plant labels. Normally I will use the cut up slats of mini-blinds. I have a few sets I’ve collected over the years just for this purpose but I actually didn’t have them here at our current house. They were back over at the old house waiting to be…

Of all the fall colors I’ve seen this year the Japanese maples seem to have topped all other trees.  This Japanese maple at my mom’s house was figuratively on fire with red foliage lighting up the scenery.  I didn’t have my camera with me when it was at its peak but even past peak it’s beauty can still be seen….

Every home gardener wants their plants to thrive and do well. Often there are little, easy to do things that can greatly improve the chances of plants in your garden succeeding. Here we are going to talk about one thing you can do to help your tomato and pepper plants grow great: pruning off the lower leaves or as I…