Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

By far my favorite plant from the vegetable garden is the tomato.  I don’t buy them from the stores if I can help it as there is very little flavor to be found in store bought tomatoes.  Fresh from the garden is how a tomato should be.  Today on a gray overcast winter day I’m looking back at the tomatoes…

The new year is always an exciting time. We wake up thinking of all the possibilities that a new gardening season brings us. New opportunities to grow, change, and help our garden evolve. I’m really looking forward to seeing what 2022 has in store for us. Let’s be honest the last couple years as a whole have been chaotic to…

No this isn’t some heavy weight boxing fight over on pay-per-view.  This is a garden blog after all!  This is a comparison between two very similar fall flowering perennials that really are heavy weight garden stand outs!  This battle is between ‘Sheffield Pink’ and ‘Clara Curtis’ – the pink mums! In this corner we have ‘Clara Curtis’ sporting pink petals…

Unique berry producing plants are always welcome in my garden. What do I mean by unique? I’m glad you asked! If you didn’t ask then bear with me anyway. To me a unique berry plant is one that may not be in everyone’s landscape. Plants that look spectacular because of the berries and the berries aren’t just an added bonus….

One of the best things about feeding the birds is seeing a new bird you have never seen before. We’ve seen grosbeaks like blue grosbeaks and cardinals (which are a type of grosbeak) but this is the first rose breasted grosbeak we have seen. It’s not a surprise that we haven’t seen them before since they are migrating north to…

I know what this plant is, do you? See if you can guess it!The young foliage.The flowers.A stem covered with bugs! (Crane flies, harmless but they are everywhere right now)

This Sunday’s weather was gorgeous.  A little cooler than we’ve been having but a great day to get out and get some big jobs done.  I spent much of the day mowing and preparing the vegetable garden then went around taking pictures of the gardens.  Things are coming along nicely but there was one issue I’m not too pleased about:…

We all make mistakes in the garden on occasion. In fact I do it on a regular basis. Usually my mistakes are those where I forget to do something or I intend to come back and finish something but run out of time to get back to it. My biggest mistake is typically taking on too much for what my…

OK, not really, I know the postage would be expensive! Still I want to see your shed or greenhouse photos. I’m looking for ideas and inspiration to build one of my own eventually and would love to have some sheds to share here on The Home Garden. If you would like to contribute a shed or greenhouse photo of your…

I’ve written several times before about raised beds.  I’m a fan, a huge fan of raised beds. With a raised bed you can control the soil, control the moisture, and garden virtually anywhere.  It makes sense that raised beds are a great option for every homeowner (here’s why: 8 Benefits to Gardening in Raised Beds).  The question though that new…

For a quick, easy, and cheap stocking stuffer gift idea try a homemade seed packet! I learned how to put together these seed packets that use a technique of  paper folding from Nancy Ondra’s blog Hayefield House. Go take a look at her post titled Origami for Seed Savers to learn how. The only thing that you need to do…

This little chickadee was seen on my back deck going after some birdseed.  It’s always fun to watch the chickadees fly around. They seem fearless and will often just land a few feet way while I’m working in the garden. I didn’t participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count last weekend but I think next year I’ll jump in and…

Here is Part Six of The Home Garden’s series of posts on how to garden on a budget.I began planning this post with the intention of talking about the importance of planning a garden. After typing and typing I realized that this is a subject so large that it really needed to be broken down into smaller sections. One of…

This is a paid endorsement. I have been compensated and provided with products free of charge in return for my honest opinion. All opinions are 100% my own! If you’ve followed Growing the Home Garden for a while know then you might remember that I’ve worked with Troy-Bilt as a member of the Saturday6. Through Troy-Bilt I’ve had the opportunity…

This past weekend we went to visit my wife’s family. On the property they have a couple Japanese Dappled Willows (‘Hiroki Nishiki’) that I’ve taken cuttings from in the past. They are several years old and have really become large shrubs stretching over ten feet tall. Needless to say a shrub this large needs a special place and if doesn’t…

It isn’t often I have a product to test in my garden where I actually say “Holy crap, this is awesome!” when no one else is around. Really. Products that good are really hard to come by because I’m fairly picky. A few weeks ago I was sent two items from Fiskars to try out. For disclaimer purposes I was…

It’s that time of the year again. That time when I go out and take cuttings of everything I can. For today’s post I took 6 cuttings of a ‘Husker’s Red’ Penstemon (Penstemon digitalis) and 6 cuttings of Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia). I picked up the ‘Husker’s Red’ Penstemon on the discount racks last year just as it was losing…

Sometimes there comes along a plant that is just a gardener’s dream. Beautiful during the growing season, native, great for pollinators, great for birds, useful in the landscape, and overall easy to care for. I’ve got you hooked already don’t I? This plant would be a member of one of my favorite groups of plants: the viburnums. Viburnum dentatum aka…