Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Hopefully this will be the last time this year but there is a chance of a slight freeze tonight and tomorrow night (April 28 & 28)! The weather forecasters are predicting temperatures in the mid to upper 30’s for both nights. After that we should be in the clear.Protect those plants!If you are like me and have already planted some…

Mother nature sends us all kinds of good things to help us with the bad, we just have to know where to look! Everyone knows about lady bugs and how beneficial they are too the garden but there are other little insects that can do a good job too. Take my recent discovery of assassin bugs for example. One day…

The other evening some clouds were blowing. Here’s a look at what we saw. A small storm was on its way through our area which is usually when you get most interesting clouds!Please excuse the power lines. Half the neighborhood has them below ground, our half doesn’t.

This Thursday through Sunday is the Nashville Lawn and Garden Show put on by the Horticultural Society of Tennessee.  It’s a combination of show gardens, displays, and all kinds of garden goodies. The display gardens were impressive, filled with water features, flowering plants, and fire features! All the elements were at play in each of the designs. Natural looking water…

Many people find The Home Garden in search of gardening tips so I thought today I would oblige all the seekers of garden tips with a post all about and only about garden tips! Garden Tip #1:  Daffodil Tips! Garden Tip #2Compost is good – Use it! Make it!Keep a compost pile in the backyard to get rid of your…

Most people got it right! The correct answer was the hemlock. The Canadian Hemlock or Tsuga canadesis is a great plant to use as an evergreen screen or a specimen tree. It has the potential to grow between 40-70 feet tall and could spread up between 25-35 feet in diameter. Its foliage is soft and feathery unlike many other evergreen…

Grape vines area great edible plant to add to the garden. Grape vines can be used in many ways and have the attributes of an ornamental plant with high value as an edible plant. As an edible plant grapes can be used to make wine, juice, and their leaves are edible making them an interesting choice for wrapping food inside…

Very little progress has been made on my greenhouse shed project yet. The persistent rain combined with a much needed family vacation postponed construction, excavation and pretty much everything except for planning. But the planning is probably the most important part in any big project.  This is easily the biggest project I’ve attempted so far and I’m making sure to spend…

Maybe you can help us figure something out. Jaime sent me this picture of a plant growing where she wanted to plant zinnias. If the plant growing there is something good then she’d like to see it grow to flower but if it’s a weed well, you know what she’ll do to that weed! I’ve checked out several weed pictures…

Don’t forget that today is the last day to tell your bug tale to win an EcoSmart product!  Read here to find the details for the giveaway!

These giant mosquito like creatures called crane flies are all over the Middle Tennessee area right now. They are flies that may look like mosquitoes but aside from their unfortunate appearance have no other similar attributes. Crane flies are perfectly harmless in their adult form but can be very annoying. In their larval form they burrow through the ground until…

Every gardener has an enemy, a nemesis, an evil villain that lurks in the garden that the garden would love to eradicate. I’ve had an invader this year that has been more aggressive than ever before – Bermuda grass. Once it gets a foothold in the garden it is extremely hard to hold back, let alone eliminate.  Recently I attempted…

It’s May, and the last thing I thought I’d be writing about is a frost in May (Our last Frost date is usually mid April).  The weather service hasn’t put out a frost warning that I know of but with temperatures predicted to be 39 degrees tonight I know my garden is in danger. Our property sits down in a…

By now you’ve probably heard about the study that says organically grown vegetables are not any healthier than their “conventionally” grown counterparts.  If you haven’t I’ll sum it up in a nutshell. The study examined the nutrients and vitamins present in organic produce and compared it to conventionally grown vegetables and didn’t find a significant difference between the two. This might…

Yesterday I was shopping at our local Lowe’s home improvement store looking for weatherstripping for the garden shed. While there I casually sauntered over to the plant area (after picking up three rolls of foam insulation) to see what they had in stock. It’s rare that I go to a store that has plants and don’t take a look (unfortunately…

I just posted an update on the greenhouse shed. I re-installed the roof window over the weekend. Hop on over the greenhouse shed page and see what I did!

Over the course of the years gardeners learn many things through experimenting, reading, and talking to other gardeners. There are many different ideas and concepts to use in your garden and eventually you develop a little niche. Dictionary.com defines an ecological niche as ” the position or function of an organism in a community of plants and animals.” Your gardening…

Last week I was out of town teaching and was forced to come home early due to a awful case of food poisoning (watch out for those buffets!) When Saturday rolled around my outdoor work plans were drastically changed. I had planned on getting some mulch on a few spots but just couldn’t stand being in the heat and humidity…