Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

This past weekend I mentioned that we were working on cutting down some dead trees. The trees came down without a hitch and then the real work began. We chipped and cut our way through the limbs and logs. After a quick count of the rings on one of the trees we discovered that it was around 50 years old….

Insect pests (like aphids) are always frustrating to find on your plants. I’ve dealt with aphids many times before but I still never like to find them again. Inevitably I do. Aphids are one of the most common insect pests in every garden. If you garden you will eventually find them on one of your plants. I’ve had them on…

Yesterday I watched and shared this video from Quiet Creek Farms and the Penn State Extension Service on the Growing The Home Garden Facebook page.  The video has some great techniques for seed starting including a recipe for their seed starting soil.  It has a business slant geared toward developing a CSA but the techniques described are very usable in…

In all our gardens we start small and add plants as we go. If you look back the the birdbath garden you can see what I mean.  What started with a birdbath and five small plants has slowly turned into a medium size garden area with about 15 different plants. The winter garden will be no different! With economics being…

I’m always looking for new plants to experiment on to see if I can get them to root.  Yesterday I took some cuttings from a grape vine at my mom’s house.  Grape vines are pretty popular with home gardeners who want to grow their own food in the backyard so I thought I’d give them a try.  I haven’t successfully…

Today while at my in-law’s house I made a few cuttings from one of their viburnums. I’m not entirely positive about the variety but I believe it is a Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum.  Viburnums are beautiful flowering shrubs in the spring that have very few pest and disease problems. The fall color can be good too so you get a…

Yesterday evening we had storms. Heavy winds and rain knocked down sunflowers and pretty much every perennial planting over 2 feet tall that wasn’t staked up. If it could catch the wind – it did. Unfortunately our Bradford pears remained in tact – I’ve been looking for an excuse to take them down, one of these days they will break……

A couple years ago I propagated a variegated hydrangea from a beautiful hydrangea that was in my wife’s aunt’s garden. Hydrangeas are extremely easy to propagate and well worth the effort but unfortunately the spot I chose to plant it wasn’t good enough. I had assumed that the location had morning sun and afternoon shade (which it did) but there…

It’s been a looong time since I’ve posted a new Name that Plant. This one was contributed by Lola a frequent visitor here who was wondering what this plant is in her yard. I have a suspicion of what it might be but I can’t say for 100% what it is. See if you can help us out! Lola’s garden…

What do you do when cute little furry bunnies that eat your strawberries? Good question! I’m not sure I have the best answer and maybe you have some suggestions for this issue but over the weekend I found a solution that so far seems to have worked.  First let me share with you how I found bunnies in my garden….

Pictures Taken: November 10, 2008. Red Maple ‘October Glory’ (Acer rubrum)

At least for these plants! This time of year it’s simply amazing how lush and green all the plants are. Green happens to the be subject of the latest Gardening Gone Wild Photo Contest. This morning I went out and took a few pictures of the greenery around the garden that might be contest worthy. Here’s a look at a…

Today I sat down during a massive deluge of precipitation and came to a realization, I’m a seed collecting addict. It wasn’t a conscious choice to collect all these seeds, it kind of just happened over time. I counted 53 varieties of vegetables and 16 varieties of herbs. I didn’t even attempt to count the ornamental and flower seeds that…

This weekend was a busy one and not even really in the garden. The garden chores that need attention are significant but sometimes I actually have to get out of the garden to do other things! Hard to believe but it’s true! This weekend had me shopping for materials on Friday night until 9:00 at the local home improvement store…

This weekend a reader emailed me a few questions she had about my post 5 Fall Things To Do to Prepare the Vegetable Garden for Spring.  I thought that other gardeners may be interested in hearing the answers to those questions as well so for today we’ll begin an intermittent series of garden questions and answers!  Feel free to chime…

It is highly possible that post might not have happened. I’m glad it did since I’ve seen some great November colors in the blog posts listed below. Due to a computer bug and other issues this week it’s been very hard to get anything written. Whoever had the bright idea to create Trojan viruses on computers needs to be locked…

I put together a short slideshow of the greenhouse pictures I’ve taken since beginning the project. They start in August with pictures of the site and end with the greenhouse’s current state (in December 2009). I hope you enjoy the look back!

Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is one of those beautiful plants for fall color that unfortunately gets mixed up with one of similar appearance but of very ill repute: poison ivy (Rhus radicans).  The difference has traditionally been summed up in the phrase “Leaves of three let it be, leaves of five let it thrive!”  Physically speaking, that’s the difference between…