Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Rhododendron calendulaceumThis week’s Plant of the Week was the Flame Azalea. Most people answered it pretty close. This is actually a native plant to the Smokey Mountains. It grows from four to eight feet tall and spreads out somewhere between ten to fifteen feet. My wife and I found this particular plant in 2003 along the Abram’s Falls trail. We…

The gardener gone A.W.O.L. was me of course, but for good reasons I assure you! No doubt you are familiar with the saying “make hay while the sun shines.” Well…the sun has been shining in our Tennessee home garden. The past couple days I have been busy in the yard trying to turn this place into a fantastic garden this…

As you can tell I love gardening.  There’s nothing more satisfying than going out on a nice day to dig in the dirt, transplant plants, pick tomatoes, or propagate plants.  That’s why when our local garden club took on a new project I was excited to offer my help.  I was tempted to volunteer as the coordinator for this effort…

The Greenhouse: What To Do Next? (from The Home Garden ~ In The Greenhouse) It’s been several days since I’ve been able to accomplish anything on the greenhouse. I’m hoping that Monday will be the day to get things done as it’s predicted to be 60 degrees with only a 20% chance of rain. Usually the 20% chance of rain…

Once your plants have rooted they need potted up or planted. In most cases I will pot up the newly rooted cuttings to help them grow stronger and more established root systems before planting in the garden. Potting up cuttings is a very simple process but there are a few small things to keep in mind. For information on growing…

Today I have a very cool giveaway to tell you about. The folks at Clean Air Gardening are providing a 60 Gallon Spin Bin made from recycled materials for one lucky winner here on The Home Garden. To enter into the drawing all you need to do is comment on this post before 11:59 PM CST on Friday June 4th….

Today was my day to visit the Bloom N’ Garden Expo in Williamson County, TN. It’s a garden show put together by the Williamson County Master Gardeners which features talented speakers and all kinds of vendors ranging from carnivorous plants and daylilies to soaps, jams, and grape juice. There’s all kinds of neat stuff to see like the display gardens….

We managed to accomplish a little more on the greenhouse project this week. We ran into a small roadblock when we botched putting together the roofline and had to take the rafters down to reattach them to the center beam. I was trying to do things in a simple and easy way which turned out to be complicated and difficult,…

My wife told me today that when I post to one of the other offshoots of this blog I need to let people know with a post here!  I should listen to my wife more, but don’t tell her that! So what has been updated? For one the Fall Color Project now has several posts on it that will direct…

Over the last couple weeks the weather has been much warmer than it should be, but now we’re getting back to a much more normal December weather pattern.  There was even the mention of snow in the forecast for next week.  We’ll see.  I won’t count my chickens but a little snow would make a nice scenery change!  For now…

I’ve said repeatedly that I’m a fan of salvias. It’s no wonder since they bloom prolifically, are easy to care for, and attract pollinators right and left. One salvia in my garden (among many) that I’ve accumulated is the ‘Blue Bedder’ Salvia farinacea which is also called Blue Bedder Sage. It’s not reliably hardy to my zone according to many…

Every garden has transitions.  From the house to the garden, from one garden area to another, even within an established area a garden be transitioning from the sun to the shade, from one color to another or from one type of planting to another.  Then there are seasonal transitions.  Spring takes over from winter, summer from spring, autumn from summer,…

Here are a few pictures of the bees in my garden.  I hope you enjoy the beeutiful photos! Bee on a coneflower Purple Coneflower Bee on a sunflower Sunflower Bee on a cosmos flower Cosmos Bee on verbena Verbena bonariensis  Bee on ‘Oranges and Lemons’ Gaillardia ‘Oranges and Lemons’ Gaillardia Two Bees on coneflower ‘Sunset’ Coneflower My garden “bee” friendly,…

You can see it in the tree line in the backyard. Tinges of red coloring in the foliage of the trees, the sassafras never fails for fall color. We’re not at peak yet, at least I don’t think so but I’m afraid this year will be hard to tell. The dryness of the last two months has stressed the trees…

On Wednesday (July 29th, 2009) I’ll be hosting Worst Weed Wednesday and I’d like to invite all my fellow blogging friends to participate! All you have to do is pick out (or pick on) your least favorite garden invader in a post on your blog. It could be any plant you consider to be a weed, after all a weed…

One of the most despised “weeds” in the lawn is the dandelion.  All sorts of chemical companies offer ways to get rid of them and get your “perfect” lawn.  It’s too bad that we seek to eliminate this little flower because they have so many healthy benefits!  What is a Dandelion good for?  I’m glad you asked! The Benefits of…

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…

It’s amazing to see how plants grow. You look back at pictures taken in previous years and see a drastic difference between then and now. Take my sedum garden for instance. When it started there were only a few plants in the area between our driveway and the front sidewalk. A ‘Blue Spruce’ sedum that we had in a pot…