Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

The last thing I want to do in the heat of July is a list of chores but to help the garden through the blazing summer sun there are a few things I have to do. I suspect that you will be doing at least some of these things too! Watering: In the morning is the best time to water…

With the growing season coming to a close its time to start planning for next year’s landscape. Every now and then I like to design landscapes for people. Here is a sample of a small garden design that I made for a couple friends of ours. Its actually a memorial garden and is suitable for almost any corner of a…

On a cold morning such as this you might be wondering “what can I do in the garden?”  Or you might be wondering “why does he know what I’m wondering?”  Or…maybe not, whatever the case is cold winter days are good for the garden and the gardener.  The garden needs those cold winter days to get enough stratification time for…

It’s been a long time.  Last year, or last mowing season, I had the misfortune of blowing up my mower.  Well I nearly blew up my mower. It was close, very close.  While mowing one fine spring day last May the blades ran over a nylon cord and got caught.  I did what any responsible power tool user does in…

This week I actually found myself outdoors sowing seeds directly into the soil of my garden. Thanks to wonderful Tennessee weather, where you can count on a few days of warm even in February, we’re able to plant a few cool season crops this month. So far in the vegetable garden I’ve planted: Lettuce – two varieties Little Gem, and…

Every now and then there is a plant that will root from the leaves, like Asiatic lilies I wrote about earlier in the year. Sedums are another one of those kinds of plants. Recently I rooted several cuttings of ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum and another sedum I don’t know the name of but bears a resemblance to Sedum seiboldii.  You might…

Last week I posted some pictures of our front sidewalk garden. This past weekend I moved ahead with my plans and put together the garden for the other side of the sidewalk. You can look at my last post to see the layout. As you can see in the above and below pictures on the yard side of the sidewalk…

Much of the time I find myself wandering around the garden with a new plant in hand just trying to find a good home. It usually happens as a result of an impulse buy or a plant swap/present that I wasn’t really counting on getting. Sometimes I see the plant and think “that would look good over there by the…”…

Sometimes there are seeds that are just too cool not to have their own post which is the case for butterfly weed seeds! Asclepias tuberosa is a beautiful orange plant in the garden and along roadsides but what is really neat is its method of seed dispersal. After pollination the seed pods begin to form. Inside those pods small seeds…

As autumn’s colors have wrapped us in a cloth of color we have peeked into the foliage around the gardening blogosphere. Participants from Canada to Florida and Illinois to England have offered up wonderful illustrations of fall’s foremost feature. It’s time to take a look back and see where all that fall color came from and where it went! I’ve…

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…

Yesterday we went on a scouting mission. Needham’s Nursery in Mount Juliet was the territory we explored. The game was scarce as the season has not officially begun, but as I said it was only a scouting mission. We wandered the paths of our quarry occasionally stopping to observe, admire, and record the potential acquisitions.Although it was early, what we…

Once your seeds have grown big enough to plant out in the garden it’s time to find a way to get them into the garden.  Direct sowed seeds have a big advantage in this area as they have grown from the start in the great outdoors are are already well adapted to the weather.  Seedlings grown indoors aren’t so lucky. …

I bet when you read the first three words “Bradford Pears breaking” you immediately though of another kind of breaking. One of the reasons they are on my least favorite ornamental tree list is because the trees frequently break in storms. These trees grow so fast that the wood suffers and they just can’t muster the strength to hold out…

While out of town this past weekend at my in-laws home I took the opportunity to take more cuttings from their pyracantha (Pyracantha augustifolia). It is a favorite of shrub for birds due to its bright orange berries and is has an appropriately named common name: Firethorn. Firethorn’s thorns are quite sharp and offer the plant good protection from would…

I know a lot of people are busy in their gardens, spending time with family, or working from home and may not have had a chance to catch up on the latest posts and videos from Growing The Home Garden. I thought it would be a good idea to put out a summary post with the past week’s post. Enjoy!…

Companion planting is a great technique for a successful gardening. There are many combinations of garden plants that work well together including onions and potatoes. Here’s why! What is Companion Planting? How does it work for Potatoes and Onions? Companion planting takes advantage of complementary plants that can offer each other benefits to aid in their growth. There are a…

The autumn equinox is this weekend which means fall will be officially here but along the way nature has been telling us that fall is here already.  Let’s take a peek at some of the signs of fall around my garden. 5 Signs of Autumn’s Arrival The annual discussion of what causes allergies begins when the golden rod blooms.  Goldenrod…