Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

The blue berries I’m about to show aren’t from any blueberry bush but are from the Arrowwood viburnum!  This viburnum is one of my favorites (but really, I think all viburnums are my favorites).  Viburnum dentatum has white flowers that appear in spring and are a great source of nectar for bees and butterflies.  The glossy green leaves persist until…

Rosemary is one of my favorite plants in the garden. This amazing evergreen herb is well known for fragrant aroma and culinary uses. Rosemary grows very will in a variety of conditions including pots, in gardens, in raised beds, or even indoors! You might be wondering “Can you propagate more rosemary from your garden?” Yes you can! In fact it’s…

I’m always excited to learn how to propagate something new. Recently I’ve managed to get a few cuttings of a dwarf chamaecyparis to successfully root. I started the cuttings back in the fall and kept them overwintered in the garden shed. I didn’t have any bottom heat even though I’m sure that would have sped the rooting process up significantly….

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,…

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…

Lately the birds have been returning to the feeders. These goldfinches (Carduelis tristis) all dressed in their winter coats after molting are partaking of a feast of niger seed, which is excellent for attracting finches.  Like all birds they seem to prefer the seed d’jour. Afterall who doesn’t like the fresh stuff?  Thistle, coreopsis, sunflower, service berry, birch, and alder…

One morning back in September there was a heavy dew that illuminated this web on one of our potted lemon trees. We thought it was pretty cool so we took a picture of it!

Migration isn’t just limited to the birds and the butterflies, it happens in the garden too.  We have about a month before the frost date here in Middle Tennessee (mid-October) and it’s time to move and divide the hostas in my garden.  Once that frost date comes the hosta leaves will fade away and the hostas will be harder to…

One of the areas that I would like to improve upon in our garden is the lack of winter interest. I can look outside our windows and see lots of stark naked deciduous trees waving in the wind. If they were covered in snow we would have plenty of winter interest but here in Tennessee snowfalls of that magnitude are…

Last year I told you about the Japanese maples that grew naturally from underneath a tree at my parent’s house. I over wintered young trees in my garden shed (see the April Video update) and have been taking care of them here in our garden. The other day I transferred the Japanese maple seedlings from the shed because it was…

The leaves are still fresh on my ‘Forest Pansy’ Redbud but you can already see why I picked it as a focal point for our arbor project. My idea was to place the beautiful purple foliage of the redbud where you can view it through the arbor. That can’t be done from all perspectives but as the tree grows larger…

Fall color can be enjoyed in many ways. From a distance where you see swaths of golds, reds, and oranges mixed together with evergreen foliage. Through the observation of individual leaves with their unique textures, colors, and shapes. One way I like to look at fall foliage is to see what they all look like together, merged as Mother Nature…

The most exciting time in the garden is the harvest time! It’s the time when you get to go to the vegetable garden and taste the goodies the garden has grown. All the hard work that you put into the garden shows up at the harvest stage. It’s also where you can measure how good your garden really is! I’ve…

I’d like to say some great things right now about my nasturtiums. I’d like to tell you that they are taking off and look fantastic but about the best I can do is say that we’re hanging in there. It’s just been too darn hot to get anything to grow happily from seed. June was excruciatingly hot, well over 10…

It’s that time of year when the leftovers of the gardening season go on sale at the nurseries and home improvement centers. The last of the stock plants are ready to go home like misbegotten playthings on the Island of Misfit Toys. For whatever reason these plants remained unsold and can now be found as a bargain for the thrifty…

All this rain has put me behind on planting in the garden. The tomatoes and peppers are doing good but there is more to the garden than tomatoes and peppers! Hopefully this week I’ll get a chance to accomplish a few of these things: Plant my succession crops of beans, corn, squash and zucchini. Build a better trellis for my…

Earlier this week I spent an afternoon outside with my oldest daughter who had a half day off from kindergarten. She was running around outside and playing on the swingset while her brother (our youngest) was napping in the stroller nearby. Since he rarely ever naps I was not even remotely tempted to tempt fate by moving him indoors and…

I hope everyone had a very happy holiday! We just got back in tonight after visiting several family members in various parts of Tennessee. We’re very fortunate to have both sets of parents within easy driving distance so we can visit them both at Christmas. We also spent several days in west Tennessee in Trenton and Union City where some…