Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

The other day I mentioned I had another daylily that was about to bloom called ‘Primal Scream’, well that daylily is screaming now! ‘Primal Scream’ has large orange blooms that have faint hints of reddish coloring in the outer edges of the petals and a more true orange color the further toward the center. I planted my ‘Primal Scream’ daylily…

It really seems that spring has sprung already. The warm temperatures have brought everything to life, I only hope that the plants aren’t doomed by the next freeze happens to come along. It’s reminiscent of the spring of 2007. Back then we had an early warm-up followed by a hard freeze that damaged a significant number of Japanese maples and…

So what is a weed? By nearly every gardener’s definition a weed is simply a plant in the wrong place. It could be a flower that self-seeded in an unwanted location but that’s not what most people really consider a problem plant, and true weeds are problem plants. So for Worst Weed Wednesday here are several plants from my gardens…

I mentioned earlier today in a post on Facebook about using homemade seed packets as a gift idea for stocking stuffers. You can read more about that type of seed packet in this post: using wrapping paper for homemade seed packets.  If you want a more typical style of seed packet that you can customize I put together a simple…

It’s getting close now. Can you feel it? Seed starting time! In preparation for my seed starting activities of 2020 I thought it would be fun to tell you about my favorite tomato and pepper varieties for Growing The Home Garden. In this video I go through some of my tried and try peppers and tomato varieties. They may not…

Every home gardener wants their plants to thrive and do well. Often there are little, easy to do things that can greatly improve the chances of plants in your garden succeeding. Here we are going to talk about one thing you can do to help your tomato and pepper plants grow great: pruning off the lower leaves or as I…

This weekend we ventured up to my wife’s parents house. I’m always looking for something plant or garden related to get into so I braved the 30 degree temperatures for a little while to see what I could find. I decided to take some more dwarf English Laurel Cuttings (Prunus laurocerasus popular varieties are ‘Otto Luyken’ and ‘Schip Laurels’.) in…

As the first frost approaches, now is the time to take essential steps to protect your garden and set yourself up for success next spring. Below are a few simple garden tips that can help you save money and preserve your favorite plants while extending the beauty of your garden into the cooler months. Propagating Tender Perennial Plants Propagating perennials…

Part two of my Arbor Day experiment will begin soon! Today I received my 10 free trees. I found them unceremoniously shoved into my mailbox courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service. Fortunately I don’t think any damage was done. I would think that a package that has LIVE PLANTS in big letters on the outside of it would dropped off…

With fall almost here it’s time to start thinking about gardening chores and the task that most people have to do in some way is deal with the leaves. What do you do with the leaves is an important question. For way too long many people have burned them which to me is the worst possible way to dispose of…

It seems to me that phlox and rocks just go well together. It’s not just the rhyming sounds that make the words blend but it’s how the plants and rocks function together. Creeping phlox just loves to wrap itself around nearby objects and rocks are no exception! When I added the border rocks to the front garden I left a…

The weather in Tennessee is extremely volatile this time of year.  One day it could be in the 70’s (as it was today) and then the next day it could be a 40 degree high (as it is predicted for tomorrow!) This makes it a challenge to garden in the spring time.  There are a few things you can do…

There is a kind of magic in making cuttings. Watching something as simple and unremarkable as a little twig come to life with roots and branches all of its own can only be fascinating to the gardener. Several weeks ago I planted my Winter Garden with various plants which included three red twig dogwoods (Cornus stolonifera). These little dogwoods were…

Here’s just a quick list of what needs done with the rain garden in chronological order. 1) Finish excavation: I need to expand the “Big Dig” to its final size. I’m not 100% sure how much bigger I’ll make it but I want to shape into more of a curve. I also need to finish excavating the channel parallel to…

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….

Parsley for me used to be that thing on the side of my plate at restaurants. I didn’t think much about it and it seemed like a useless garnish. Today though I appreciate parsley in a number of dishes and in the garden. Parsley is a very good plant to have mixed together with your garden vegetables. Here is an…

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,…

Today was one of those days when everyone decided to have a great idea at once, post about fall colors! Unfortunately I’ve been working all day on the greenhouse and have just now been able to update the project. Better late than never right?We’ll start today’s flurry of fall foliage posts in the order they were received!The first stop today…