Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

A couple weeks ago I wrote a post about fall planting of vegetables. Even though it goes against our natural inclination to think about cool season vegetables in August it’s definitely time. Like with any task good preparation is important for success. My first step in preparing the garden for planting is to determine what I want to plant. Beets…

The first frosts are almost always something that this gardener dreads.  Mostly because it is the end of the growing season – mostly, some plants will grow on through the winter. But if you look closely at the frost you can also find it is a thing of beauty. Frost on Viburnum x burkwoodii Frost on Butterfly Bush Frost on…

For those of us who garden in the summertime almost exclusively for the purpose of tasting that juicy red perfect tomato from the vegetable garden there’s a pretty good resource for you. It’s an Ebook called How to Grow Juicy Tasty Tomatoes written by Lucia Grimmer and Annette Welsford. Together the two tomato aficionados have assembled a handy resource for…

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,…

The weather this past weekend was perfect for outdoor gardening activities! Unfortunately we are still a good six weeks away from safe outdoor planting and many of the tasks on my long term spring agenda need to wait until the frosts are done, but there is always something that can be done! Garden preparation! By far the biggest job my…

I wrote about caryopteris last year so I won’t go deep into the details again but I thought you might like to see how I’m using it in the garden. First a bit of explanation. I once saw a picture of a row of caryopteris at Longwood Gardens and I thought “why not try that here?” The picture had caryopteris…

I think you will see why I bought Coreopsis ‘Limerock Dream’.  I have a fondness for perennial coreopsis since they are so easy to grow here in Tennessee. The colors on this variety drew my eyes instantly. It’s not plain yellow like my ‘Moonbeam’ Coreopsis or ‘Jethro Tull’.  The yellow colors seem to begin in the center of the flower…

Over the weekend I put together a garden for the opposite side of my sidewalk. Here’s the layout of the garden. I did this layout after I planted the garden and it isn’t to scale. It is roughly 18-20 inches wide and probably 25 feet long. I only used plants that I could transplant from other locations in my yard…

Part of my worm bin composter is finished.  This really is a very simple project that anyone can do at home.  To complete this part of the composter it only took about 30 minutes which also included the time to gather the materials and to put them away.  Since the weather outside this week is terribly cold this makes a…

I wish you could smell the garden right now.  If I could bring you the scents of my garden through this post I would.  What’s making my garden so fragrant?  A combination of two plants: Viburnum x burkwoodii ‘Mohawk’ and the irises! The combination of the two is bringing a honeysuckle like fragrance to the backyard.  I’m a huge fan…

This summer there will be another wedding in the family. My wife’s brother will be getting married to his longtime girlfriend on July 12th. What does this have to do with gardening? The ceremony is going to be help at my in-laws house in their backyard and I will need to help plan the landscaping for the area surrounding the…

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…

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…

Memorial Day isn’t about cookouts or backyard BBQs. It’s not about the fireworks or vacations either. It’s about paying tribute to the memory of those who have given their lives in the service of their country. Originally it was meant to honor those who died in the Civil War and eventually changed to honor those from all wars after World…

Sometimes the weather makes stops our plans, sometimes it changes them, and sometimes we just don’t let it stop us! Such was the case for Healing Magic Hands who braved the rain to bring us fall color. Japanese maples, American cranberry bushes, and many other fall foliage plants enticed her out of her house and into her garden while the…

Welcome to Worst Weed Wednesday! Today is the day that you can rant all you want about weeds, how much you despise them, how you would like to eradicate them (and do), and what kinds of things you say to them (please keep it PG or PG13!). I’ll update this post as more folks rant on the worst weeds in…

Here are the flowers I gave my wife for Valentine’s Day. I like to give flowers that you can plant in the garden when they are done blooming. It seems wasteful to just buy a bouquet and let them fade away. Once the weather is warm enough I’ll but them outside where we can enjoy them next spring.Here are the…

First let me apologize for not getting these posts up sooner.  This weekend has been a fun filled hectic one with carpet cleaning and a surprise leak that required a new kitchen faucet replacement.  The two events were not related unless you count the fact that they took time away from the computer! Skeeter is at it again at In…