Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

We were sitting at the breakfast table on Sunday morning when an unusual sight appeared from the wooded area in the back of our yard. We watched as this dog-like apparition glided from the woods and crept across the grass. It was a coyote and it wasn’t a welcome sight to my eyes. As a father of two small children…

 For More Say Nothin’ Saturday visit TC!

This are warming up again around our Tennessee garden this February.  While I’m writing this post spring-like storms are pouring down outside.  February again seems more like March than February!  But that’s how it is sometimes with our weather patterns in TN.  We get some crazy stuff sometimes.  The unseasonable warmth has given rise to many things that would normally…

Spring is in full swing here in Tennessee and that means people everywhere are headed outdoors.  Some to play, some to work, and others to just hang out on the front porch with glass of sweet tea.  That’s what we do here in the south, sweet tea on the front porch.  This week I put together two small and very…

I really like using rock and stone in the garden. I’ve used rocks and stone for two main uses: as stepping stones or as borders. I prefer natural stones that have a rough hewn look. I like the irregular forms, the variety, and the general natural quality of the stones. The problem is the perfect flat stones are not readily…

In our front yard is a triangular shaped area that for now I’m calling the Iris Garden.  In a week or so after the irises finish blooming I’ll have to change the name to something else but for now the Iris Garden works!  I actually began this garden area as a winter color garden but soon realized that winter color…

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you and your family have a fantastic Thanksgiving filled with fun, family, and of course food!

While the winter is still in gear I thought it might be helpful to begin reviewing some of the toughest plants I have grown over the years. I’ve grown a lot of them (and killed a few of them along the way). In my garden it has to be a tough plant to survive over the years. Today I’m going…

If you enjoy gardening and consider yourself a garden chances are you walk around with the same perspective that I have. Everywhere I go I find myself observing, mentally recording, and analyzing how plantings work in various gardens. It might the house down the street, a business, a park, or any other place with some semblance of a garden that…

When redesigning the vegetable garden I decided to dedicate one 4’x6′ bed solely to the cultivation of scrumptious strawberries. Since they are perennials this bed is no longer in any kind of rotation with the other beds but it was necessary, at least for now.  The strawberries began blooming this weekend which really isn’t the greatest of times to start…

One of the fun side events caused by the gardening habit is the witnessing of nature’s amazing works. Lately I’ve been seeing quite a bit of the fritillary butterfly in its various stages of growth.  It’s probably the gulf fritillary butterfly but there are several different kinds in our area and even though I’m a plant person I’m not necessarily…

Every now and then I take a look around the Gardening Blogosphere to see if there are any new Tennessee Bloggers. And every now and then I find a few! Of course I have to thank Gail of Clay and Limestone for finding DP at Squarefoot Gardening. One of the great things about garden blogging is that each gardener has…

Saving seeds of squash and zucchini is a very simple process. When the growing season begins to wan start allowing a few squash fruits to grow. They will become large and tough and won’t be well suited for eating but will be perfect for generating seeds. Once the squash fruits are of a suitable extra large size harvest them and…

One of the reasons so many people enjoy gardening as a hobby is to attract wildlife. All sorts of wildlife can enjoy you gardening from the butterflies and bees to the deer, but few kinds of wildlife are easier to attract than the birds. One of our most frequent fliers is the tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor).This mouse gray bird with…

Most people got it right! The correct answer was the hemlock. The Canadian Hemlock or Tsuga canadesis is a great plant to use as an evergreen screen or a specimen tree. It has the potential to grow between 40-70 feet tall and could spread up between 25-35 feet in diameter. Its foliage is soft and feathery unlike many other evergreen…

Recently I highlighted a few new acquisitions to my garden under the guise of some sort of window collection. Clearly all you bright gardeners saw right through my windows and into my future plans to put together a greenhouse! Today I’ll officially tell you about my plans, and more specifically about its location, even though I still don’t have a…

Every gardener has an enemy, a nemesis, an evil villain that lurks in the garden that the garden would love to eradicate. I’ve had an invader this year that has been more aggressive than ever before – Bermuda grass. Once it gets a foothold in the garden it is extremely hard to hold back, let alone eliminate.  Recently I attempted…

Here is what blooms in my Tennessee garden in May 2010. There’s always a lot to see this time of year and I’m sure I’ve missed some things but here we go! Red AchilleaPatio Garden – Garden Shed in the background Achillea, Phlox pilosa, and Catmint CombinationDeck Garden – The irises here are done but the foliage still remains. Nepeta…