Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

I’ve been busy this week.  I say that as if it’s something new but it seems like life is just a matter of varying degrees of busy.  Sometimes you’re really busy and other times less so but always busy!  This week I dove headlong into my latest project.  I’ve been talking about this one for years and I’m just now…

The last week has been extremely busy and there are a mountain of fun things to talk about that sprang from it as well as quite a few neat things that will be coming down the road for the garden.  Of course right now we have results of the last of this winter’s oppressive ice storms, Titan, hanging around to…

The other day I just happened to have some extra stone that I had bought a few weeks ago on a large palette with some miscellaneous landscaping supplies. I thought that a dry creek bed might look better than the cheap looking plastic tube that was attached to the end of the downspout so I started putting one together using…

When I was out and about in the yard with my daughter on Monday I made a small discovery. It was lurking beneath the overgrown ivy topiary in a planter we have had for several years. From time to time we have planted different things in the planter. Once we had ornamental grasses and another time we had bulbs. I…

I have repeatedly written about how awesome salvias are.  I hope you’re not tired of that kind of talk because your about to get another dose!  Salvias are one of the easiest to care for perennials around. During fall they bloom profusely. They aren’t bothered terribly by heat and in many cases thrive in dry environments where other perennials may…

Fall is fast approaching us here in Tennessee whether it feels like it or not (to me it feels like September) and I’ve started thinking about what to plant. Perennials are perfect for fall plantings since their roots grow slowly over the winter to become established root systems by spring. Then in spring the root systems are ready to go…

I thought with this Seed Sowing Saturday post I would update you on how my seeds are coming more so than talk about new seeds. In fact I can sum up the new stuff in with simple sentence: I sowed ‘Rudbeckia Cappuccino’, ‘Starlight’ Coneflower, and Penstemon. There, that was easy! I’ve been busily getting the garden ready outdoors this week…

After the storms last night it feels like we dodged the proverbial bullet. Storms blasted through Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, and several other states bringing rain, lightning, hail, and tornadoes. It was not a restful evening by any means but we prepared for it. We used our closet under the stairs for a safety spot and stocked it with a…

This week I put together a container planting as a present for my mother on Mother’s Day. I couldn’t talk about it here as a post until after today since she checks my site regularly. This was my first real attempt at arranging a decorative container. I’ve gardened in pots for a long time but it was usually vegetables with…

One of the reasons I like gardening so much, and I believe that other gardeners share the same reason, is to see the result of your work. To see a job finally come to completion. I enjoy the journey and the process too, but it is extremely gratifying when the end of a project comes and something worked really well…

Last year I put together the circular raised bed in my vegetable garden.  It’s in the center of the garden layout which is in the parterre style garden layout I planned last year.  Of course my plans are changing a little this year too.  It never fails, the only thing I don’t change in my garden is the fact that…

This week my family spent a few hours gathering and hauling rock from our home construction site. When we bought the property we knew that were were “gifted” with lots of rock on the site but the amount of rock is really much more than we imagined. Surface rock was visible in many areas of the property. Rock can be…

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…

The plant of the week this past week was an oak tree. This tree is actually in West Tennessee at my wife’s grandmother’s house. It is a very large and majestic tree that provides great shade and a bounty of acorns each year. The picture was taken from the base of the tree looking up at the canopy. As for…

On Monday morning I was on WAKM AM radio show Spotlight on Spring Hill again to talk garden talk. Since here in Tennessee we just had a 2 week dry spell I thought some water conservation tips would be helpful to mention on the radio. Here’s a few tips I gave: Water in the Morning If watering is necessary, water…

Here’s another idea I had for my herb garden. I’ve been planning my vegetable garden with a shrub/perennial ring around it. This herb corridor would lead up to a small entry gate going into the garden area. The beginning of the corridor would start close to our future patio (a project for later this year). The herb garden would have…

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…