Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

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…

The other day strong winds blew through Tennessee.  They were not just your normal winter winds, these were March winds – in February.  The kinds of winds we normally get in spring when the weather changes more frequently between warm and cold fronts.  Unfortunately I wasn’t prepared for the high impact of the winds.  Two glass shower doors were propped…

Happy Valentine’s Day! I gave these to my wife but thought I’d also share them with you.     Too bad you can’t smell them!

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…

May is a great time in the garden. The plants are full of growth, flowers are coming alive, the weather is good (except when it’s not 😉 ) and the irises are blooming! Lots of other things are blooming too but the irises are the standouts of the moment. The iris flowers even withstood the harsh rains of last weekend…

Another part of our back yard patio project was fixing up the deck. I suppose you could almost call this project more of a backyard remodel. In my last post I showed you a step/landing I built to bridge the gap between our patio and the deck. Today’s post is all about (and around) the deck. In the picture below…

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…

Another unforeseen issue has arisen in my garden: blister beetles!  These voracious beetles are systematically devouring the foliage of our plants.  So far they’ve taken turns tasting our tomatoes, tomatillos, and even a clematis.  I’m not heartbroken over the clematis as it’s a sweet autumn clematis that grows like a weed – it will come back.  But I do want…

Here is Part 5 of Growing The Home Garden’s series of tips on how to garden on a budget. One of the best fertilizers has to be compost. It’s cheap, easy to create, and makes plants grow like crazy. With compost you can replace most of your fertilizer use! Now why don’t more people do it? Maybe because they believe…

…One looks to the sky.

The other day I was taking the camera out for a walk.  We do that often around here.  Just my camera and me wandering through the garden.  Gazing at flowers, bugs, butterflies, and anything else of interest.  I think you know this already – but I take a lot of pictures!  I stopped by to examine a zinnia intending to take a…

In my last post I forgot to show you the Coneflower cuttings. They are easy enough to grow from seed but I wanted to see how challenging the cuttings would be to root. I took six cuttings from our coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) but only two rooted. My success rate will be greater next time since I figured out what the…

Around here in zone 7 (Tennessee) it’s still a little early to start getting very active in the garden but that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t be working on some things in the garden. Here is a to-do list for January to help get you started on a great year in the garden! (Some of the links below are…

Last year I bought a packet of California poppy seeds. I planted the poppy seeds in the fall just like I do my red corn poppies and here they are now. The blooms are bright and nothing short of spectacular. The foliage isn’t too shabby either. It reminds me very much of the foliage of my ‘Powis castle’ artemisia, silvery…

Ginkgo trees are beautiful and amazing trees. These trees (Ginkgo biloba) are native to Asia and can be extremely long lived, as in over 1,000 years! In fact the ginkgo species existed at the same time as the dinosaurs. Ginkgo trees are also called the Maidenhair tree and have fan shaped leaves. In the fall the leaves turn an amazing…

This time of year people are looking for answers to their gardening questions.  Perhaps the most common gardening questions start with the word when.  As gardeners we realize that time is a very important factor when planting plants because it can greatly effect how a plant grows in the garden. Here are a few gardening whens that people have been…

It may seem like I’m jumping ahead a bit but here is a picture of our first raised bed. I’ll be putting together a step by step post on it later. There is still one more bed to build and both of them need to be prepared for planting. As you can see the small bed is actually a little…

Last week I walked outside my front door on my way to get the morning newspaper the same as usual. Sometimes I’ll go out the back door to walk around the garden to the front yard and other days I come out the front door. There is little rhyme or reason to it, just however I feel like going. But…