Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

I wanted to put together a quick post to thank all those garden bloggers who have taken the effort to post the Fall Color Project Banner somewhere on their blog. It definitely is not required to participate but I wanted to pass on my appreciation for the extra visibility. So … thank you! Here are those who added the banner…

I’ve talked a lot about raised beds over the years here and there’s no doubt that I’m a fan but are raised beds perfect for everybody?  Does everyone need a raised bed? Should you used raised beds in your garden? Anyone could utilize raised beds to have a great garden, but you don’t have to have raised beds for an…

Every autumn, Mexican Bush Sage puts on one of the most magnificent floral displays in my garden. The velvety purple flower spikes bloom late in the season when many other plants are winding down, giving us an awesome show before winter sets in. Because we are in Zone 7 here in Tennessee, Salvia leucantha is right on the edge of…

Even in winter compost happens. It may be slower but those microbes are still hard at work turning your pile of waste into “Gardener’s Gold.” You can compost all sorts of vegetable based materials. I even heard a news story not to long ago in New Jersey where they compost roadkill carcasses! They bury the poor animals in wood chips…

Here is a picture of our new territory that I didn’t quite know I had until a couple weeks ago. It is covered in a variety of weeds including notable family favorites like ragweed, goldenrod and Queen Anne’s lace. Now if it were just the latter two weeds I would be OK with the area as a natural wild field…

I thought I would take a moment to talk about hardwood cuttings. It is the beginning of winter and which is also a great time to go out and try to reproduce many of your favorite woody trees and shrubs in the garden. Many plants will easily propagate through hardwood cuttings and I’ve included a short list below that you…

Some plants just really know how to grow! Take this Ajuga reptans (Bugleweed) that I planted in my corner shade garden area last fall for instance. I had one plant that I divided into two and planted on either side of a large stepping stone. Those two plants have now become all those that you see in the picture below….

It isn’t often I have a product to test in my garden where I actually say “Holy crap, this is awesome!” when no one else is around. Really. Products that good are really hard to come by because I’m fairly picky. A few weeks ago I was sent two items from Fiskars to try out. For disclaimer purposes I was…

Gardeners in Tennessee should be wary of planting anything this weekend. I know the temptation to put things in the ground is great (it’s eating away at me too) but just look below at the temperatures for Sunday and Monday night. According to The Weather Channel it dips very close to freezing. A much better day to plant would be…

On Monday while all three of my children were napping at the same time (that is a major feat!) I spent some time preparing some cuttings. Until Monday I really haven’t had many opportunities to get outside and garden. The weather has been too cold and with my youngest, who doesn’t seem to like taking naps during the day, I…

Tonight we were able to make good use of our vegetables from the garden. Here’s a quick look at what my family had for dinner tonight!Now the chicken was the main course and it didn’t come from the garden but the squash did! I covered it in olive oil with a little salt and pepper then grilled the squash halves….

Fall color is one of the main reasons I garden. If you followed this website for a while you may remember the Fall Color project I hosted where Garden Bloggers from all over posted about their fall color and we shared our autumn experiences. For me few trees have more outstanding fall color than the maple. Red maples and Sugar…

“Sending out an S.O.S., a chipmunk in a bottle” Although not quite the words of Sting and The Police the alteration was definitely appropriate today. I was walking through the garage after having planted three small boxwoods and I heard a strange scratching sound. My first thought was that a lizard had gotten stuck in the window. Then I began…

I’ll continue with the Seed Starting 101 Series tomorrow but I thought I would use today’s post to share with you a related project. Recently I purchased a seedling heatmat that I’ve been testing in the garage to see how seedlings will grow out there.  The results have been pretty good so far with good germination rates for kale, chard,…

Wednesday was full of randomness, although it wasn’t all gardening.  A little bird watching, a little gardening, and a little bit of house stuff all rolled together to make a Wednesday. The day started with a trip to the home improvement store.  Not for gardening stuff this time but for painting materials.  A bathroom in our house needs redone so…

Maybe you’ve heard of this already or maybe you’ve seen it in the stores yourself but Triscuit is promoting the “home farming” movement. It’s an interesting idea that backyard gardeners have been doing for many many years. Simply put home farming is growing your own food in the home garden. While gardening may be an all inclusive term to describe…

Building a new raised bed for a vegetable garden isn’t difficult and  doesn’t have to be expensive. This week I put together a new raised bed that measures 3’x10′ with materials I had laying around the garage. It’s wider than I originally intended in my garden layout but I discovered after remeasuring the area that I actually had a little…

If you’re reading this now you may be wondering why it’s been so long since my last post. Well, today I thought I’d use this post to give you an update on why my posting has diminished over the last year and where I see it going over the long term. For many years gardening has been my obsession, my…