Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

The Lion stalks through the underbrush. In search of his prey… He stops to inspect his surroundings, … ever aware, ever watchful…  he quickly and stealthily crosses the open spaces for cover, still on the hunt… close now to his prey, he stalks again behind the cover of the underbrush… and fertilizes!

Almost sounds like a Christmas song but White Nose is the name of a squirrel that frequents our yard and our back deck. He’s a pretty big little guy with a furry white nose, hence his name. He feels quite comfortable partaking of our bird buffet. I really don’t mind the squirrels visiting the bird feeders. The only bad thing…

It’s taken a few years before my premonitions came to fruition. It’s not that I wanted it to happen I just expected it.  It was inevitable and couldn’t be avoided.  The ‘Bradford’ Pear tree in my front yard split. No storm brought damaging high winds that would wreak havoc among many species of trees. There were no diseases making the…

Want to do something nice for the birds?  Feed them!  Here’s an easy way to do it! Get a grapefruit (any suitable citrus will work). Cut it in half. Eat the grapefruit. (Important step) Fill grapefruit halves with bird seed. Set grapefruit halves on a deck rail Enjoy watching the birds! Piece of cake – or rather a piece of fruit!

To say I’m a fan of heucheras is an understatement. I like to think of myself as a collector of coral bells, as they are often called, even though my collection is still just a work in progress. I’m gradually adding different varieties to my garden but seem to be running out of room in the corner shade garden (corner…

It’s nearly summer which means that it’s time for the daylilies to be showing off their flowers. Daylilies aren’t native plants by any means but they do really well here in Tennessee.  They have very few problems and tend to grow nearly untended!  I’m sure that combining their low maintenance attribute with their beauty is why they have become so…

This weekend we were in West Tennessee attending a friends wedding and took a side trip to visit some of my wife’s relatives. While there I saw a horrifying site. At my wife’s grandmother’s house is a wonderful old oak tree that casts a welcoming shade on hot summer days, or at least it used to. On the right is…

I was tagged by Christopher at Outside Clyde to list eight things that make me happy. Then I get to name 8 other victims to do the same!Here are the rules: When tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Post these rules before your list, then list 8 thoughts that make you happy. At the end of…

For the 10th installment of The Home Garden’s series on thrifty gardening we’ll be talking about propagating plants by division!Learning how to divide plants is quite possibly one of the most useful skills that any gardener can learn to do. Many plants will eventually lose their vigor over time and dividing them is a great way to reinvigorate those plants…

I wanted to share a few more pictures from my visit to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens the other day but also wanted to give you a Friday 5 post so I thought why not put the two together?  For today I’ll give you 5 Great reasons to visit Cheekwood and show you some of the great features I saw during my…

One of the first things to greet anyone at our house is the mailbox garden. It’s the first thing that people see as they drive by or visit. It’s also about the only thing you can see of our gardens from a distance since our house sits down below the street level in a cul-de-sac that most people probably don’t…

Who is this peaking up from the mulch in my garden? Give me your best guess! You may have some of these coming up in your garden too. I’ll show pictures as it grows for you to find out if your guess is correct.Here is the update. I bet you can guess it now. The variegated green leaves are pushing…

The blue berries I’m about to show aren’t from any blueberry bush but are from the Arrowwood viburnum!  This viburnum is one of my favorites (but really, I think all viburnums are my favorites).  Viburnum dentatum has white flowers that appear in spring and are a great source of nectar for bees and butterflies.  The glossy green leaves persist until…

One of our favorite vegetables to grow each year is the yellow summer squash. These are some of the best looking squash plants we’ve managed to grow. It could be due to the increased rain this year or maybe the raised beds, but whatever the reason the plants are looking full and strong. They should provide an abundance of squash…

The daffodils are officially in bloom here in my Tennessee Garden! Every year I like to mark the beginning of the daffodil blooms as it is one of the many signs of spring. (Coming very soon: Forsythia) It’s hard not to get excited about spring’s arrival after such a cold winter isn’t it? The first daffodil of 2009 was photographed…

We are told all the time about what you can do to be “greener.” Things ranging from changing the light bulbs in your home to setting the heat back a few degrees are common tips we hear but what about in the garden?  There are several things we can do to enhance our environmental “greenness” in the garden and here’s…

If you are tired of hauling your old newspapers to the dump or recycling there are a couple good uses of it for around the house. First its important to note that newspaper is biodegradable and most of the inks are soy based so there will be no harm to the environment. In fact the newspaper should add to the…

Don’t forget that today is the last day to tell your bug tale to win an EcoSmart product!  Read here to find the details for the giveaway!