Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Here’s a quick press release from the Herb Society of Nashville about their quided walking tours. For more information contact using the email addresses below! The Herb Society of Nashville has created a variety of  Guided Walking Tours of their Cheekwood Herb Garden for May and June of this year.   The tours are conducted by members of the Nashville Herb…

While this post might be more interesting to me (for record keeping purposes) than anyone else it contains the list of seed varieties I planted on Monday Feb. 15, 2010. They were planted in peat pots and seed starting medium and are currently under lights indoors in a roughly 70 degree environment. Warmer temperatures might hasten the germination process but…

It’s time for more fall color, this time from Illinois!  Rose who writes the blog Prairie Rose’s Garden just posted her pictures of fall.  Colors in her area come from a range of plants including maples, locust trees, burning bushes, and several other colorful plants from her garden.  But of all her colorful plants you have to see her maple…

I’m always interested in trying to make new plants and recently I decided to give my Asclepias incarnata a try.  Asclepias or butterfly weed make great host plants for butterfly larvae.   I’ve always assumed that asclepias needed to be grown from seed or from root cuttings but as it turns out they will root easily from stem tip cuttings.  I…

Here you can find links to my posts about building a rain garden.The First Step to RecoveryDigging the Rain GardenWorking on the Rain GardenThe Rain Garden is Almost DonePlanting the Rain Garden(still to come)

“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…

This spring on one corner of my house I installed a shade garden. I removed the old $30 builder special privet bush and put an oak leaf hydrangea in its place. I added astilbe, ferns, hostas, heucheras, and heucherellas. We traded at a plant swap for some variegated Soloman’s seal and added annuals like caladiums, coleus, and impatiens. What I…

It hardly seems to me that spring had even started before it was gone.  This growing season has gone by so quickly, or maybe I’m just getting too busy!  Unfortunately the garden has been through some rough times.  Drought and unbelievable record heat have crippled gardening in many ways from killing plants to keeping gardener’s with common sense indoors (although…

Yesterday I spent some time out in the garden with my 3 year old daughter. We dug, we raked, we planted, we played with worms, simply put … we gardened! Here are just a few photos from our time outdoors in the beautiful weather and in the garden. (Oh and just so you know “free for all” doesn’t mean you…

Even though I’ve been fairly quiet recently about my plant propagation efforts I’m still working on several things.  Many of my cuttings I do indoors and keep away from the cold winter weather.  Very soon I’ll go and take cuttings from the evergreens but for now here’s what I’ve rooted recently. Confirmed rooted: Japanese Dappled Willows (Salix integra) – I…

Thursday I got my new camera and of course I couldn’t wait to get outside and take a few pictures to test it! Let me just say that I am impressed with this Nikon D40. The pictures are much more clear and precise. The camera just functions better than our old Olympus. I’ll still use the old camera from for…

Friday afternoon and evening I was in the yard and garden vigorously hauling compost from truck to the raised beds. Fortunately one yard of compost was all that was necessary to complete the filling of the beds.   Saturday’s task will be mulch: mulch for the garden paths and for various other locations around the yard. I can’t wait to…

The heat of summer is coming soon and the rains are going to be stingy at best though the season. Many municipalities give residents watering restrictions in an effort to keep costs down and to maintain a good water supply.  While this may seem to make watering your plants a daunting task there are several things you can do to…

They call it winter blooming jasmine, and last year it really was. I suppose that technically this year it still is but with spring fast approaching it’s almost too late to call it winter, almost. The first bloom happened several days ago but more and more blooms are rapidly opening. Its lateness in flowering is probably due to the extremely…

One of the most despised “weeds” in the lawn is the dandelion.  All sorts of chemical companies offer ways to get rid of them and get your “perfect” lawn.  It’s too bad that we seek to eliminate this little flower because they have so many healthy benefits!  What is a Dandelion good for?  I’m glad you asked! The Benefits of…

Have you ever wondered if the chlorine in your garden water harms the beneficial microbes in your garden soil? Chlorine, as you probably know, is a chemical  that is added to our water to kill off the harmful bacterias that might be present in our water supply. Unfortunately chlorine will kill the good things too. Recently I was sent a…

It’s been a long long while since I’ve updated this page about my garden shed. Of course if you follow me on the main The Home Garden page you probably know why my garden activities have slowed down over the last couple months. I won’t go into detail in this post but if you follow this link you’ll see the…

The forecast is warming up and it’s about time! The cold days might be past us and full time gardening could be about to begin. At least it will for me this weekend as I intend to get more than a few chores done, including some work on my greenhouse-shed, some pine-needle spreading, planting of more cool season vegetables, and…