Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

If you want a drought tolerant hardy perennial that looks great check out a ‘Moonbeam’ coreopsis. ‘Moonbeam’ is one of the threadleaf varieties and is more drought tolerant because of those narrow needle-like leaves. The smaller surface area means that the leaves lose less water through transpiration than other varieties of coreopsis. It still has the massive profusion of blooms…

Last year I planted two ‘Winter’s Snowman’ camellias in the front garden. I was hoping that they would bloom last year but alas it was not to be, but they have started blooming this year! The first of the white camellia blooms opened today.  It wasn’t fully open when I snapped the picture but I just couldn’t wait to share…

There are few shrubs I like better than viburnums and truly the ‘Shasta’ Viburnum (Viburnum plicatum f. tormentosum) is one of the more beautiful selections of viburnums. The viburnum pictured below is in its fourth year of growing in my garden and has never looked better!  Loads of white lacecap flowers cover the branches in a two row fashion which…

When starting a new garden there are a million things you may be thinking about. While they may be important, or at least important to you, there are 3 key elements that are absolutely the most important things to consider when starting a new garden. I’m beginning the challenge to starting a brand new vegetable garden from scratch and these…

Rocks are a great landscape feature to add to your yard and garden. They come in all sizes and don’t need any real maintenance. You can put moss on the rocks or let them rest as silent monoliths watching over your garden. You can use them for edging, for paving stones, stepping stones, and retaining walls. There are just so…

A while back Teak Closeouts sent me several samples to try out and see if I could use in the garden. They carry a really neat line of products that general come from overstock teak wood products and sell it at better prices.  They also have other products made from teak root which can be very interesting when used for…

Last week the idea of genetically modified seeds popped up due to a seed giveaway I was hosting. I mentioned that it would be a good topic for further discussion and recently Susy at Chiot’s Run put together a great post explaining everything that you need to know about GM seeds. It’s frustrating to realize that a large seed conglomerate…

In our yard exist many corners that have not yet been cultivated. Most of these spots may never receive more than a cursory attempt at management. While I was mowing today I drove through one such area that completely caught me off guard. Along our back property line is an old fence that I’m sure was there before our subdivision…

Have you ever been given a plant and you were told it was something then it turned out to be something else completely different? That happened to me back at the plant swap this spring. I was given several pots of ‘Black and Blue’ Salvia that day and didn’t look at any of them very closely. I was in a…

I was out today looking at the sorry state of the gardens and though it might be an interesting exercise to look back at how the gardens appeared last spring and compare them. Over the next few posts I’ll go back for a few photos of the spring time version and contrast it with that same garden today. Let me…

If you live in an area with plenty of trees you are blessed with adequate building materials for trellises and posts. They may be rustic in appearance but they can function pretty good.  Today I’ll show you my new trellis for my sugar snap peas.  It’s made from 5 pieces of dead wood that fell from our tulip poplar tree. …

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…

It’s time for my end of the year garden project review. In the remote case you don’t know what I mean I’ll explain. This is where I go back and see what I actually accomplished from among the lofty project goals I established on January 1, 2009. I’ll have a new set of projects for 2010 very soon but some…

Obviously if you are reading this post you have discovered the world of garden blogging, but do you know how it can help you in your garden? Do you know how to best utilize garden blogs for your benefit? I have a tip that may give you a few ideas, but first let’s look at what garden blogging is about….

Here is Part 3 in The Home Garden’s series of posts about how to garden on a budget.One thing that drives me crazy about lawn mowing is when I see someone mowing their grass when it doesn’t need it. Imagine the scene: it hasn’t rained in two weeks, the grass hasn’t grown a centimeter, and someone is out riding in…

By far my favorite plant from the vegetable garden is the tomato.  I don’t buy them from the stores if I can help it as there is very little flavor to be found in store bought tomatoes.  Fresh from the garden is how a tomato should be.  Today on a gray overcast winter day I’m looking back at the tomatoes…

The 20-Minute Gardener on Amazon A couple weeks ago I was sent a review copy of the 20-Minute Gardener from Sunset Books.  The idea behind the book is very intriguing: 20 minutes of gardening each day for a great garden.  You may have heard this concept before.  The idea is simple.  If you do a little bit in your garden each…

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…