Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

The other day while on a shopping trip I sat in the car with my daughters while my wife ran into the store for a few things. In front of our parking space was a magnolia. I doubt it was the full sized magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora), as the placement of such a large tree in a limited growth area like…

Orange! The orange standouts are new to flowering this year although some were planted last year in anticipation of a showy display. Daylilies of course come in all kinds of colors. This one has a little orange in the center while remaining mostly yellow and was picked up at the plant swap last year. The Asiatic lily was a recent…

This morning we awoke to what is our first hard freeze of the season. Here are a few photos of the frost for your chilly enjoyment! Frost on Grass Frost near the garden shed. Frost on the ‘Shasta’ Viburnum. While you can’t see the frost on the Sweet Autumn Clematis I thought the seed heads were worth a look!

This is a hard topic for one so organized as I (which would be not). Organization is something I have gotten better about over the years but I still fall woefully short of any real system. I’m probably like most people, I intend to start getting organized. Then I actually start doing a few things to get organized. Then a…

Last year my plum tree was the victim of a savage deer rubbing attack. The bark was stripped all the way around the trunk leaving no possibility of water passing toward the top of the tree through the cambium layer. It was frustrating to say the least. Two varieties of plum trees are necessary for good cross pollination to produce…

Yesterday I fought the wind and dug a few more holes in our front garage/sidewalk garden. Its not much to look at now all bedraggled from the frost. Our perennials have said “good night” and only a few small shrubs look of any account, but in this bed I planted 60 tulips. I didn’t use a special power drill with…

A couple years ago I bought a fantastic native plant at a local native plant nursery. It was a red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) and is great for attracting everyone’s favorite tiny garden visitor, the hummingbird. The flower clusters are red (you probably expected that from the name: red buckeye), tubular, and bloom in early spring. Red buckeye trees grow best…

With fall almost here it’s time to start thinking about gardening chores and the task that most people have to do in some way is deal with the leaves. What do you do with the leaves is an important question. For way too long many people have burned them which to me is the worst possible way to dispose of…

Ah Sunflower, weary of time,Who countest the steps of the sun;Seeking after that sweet golden clime Where the traveler’s journey is done;Where the youth pined away with desire, And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,Arise from their graves, and aspire Where my Sunflower wishes to go!by William BlakeThis post is was inspired by the wonderful poems and quotations provided daily…

Hollyhocks! These plants are simply enormous. I haven’t measured them but a rough estimate of six and a half feet sounds very realistic. Unfortunately they are in a really bad location – flanking our front walkway. I should have transplanted them last year to another location more suitable but either didn’t think of it or was too lazy. Although the…

Though it is listed in the invasive plants list for Tennessee the very quality that makes Miscanthis sinensis so invasive makes it fun to have in the garden, the seeds!  Ornamental grasses of all kinds add great fall color interest with their seed heads or tassels that wave in the wind. This particular variety is ‘Zebrinus’ or Zebra grass. If…

In our front yard is a triangular shaped area that for now I’m calling the Iris Garden.  In a week or so after the irises finish blooming I’ll have to change the name to something else but for now the Iris Garden works!  I actually began this garden area as a winter color garden but soon realized that winter color…

In this continuing series of edible landscaping we’re going to discuss more elements that should be in the sustainable edible landscape plan. In the last post we brought up the importance of good soil and water systems as well as having a good way to take care of pests.  If you’re new to this series of posts please check out…

Here is the new plant of the week. Obviously this is an old picture since nothing is growing right now, but here’s a little taste of the spring to come. This isn’t from our yard but it is a nice example of a vine being used to accent a structure. Go ahead and make an educated guess!

One of the coolest things about gardening is that every month brings a new scene. Different plants come to the forefront while others fade away leaving either seed heads or simply foliage in their place. Some may disappear completely among the foliage or die back to the ground revealing new fresh plantings that are coming into their own while some…

Now wouldn’t this be cool to have in the yard? No not the gnomes, the green roof! I took this picture last year at the Bloom’N Garden Expo in Williamson County last year. It’s a great example of nature and man working together to make something good for both. Green roofs are catching on all over because they help to…

The other day I wrote about crop rotation, it’s importance, and it’s benefit in the garden so today I thought we’d begin looking at the individual families of vegetables and how they fit into the grand scheme of things. Since it is probably the most popular family, because of one of its members (the tomato), we’ll start discussing the nightshade…

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…