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Helpful Gardening Hints: Weed Slaying!
An ecologically safe and easy to use weed killer is simply water! Just boil it in your teapot and water the troublesome weed with some scalding hot water. It is non-selective so anything it touches it could kill. It’s effective against most weeds but they may need a second treatment. Be sure to target the root and stem area. Just…
Kingsnakes: A Garden’s Best Friend!
You may not believe me but snakes really can be a garden’s (and gardener’s) best friend! Many people carry a fear of these creatures. I can understand being afraid of poisonous snakes but the others are quite beneficial. Yesterday while I was outside near my vegetable garden putting in some outdoor plant shelves (made from old wooden pallets) I moved…
You Can Say I’m a Fan of The Ginkgo Tree (Picture Post)
The fan shaped leaves of the ginkgo are one of my favorite trees to watch in the fall. The leaves turn a bright gold that really is quite magical to see! You know what though? The summer leaves look pretty awesome too! Ginkgo biloba backlit with the sun.
Plant of the Week: Honeysuckle
The plant of the week this past week was correctly guessed by several people. It is a honeysuckle vine. This particular one is sprawling up the lamp post outside my parent’s home. I suspect that it is a trumpet honeysuckle or coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens). It was there before they purchased the house so I can’t be 100% sure of…
Early May Garden (Grapes, Irises, Dappled Willow)
I went out to water plants in the garden this morning and thought it was a good time to show you how the garden was growing this morning. So far the first week of May have been warm and sunny and the garden is responding accordingly. Here is what you can see in our zone 6b garden this spring: Our…
Decorating for the Holidays with Live Potted Plants
The holidays are an extremely busy time of the year. We go from Halloween with spooky decorations, to Thanksgiving with autumn harvest styles, then to finally to Christmas. For those who enjoy decorating (and have the storage space for all that stuff) it can be a great deal of fun, but for others who may enjoy the holidays much more…
A New Vegetable Garden Layout
Over the years I’ve done several vegetable garden layouts for my garden. I’ve always tried to make improvements to the vegetable garden. My goal is to make it more efficient for growing yet still aesthetically pleasing and fun to be in. This year however isn’t just an adjustment, it’s a whole new garden! We moved into our new house in…
Rededicating the Bird Bath Garden
Our bird bath garden will always be in my mind the bird bath garden, but it has also become something of a memorial garden to our recently deceased feline friend, Amber. I won’t go into detail about Amber in this post as I did that back in December but she was a good friend who we were lucky to have…
Earthworm Superheroes
Several years ago I used to watch a cartoon called Earthworm Jim. (Yes I’ll admit I watched cartoons in college!) It was based on a video game that I never played but I guess was somewhat popular at the time. In the cartoon Earthworm Jim was a space traveling superhero worm valiantly ridding the universe of bad guys like Professor…
A Short Plant Propagation Update
I wish I could say I had thousands of plants sitting in the backyard from my plant propagation experiments but unfortunately I’ve just been too busy to do much this year. That isn’t to say I’m not happy with what I’ve accomplished. Sometimes the uniqueness of the experience is much more valuable and satisfying than quantity produced. What I’m especially…
A Companion Planting Vegetable Garden Layout
Yesterday I put together a small vegetable layout plan for my raised bed garden. It’s just one of many possibilities for companion planting and it only deals with a small number of plants. This plan features tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and marigolds in a 4 foot by 8 foot bed. All of these plants are listed in various companion planting guides…
A Trip to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens in Nashville, TN
Recently our family made a visit to the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens in Nashville, TN. If you have never taken the opportunity to visit you should. The gardens are filled with a wonderful display of annuals, perennials, and themed gardens. Currently they have various playhouses on display with multiple themes like trains and foreign countries. We happened to be visiting with…
Rocky Borders
From my rock haul the other day I managed to finish edging a couple locations in our yard and get a pretty good start on some others. I love using the rocks for my garden borders. Rocks look natural (because they are), they define the garden beds (because they create an edge), and the weed wacker can be used right…
A Great Site for Wildflowers
While searching for a picture to confirm the identity of my mysterious sedum I found a great wildflower website written by another Tennessean! It’s called East Tennessee Wildflowers. The site is full of pictures and information and even has lesson plans for teachers who want to add a wildflower element to their classrooms. Kris, the author and photographer, is a…
Blocks, Bricks and Floor
Before I began building my greenhouse shed I did some research into what makes a good greenhouse. Among many important aspects like positioning (for ideal sun), materials, and passive heating I learned that a porous surface for flooring is essential. It makes sense, plants need water – plants will drip water, it has to go somewhere! In my greenhouse shed…
What to Do About Leaves?
Since fall is approaching at breakneck speed it’s worth taking time to mention one of the most important aspects of fall – the leaves! Or more specifically what to do with them! First here’s what not to do with your fall leaves: Don’t burn them – the most wasteful thing you can do. Don’t bag them and put them by the…
Plant of the Week
This weeks plant of the week is another one native to the Smokey Mountains. It may be an easy guess but its a plant worth talking about. It likes the shade and gets plenty of what it likes in the mountains!Take a guess and tell me what you think!
How to EASILY Propagate Switchgrass through Division
Ornamental grasses are some of the easiest plants to propagate and they look so good in the garden. Today I potted up seven rooted sections of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum). Four of them were ‘Shenandoah’ which gains a reddish coloring in the leaves in late summer and fall and three were ‘Northwind’ which has a taller and more upright shape. Switchgrasses…
