Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

With the growing season coming to a close its time to start planning for next year’s landscape. Every now and then I like to design landscapes for people. Here is a sample of a small garden design that I made for a couple friends of ours. Its actually a memorial garden and is suitable for almost any corner of a…

Spring is coming. Really.Signs of the coming gardening season are beginning to appear all over from the daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths beginning to emerge to the swelling buds on the trees. Very soon warmer weather will begin again and we will be fully emersed in the garden once again. In anticipation of the coming gardening season I thought I’d give…

This year is going to be a challenge.  I can tell already judging from the weather we’re having.  A delayed start combined with high moisture and strange weather is creating a tricky situation for gardeners.  All this moisture may sound like a good thing but I’m very concerned about the potential for fungal diseases on our tomatoes and peppers.  Powdery…

By now you may have received your first seed catalog(s) in the mail. It’s a fun time of the year for gardeners. We get to sift through the pages, read the descriptions designed to entice us, and dream of what we will plant next year. When the weather is cold and dreary the catalogs give us something bright and hopeful…

Recently while upsizing my tomato seedlings into larger pots I needed some plant labels. Normally I will use the cut up slats of mini-blinds. I have a few sets I’ve collected over the years just for this purpose but I actually didn’t have them here at our current house. They were back over at the old house waiting to be…

Cover crops are an excellent way to improve the soil without adding chemical fertilizers – and they look great too! Today while driving home from a talk I gave on plant propagation I drove down an old country road and took a few pictures of the red clover. Most likely the farmer is using the clover to enrich the soil…

I was outside on Tuesday afternoon walking around the yard while a thirty minute window in the clouds opened to allow the sun to shine down. It was a short respite from the rainy weather but this time of year any respite is a good respite. While walking about I was struck by how white the stalks of the Russian…

In my latest YouTube video I went through and checked on many of the plants I’ve taking cuttings from this summer. There are a variety of plants in the video including rosemary, ninebark, fothergilla, boxwoods, crape myrtle, and cherry laurels. This was actually the first time I’ve tried rooting fothergilla and I had pretty good success taking a few small…

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you and your family have a fantastic Thanksgiving filled with fun, family, and of course food!

I haven’t showed this little garden yet in its entirety. The garden is still incomplete and you really can’t see the effect I’m looking for yet but here’s a glimpse at our sedum garden in March. Between our driveway/garage area and the front sidewalk there was a small wedge of dirt.  There used to be an evergreen in this location…

One of the more vibrant times to observe the yard and garden is just after a rain when the sun is beginning to shine. The rain replenishes and nourishes the plants better than any watering I could do. The leaves are brighter and they glisten with the glaze of the rain still coating them. Over an inch of needed rain…

Even though the summer is upon us it’s still a good time to propagate plants. The key is to keep cuttings moist and at a steady temperature until roots have formed. Then they can be easily acclimated to outdoor temperatures. I do all of my cuttings inside our house on the windowsills or under a grow light to keep the…

There are so many variations a person can make for a shade garden. Often there are similarities between plant selections or plant placement but the individual responsible for putting them together has a significant impact. Recently another Middle Tennessean sent me a picture of her shade garden. Rachel put together a very fine display of foliage and blooms that I…

I’d like to thank all the participants of the Fall Color Project this year! We’ve been able to see lots of wonderful colors from across the country.  In a few days I’ll put together a wrap up post with all the participants listed but today I would like to take a moment to announce the winner of the solar water…

The other day the rain garden completed a mini-test. It really was more of a pop quiz. It wasn’t multiple choice or fill in the blank. It was true or false, did it work or not? There was only about 0.34 inches of rain but it easily handled that amount. Here’s what the drainage looked like before the rain garden…

I suppose this summer I’ve concentrated my efforts in a couple areas, my vegetable garden and the front sidewalk garden. While we want bunches of fresh vegetables this year we also want our home to look nice for anyone who happens to come by. I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made on the front sidewalk garden. I’ve strayed somewhat from…

Happy Halloween! Here’s our pumpkin and our little girl dressed as Tigger!

During the wonderful yet wacky weather yesterday I accomplished several chores and started a few others! What do you think this hole is for? It is about ten feet across and five feet wide at its widest. I dug the hole about 18 inches deep at its deepest point and about 12 inches in the upper part, but the digging…