Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

It’s time to show you a few pictures of the plants around my garden!  The gardens themselves are in need of weeding, mulch, and assorted other chores I haven’t had time to get to yet but that doesn’t stop the plants from looking impressive.  Our weather lately has been wetter than normal for August and July.  That’s a blessing since…

One of my recent projects was to complete two entrances to our front sidewalk from the lawn.  The openings were already there but didn’t have any definition – or at least any good definition that a person walking along would see a clear path to the sidewalk.  I had some paving stones in the backyard set aside for another project (an extension to our…

I’m not big into potted plants, but maybe I should be. There’s something satisfying about having a garden 100% complete and only having to maintain it with a little watering and a smattering of organic fertilizer. Essentially a potted arrangement is just a simple miniature garden complete within itself. Of course you can get as complicated as the size of…

Do you need another reason to like Red Twig Dogwoods?  Take a look at these pictures from Ann Althouse.  These pictures illustrate exactly why I like them as much as I do! The fiery stems really add color to the snowy landscape. More on Red Twig Dogwoods: Red Twig Dogwood Propagation Red Twig Dogwoods (Cornus stolonifera) and Why I Like…

The other day I was taking the camera out for a walk.  We do that often around here.  Just my camera and me wandering through the garden.  Gazing at flowers, bugs, butterflies, and anything else of interest.  I think you know this already – but I take a lot of pictures!  I stopped by to examine a zinnia intending to take a…

Cilantro is one of our family’s favorite herbs to grow. We use it in cooking various dishes and always include it in our guacamole. In the garden it tends to be very short lived in the heat of the summer. Cilantro is very heat sensitive and will produce flowers very fast when the temperatures get warm. Why does Cilantro bolt?…

I decided several years ago that I didn’t want to mess with chemicals in my garden.  It was an easy choice for me.  We had kids and I didn’t want to risk their exposure to dangerous substances.  I didn’t want to eat food covered in chemicals at the dinner table.  A tomato with a side of pesticide just wasn’t a…

What do Obama, McCain, the Nashville Predators, recipes, a 2002 Chevy, and the Williamson County Honor Roll have in common? Well it’s not politics if you can believe it!  While I have definite political opinions, I wish to stay non-partisan on this blog and will have to tell both Obama and McCain that they will now become dirt, or really…

Rudbeckia is a great perennial for the garden. Low in pests problems and high in visual interest it never fails to provide an impressive display in the late summer. It reseeds easy and is especially good for problem areas and wildflower gardens. It’s seeds nourish the birds in the fall while it’s petals nourish the eyes of the gardener in…

I’d like to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving! And please, for the sake of this fellow and his friends here, take it easy on the turkey! I usually fill up on the sides anyway!

The Plant of the Month for December over at Gardening Gone Wild is all about sedums!  Sedums (also called stonecrop) are a type of succulent and are capable of storing water in their leaves which makes them very drought tolerant here in Tennessee.  We have several kinds of sedum in our garden with one of my favorites being the Dragon’s…

What is a garden without the trees?  Bare and boring!  Without a good tree you lose the shade they provide, the elegant grace that trees offer as a focal point, the fruit the tree may bear, the benefit to the wildlife around us – I think you agree, you just have to have a tree!  But what trees would you…

I knew what I was going to do today. Weather permitting I would get outside and harvest our basil and not only make our dinner using it but make enough to have pesto a couple times during the winter. I planned ahead and we stopped by the grocery store to get more Parmesan cheese. We also picked up some milk,…

This was one of those weekends where my garden time was fairly limited. I still managed to get outdoors some and accomplish a few little things. The biggest task was putting together the garden cart for my mower. It took almost two hours. That’s probably where most of my outdoor time went but when it comes to paying the store…

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…

Early last year I put together a rain garden in our yard to absorb some of the driveway drainage. Here are a few pictures of how it looks now! Inside the garden we have a variety of perennials that are generally carefree and tolerate a wide range of growing conditions. Plants like coneflowers. Echinacea purpurea is having a perfect year…

The other day I mentioned something I’ve been putting off: a tree removal. It didn’t take long but it was tough work especially the hauling away part. I don’t own a chainsaw and just used an old bow saw that has been worth its weight in gold over the years. The tree was a cedar. I don’t know exactly what…

In our newly formed back garden areas I’ve planted several things that are virtually rabbit proof. Things like caryopteris and Russian sage are perfect plantings here since the rabbits just don’t like them. But what do you do if you want to plant something that the rabbits believe is a deliriously delicious and divine delicacy for dinner? You have to…