Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

The dry season is well upon us. Here in Tennessee we haven’t seen a drop of rain in two weeks and even that was only .12 inches (at least in our garden). I’m not sure how long the plants can hang on without a good dose of liquid from the sky. And despite my repeated waterings the plants are suffering….

This past Sunday I asked a for some inspiration on perennials for fall plantings. Here is a summary of what people suggested. I’ve simplified this post to show only the specific perennials themselves but those who commented offered some great ideas for where to use these perennials and some other options like trees and shrubs so please go back and…

Yesterday the weather was great so I went outside to tinker and putter around. Tinkering and puttering is just when you look for little things to do that don’t take a lot of time but you need or want to get done. Here’s what I did:I trimmed the ornamental grasses down. They were looking pretty ragged and since they never…

Fall is creeping closer and closer each day which brings to mind cool evening breezes, pumpkins, festivals, the Fall Color Project (more on that later), and of course the fall vegetable growing season.  Most gardeners seem to garden almost exclusively in the spring or summer and don’t even consider the fall.  It’s probably since starting plants this time of year…

The rain garden is very close to being finished. We worked most of the day and managed to get the soil put in to make the planting bed. All that is left to do is to select plants and cover with mulch!Here’s a look at today’s progress:Here is where I ended the other evening. A big hole with a trench….

One of the many things to consider when starting your own nursery business is the workload.  You probably really enjoy gardening (or else you wouldn’t even consider a nursery business!) but do you realize how much work goes into producing a plant for sale?  We aren’t just talking about one plant either.  We’re talking about lots of plants to make…

I managed to plant all the plants for my new winter garden on what was a warm December day. With temperatures in the 50’s it was somewhat pleasant, which is about the best you can expected from December in Tennessee. You’re probably wondering which plan I decided to go with, the Symmetrical Plan or the Asymmetrical Plan. The answer was…

This formerly beautiful coreopsis that I raised from seed last year was nearly completely devoured by leaf beetle larvae.  I don’t know enough about insects to identify which species of leaf beetle it is but I am positive it is a Calligrapha. The damage is pretty devastating. The leaves are spotted with holes and very few leaves have escaped untouched….

I’m not sure how this snowfall counts. Would it be the first one in Middle Tennessee? Would it even be enough to count? I’m not sure, I only know that we did not receive what our northern neighbors have been gifted with this December!I know it disappointed my two year old daughter who asked me several times to make a…

Yesterday was a day of many minor accomplishments. The sky was overcast but no rain came down while I worked out in the yard. I managed to attack several nagging chores that needed done. While I work I always try to look around and take some mental notes of things that need done and what’s happening in the garden. Here’s…

When I made the decision to begin my micro-nursery (Blue Shed Gardens/HomeGardenBox) I had to figure out first what kind of plants I wanted to produce.  This was a very difficult decision since I like pretty much anything there is to do with the garden. Selecting one type of plants or one area seemed just wrong because I was leaving out all…

When we first moved into our house back in 2007 and were discovering what our garden had in it we found very little.  A nandina, a couple cedars, some reblooming daylilies, and a teeny tiny spirea were all the plants that were there. Not much to start a garden with but I was excited about the challenge.  The spirea had…

After two days of heavy rain fell, a veil of mist rose to met the sun.The sun’s rays beamed through the mist and illuminated the trees still mostly bare from their winter rest. With the sun comes the promise of warm spring days to come. The promise of new life, new growth and new experiences. The excitement of a new…

Before the first frost of the fall I took a few cuttings of my Persian Shield (Strobinlanthus dyerianus) to hopefully overwinter it as a houseplant. This was the first year for Persian Shield in my garden and I’ve only seen it at one nursery around so I wanted to be sure I had some for next year in the garden….

OK, you might be thinking to yourself that this headline “How to Buy Mums” is about a topic we don’t even need to discuss. Really, how hard can it be? You go to the nursery, pick out a full bushy plant full of blooms. You walk to the check out counter buy it and go home to plant it. If…

I’ll continue with the Seed Starting 101 Series tomorrow but I thought I would use today’s post to share with you a related project. Recently I purchased a seedling heatmat that I’ve been testing in the garage to see how seedlings will grow out there.  The results have been pretty good so far with good germination rates for kale, chard,…

There are very few gardens I know of that don’t have some sort of wind chime.  Wind chimes add an extra audio element to the garden as well as a touch of whimsy.  There is quite a variety of wind chimes to choose from out there and it all depends on what you like.  Recently Windchimesonline.net sent me three bamboo…

It’s time for October’s Garden Questions of the month! These are questions people have asked the search engines and found The Home Garden and hopefully they have also found the answers.  Q. Can you prune silver mound in the fall? A. It’s better to wait until spring. The foliage that remains above the plant will help protect it over the…