Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

I don’t have any pictures ready for this post although I did take some. I’m working to prepare my in-laws landscape for my brother-in-law’s wedding in July. Here’s just a quick list of some of the projects we’re working to complete.Weed the various gardens including a patio garden, a front yard sidewalk garden, a shady woodland garden and a raised…

One of the areas that I would like to improve upon in our garden is the lack of winter interest. I can look outside our windows and see lots of stark naked deciduous trees waving in the wind. If they were covered in snow we would have plenty of winter interest but here in Tennessee snowfalls of that magnitude are…

I just posted an update on the greenhouse shed. I re-installed the roof window over the weekend. Hop on over the greenhouse shed page and see what I did!

The Dandelion(Taraxacum officinale)You know this pretty little face don’t you? Staring up at you with it’s bright golden feathery petals gleaming in the sun. It is a pretty little flower in it’s own way. Almost…dandy. But its pretty exterior hides how fierce this weed really is. It spreads fast if not contained.This little flower from the Asteraceae family will spread…

I’m sure you’ve always been wondering “Where can I find a light post that can double as a bird feeder station and has a spot for hanging baskets too?”  You’ve come to the right place because I’m going to show you my latest project for Lowe’s Creative Ideas: a garden light post and bird feeder station with hanging baskets. The…

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…

Several weeks ago I wrote a post about one of my favorite shrubs, the Japanese Dappled Willow ‘Hakuro Nishiki’ (Salix integra). It’s a fast growing variegated willow that works well as a privacy screen and is hardy in zones 4-9. It’s deciduous so it will be bare over the winter but the new growth in the spring time is fun…

This was a historic day. It was the first day I’ve ever seen a frog in my garden. I’ve seen a toad or two but never an actual frog! Amphibians are a good indicator of the heath of an environment. They are kind of like environmental canaries in a coal mine, if something is wrong they are one of the…

Caryopteris cuttings root very easily from internodal cuttings with greenwood or semi-ripe wood. The best time to take cuttings is the the late spring to early summer to allow time for roots to form and the plant to get established before fall. Caryopteris was one of the new perennials I added to my garden last year. It did very well…

This is the first video update from the garden shed. Hopefully I’ll be able to add more videos to The Home Garden over time include how-to’s and mini-garden tours! I hope you enjoy the look inside my messy construction and plant filled shed. Please be forgiving, as always it is a work in progress! http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZgrlCzP0-oQ

I enjoy periodically just walking around the yard and seeing what there is to see in my landscape. Today was a bit of an overcast day probably in the lower to mid 60’s F. Its always a good idea to walk around your yard so you know what’s happening. Today I took a camera and shot a few pictures. The…

Recently I was sent three products to take a look at that could be used in the garden world fro various functions. Fortepromo.com specializes in customizing various products for companies and groups to make unique individual promotional products. The three items they sent me to look at were a tape measure, a water bottle, and a garden bag that is…

Cosmos in the self-sowing garden framed by a decorative feature of the arbor. Also in the garden: Celosia, ‘Blue Bedder’ Salvia, Verbena bonariensis, sunflowers, coneflowers.

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…

So what can you do while it’s under 20 degrees outside and you are stuck inside but still want to do something garden related? Extract seeds from ornamental peppers! That probably wasn’t the first thing on your mind but it works for me! Extracting the seeds from these ‘Black Pearl’ ornamental peppers was one of those small items on my…

The complete and total elimination of garden weeds is every gardener’s dream!  And to do so organically or naturally just makes it all the more thrilling! While I’ll share with you some methods for eliminating weeds naturally for The Friday Fives, please keep in mind that the battle with weeds is perpetual struggle between gardener and nature.  Weed seeds can…

I don’t think there is any question that parents want safe products to use in their yards, gardens, and around the home. That’s why when the people at EcoSMART contacted me about testing their ecologically safe and family friendly products I was more than happy to give them a try. For this post I interviewed Vijay Das the director of…

If you’re like me and planted your tomatoes from seed a few weeks ago you may start to notice the roots beginning to move beyond your original potting medium.  I used the peat pellet system for starting our peppers and tomatoes and noticed recently that the roots are extending beyond the pellets. What does this mean? Time to get a…