Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Today is December 1st, 2011.  The first day of the last month of the year, do you know what that means? Mockingbird on a Frosty Morning Only 137 days left until our last frost date here in Middle Tennessee!!!  WOOHOO! OK,I sound completely ridiculous here but think about all the stuff thathas to get done before that planting date over…

A morning sun picture taken on Saturday October 4th, 2008.

It may not be obvious, or maybe it is, but I think in 2013 vegetable gardening will be more important than ever.  There are a myriad of reasons why I believe this and you can pretty much observe it everywhere you go, some sign that points to the importance of gardening.  Let’s examine a few of signs of the growing…

Free Plants! The best possible price you can find right? Last week I was struck by a post at everyone’s favorite garden ranting website. The post discussed the “lies” of gardening and one of those supposed lies was that you don’t have to spend money to get plants. The author implied that to get good plants you have to spend…

I love our Japanese dappled willow hedgeline but in reality it is way overdue for a pruning. In fact 2 of the shrubs were completely dead. That was mostly due to the ever changing conditions in the garden. As the nearby birch trees grew they shaded out the smaller shrub willows. With little sunlight the dappled willows had no chance…

When I went to the plant swap this past weekend I was hoping to find some shade tolerant plants to add to the corner shade garden. Something new or unique would be a great addition to the shade garden. I saw several hostas at the swap. Almost everyone loves them (I don’t know anyone who doesn’t) and they are easy…

…before the daffodils bloom! We are definitely behind last year’s blooms. The only daffodils I saw outside today were 1-2 inch leaves protruding from the ground. Anyone have a guess as to when the first daffodil in my garden will be blooming? Latest Greenhouse Post: How I’ll Use My Greenhouse.

Previously in my new series of posts about how to garden on a budget, Thrifty Gardening Tips, I wrote about finding and saving discount plants. After writing that post, I had an urge to go out and look to see what I could find. It was the Thursday before the Fourth of July holiday and I had this feeling that…

This past Sunday was Mother’s Day. I discovered that one very good advantage to being a gardener is the continuous stock of ready to cut flowers for arrangements. It only took a few minutes to put together these two arrangements one for my wife and one for my mother. Each arrangement contains ‘Caradonna’ Salvia, Irises, Heuchera (Coral Bells), Catmint ‘Walker’s…

I officially nominate the pumpkin for vegetable of the month! Do I hear a second?I realize that the selection of a pumpkin may be predictable but it’s such a seasonally appropriate vegetable for October. After all could you have even think of fall harvests and Halloween without pumpkins? Whether they are turned into pies or Jack-o-lanterns these orange globes of…

We’ve all done it before, put something off to do later. We justify it as we don’t have time or come up with other reasons that may cover our laziness. Sometimes it’s not laziness but life that interrupts things we want to get done. Really who could blame someone for not doing a gardening task in the middle of the…

What a gift to be surrounded by all the wonderful scenery that Patientgardener is! Over in Malverns, England (in Worchestershire) the chestnut and beech trees are showing their autumnal changes. You even get a peak at some sweetgum trees which are another of my favorites for fall color. (I can forgive them for the seed balls in exchange for that…

I’ve always been one to enjoy experimenting with plant propagation in the garden. This past weekend, since the weather was so pleasant, I went on  hardwood cutting spree.  Hardwood cuttings are very easy to do. The success rate varies quite a lot depending on the type of plants you are trying to propagate. I took around 40-50 cuttings of 4…

Things are really starting to show their colors here in our Tennessee gardens. The spring flowering plants have displayed their petals and are preparing for next season. The daffodils and tulips are long gone. The salvia has given its first performance and is ready for dead-heading to prepare for the next show. Many of the plants in our gardens flower…

Sometimes I get the urge to garden but the weather isn’t the right kind of weather for what I want to do. So what do I do? I bring it indoors! There are all kinds of ways to garden indoors but for this post I’m going to show you a little about growing peppers indoors during the winter. I’m a…

Is it spring yet? The weather sure seems like it! Today and tomorrow we are looking at temperatures in the mid to upper 60’s. Yesterday was warm also in the lower 60’s. The difference today will probably be the sun. That bright orange combustible ball of incandescent gas is out and warming things up instead of shyly hiding behind the…

Here’s a quick look at my garden from the weekend! The ‘Diablo’ ninebark is in bloom.  It has beautiful purple-copper hued leaves and flowers with these clusters of white flowers each spring. In the vegetable garden the lettuce is coming along – finally.  It’s taken a while this year to get some good germination.  I think the weather fluctuations have…

This winter I gathered some seed from a yucca (Yucca filamentosa) and saved it. I’m not sure exactly why other than I thought it might be interesting to see how they grow. I do that sometimes, where I just attempt something for the sake of attempting it (I once planted lemon seeds from a store bought lemon to see if…