Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

OK I’ll have to admit when I was sent Sustainable Landscaping For Dummies for a review I had some mixed thoughts with the title. I’m a fan of sustainability, I think it’s of the utmost importance as we remodel our landscapes and improve our homes, but something about the dummy part of the title got me. I mean, I don’t…

It’s no secret that this has been a challenging year for our family. My father’s health issues and fight with cancer completely drained our enthusiasm and many things have suffered.  That is one reason why this fall is so welcome.  Fall represents the closing of the growing season. Winter will come soon after and gardening chores and projects will become…

You all know how much I like making new plants, but you should also know that I really like it when plants make it easy for the propagator. Many plants do just that by creating aerial roots that normally will be used to grab onto surfaces and climb. Vining plants (of course) are especially good at this like my Winter…

You can see it in the tree line in the backyard. Tinges of red coloring in the foliage of the trees, the sassafras never fails for fall color. We’re not at peak yet, at least I don’t think so but I’m afraid this year will be hard to tell. The dryness of the last two months has stressed the trees…

So many plants and trees are emerging now from their winter dormant period. Spring’s arrival brings so many good things to enjoy from the garden. In the video below you can see our garden as it is this March. Featuring Yoshino Cherry Trees, Phlox in the mailbox garden, viburnum and hydrangea cuttings, and a variety of other things emerging in…

Here are a few of the early March blooming flowers in my garden. Crocus, daffodil, and forsythia. The forsythias have burst into full bloom since the picture was taken!

Emily Rose who gardens and blogs in the Chattanooga area has a very picturesque setting for her fall colors!  What could be better than fall colors reflected in a pond?  Oaks, maples, and other trees all offer up a piece of East Tennessee fall color.  Stop by and check out Emily’s fall color pictures at her blog!

Tuesday find ourselves cold again – waking up to temperatures in the mid teens in our little frost pocket. Fortunately the garden shed stayed about 10 degrees warmer without any extra heat. I hope to eventually add something for heating purposes but for now the shed is overwintering many of the plants I made from cuttings. Yesterday’s look back post…

Recently I went over to our property and filmed a short video showing where our vegetable garden could eventually be. It’s fun to imagine the good that the future holds but at the same time it’s frustrating that we aren’t already digging in that dirt! I have all kinds of ideas in mind for the gardens. Edible vegetable areas, fruit…

I put another short shed update on the garden shed page yesterday. It’s short but if you’re interested in seeing what’s coming next for it feel free to take a look!

In posting yesterday about my mulch (that I got for $1.34 per 2 cubic foot bag) several people left comments about what mulch they like to use. I thought that maybe today it might be good to take a look at the types of mulch and what’s good about each one. The main purpose behind any mulch is to retain…

Last summer I took cuttings from one of my viburnums and a couple spireas. They have a good start this year and are beginning to put on new growth. The viburnum came from a softwood cutting that was about 3-4 nodes long. I need to transplant it into some better soil since all I used for it over the winter…

Columbia, TN which is just down the road from us is currently having it’s annual Mule Day festival. It began on Tuesday and continues through this Sunday. It’s basically a festival with arts and crafts, bluegrass music, clogging, and several mule related events. There’s even a parade! I feel bad for the band members who have to March behind the…

Here are a couple videos that I pieced together of our backyard during the recent flooding rains. I do want to reiterate from my post yesterday that my experience was insignificant compared to how this flood has changed the lives of many fellow Tennesseans. We are doing fine with very few problems in our yard but please keep those people…

This post may be a little late as Christmas has past us by over a week ago, but why not share some gifts that should make gardening easier and more fun over 2008?For those who enjoy wildlife, birds, and the outdoors bird feeders are a necessity. We already had three bird feeders but one was slowly breaking down over the…

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…

The cold temps are keeping you indoors and you are going stir crazy.  You need to do something in the garden, with the garden, or for the garden and the seed catalogs showing up in your mailbox just aren’t good enough to get your gardening fix.  Then do this – plant an indoor garden!  Recently I put together a small…

Today I have two more Garden Blogger Fall Color Project posts to share with you! Take another trip overseas to Veg Plotting in Chippenham, England where VP has taken some great shots of the fall colors and pieced them together in a collage for us to see. Colorful smoke trees and Japanese maples are certainly brightening up what could be…