Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

This time of year when the weather is inhospitable I take a look back through the pictures I’ve taken and informally review the previous year. That’s one great advantage when you blog, you have a record of most things and photographs of almost everything else! Here’s a picture from September just outside our vegetable garden. In the fuzzy foreground is…

I have always been lax on the indoor gardening scene. It’s not that I don’t have plants inside but more that I prefer the outdoor landscapes and gardens. You can do a lot with plants in pots both indoors and out. the first picture is one that I’m sure many people are seeing bloom right now, the Christmas Cactus. Our…

Thank you for stopping by to see what’s blooming here in TN during September. Also thanks to Carol for hosting Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day each month. Before you look at the pictures below I want to invite you to participate in the Fall Color Project for 2010. Click on the link to see the information about the Fall Color Project….

I know that you know that I like Yoshino Cherry trees. I thought I would highlight the Yoshino cherry tree that is flowering in our front yard so that you can enjoy its blooms too! Here’s why the Yoshino makes a great garden tree: they grow relatively fast, they look great when in bloom and when covered in leaves, and…

Last week I caught my first glimpse of something I have never seen before, a fox in my backyard.  There was a little doubt in my mind when I saw it.  Was it some sort of dog that resembled a fox or did I really seen one?  I’ve never been fortunate enough to see one in the wild just in…

I was tagged by Christopher at Outside Clyde to list eight things that make me happy. Then I get to name 8 other victims to do the same!Here are the rules: When tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Post these rules before your list, then list 8 thoughts that make you happy. At the end of…

In times like these can you afford not to garden? The other day I was thinking about the actual value of a garden. What do you get out of it? Not just the sense of satisfaction of eating the greatest tomato ever grown. That’s pretty valuable in itself. Not just the pleasure of being able to boast to friends and…

Have you ever had one of those days where you start on one project then move to another, then another? I do it a lot this time of year where I begin something finish then move immediately to another one. It’s a kind of flow where I just can’t stop doing something in the garden. I have to be careful…

What a weekend!  You don’t get weather like we had very often.  The thermometer hit the 70’s for the first time in a long while and we took advantage of it.  We spent very little time indoors, how could we?  After being cooped up in the house since fall any outside opportunity had to be taken. So what did we…

This past weekend we went to visit my wife’s family. On the property they have a couple Japanese Dappled Willows (‘Hiroki Nishiki’) that I’ve taken cuttings from in the past. They are several years old and have really become large shrubs stretching over ten feet tall. Needless to say a shrub this large needs a special place and if doesn’t…

I’ve been perusing many catalogs over the past several days trying to figure out what seeds to get. I finally wrote down the vegetables the other day but while looking at the plethora of pictures in the catalogs I found a perennial shrub that intrigues me. I’ve seen it before but the catalogs’ pictures make the Blue Mist Shrub come…

When to plant your vegetables is very important knowledge for all gardeners.  It can mean the difference between a great harvest, a late harvest, or no harvest!  It’s critical to know certain facts about the plants before you plant them. A little knowledge can go a long way to creating a great garden so let’s examine a little bit abut…

Recently I had the pleasure to try out the new Troy-Bilt Bronco VTT Vertical Tine Tiller which they sent me to test and use in my garden. I’ve used tillers periodically before in my garden and I was very curious to see how this one functioned. It’s design is significantly different from traditional tillers. The tines extend down like a…

Want to do something nice for the birds?  Feed them!  Here’s an easy way to do it! Get a grapefruit (any suitable citrus will work). Cut it in half. Eat the grapefruit. (Important step) Fill grapefruit halves with bird seed. Set grapefruit halves on a deck rail Enjoy watching the birds! Piece of cake – or rather a piece of fruit!

This Garden Blogger fall Color Project Post is all about New Autumn, that is Autumn in New England and New York! If you travel to upstate New York to visit Kerri’s Garden at Colors of the Garden (a very appropriate name, don’t you think?) you will get a grand tour of the New York Countryside in October. Peak colors of…

The weather here in Tennessee is nothing if not unpredictable.  Some will even say that the only thing predictable about the weather is that it is unpredictable!  So gardeners are left trying to figure out how to best mitigate harsh conditions of any extreme.  Two years ago we were facing floods that washed out gardens, homes, and upturned lives –…

I would like to wish you and your family a safe and very merry Christmas season! Photos: Nandina berries (top left), eastern red cedar under snow(middle left), blue garden shed (bottom left), happy little bluebird in snow (middle bottom), daffodil coming up in a March snow (bottom right), Our Snow covered house (top right). Coming up after Christmas: 2011 Project…

Here are a couple pictures of the morning sky through the newly bare trees. The trees with leaves are either oak or eastern cedar depending on where you look.  The cedar of course is evergreen but the oaks tend to hang on to their leaves until much later. This old tree is marked for cutting but sometimes you can find…