Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

We’ve had an unusual visitor here in Spring Hill, TN.  A snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) flew in with the arctic air that’s been hanging over our state.  I had heard rumors of the visiting bird through the Nashville news stations (OK that’s a little more than a rumor) and set out today to investigate. My two girls and their grandma…

I’m always looking for new plants to experiment on to see if I can get them to root.  Yesterday I took some cuttings from a grape vine at my mom’s house.  Grape vines are pretty popular with home gardeners who want to grow their own food in the backyard so I thought I’d give them a try.  I haven’t successfully…

Last weekend I put together a small front porch for my garden shed. You can take a closer look at it at the Greenhouse Shed page if you have a minute!

For anyone who follows this blog locally in the Spring Hill, TN (Maury and Williamson County) area you’ll be able to hear me on the radio tomorrow talking about The Well Sprung Garden. Just turn to WAKM (that’s 950 on your AM dial) at 8:00 AM. The Well Sprung Garden is an organic vegetable garden started to supplement a local…

During a break in the rain on Monday I was able to take these shots. The blue of the sky is just starting to peak through the dark rain clouds. It reminded me of one of my favorite newer U2 songs, Window in the Skies (from U218 The Singles). My oldest daughter’s favorite part is when they sing “Oh, Oh,…

Google Patent Search has probably been around for a little while but since it says Beta it may be a relatively recent development. The patent search makes it very easy to find patented inventions including plants. Just type in the name of your plant and instantly you are provided with the patent records. This could be extremely useful for those…

We’ve talked about how to pick your seeds and we’ve talked a little about the soil to use, but when should you start your seeds?  This is when good planning comes into play.  You want your seeds ready to go when it’s safe to plant but you don’t want to start them too early, so how do you figure that? …

When transplanting plants it helps to have a great container that allows the seedlings to flourish. I’ve found over the years that coir pots are a great option. I used to use them as part of my farmer’s market plant sale business. Today I use them in my garden every year as I transplant tomato, pepper, and all sorts of…

It’s that time of the year here in Tennessee where if you haven’t already done so you might want to think about planting lettuce in your vegetable garden. Lettuce likes the cool air of early spring to start growing.  I planted three types of lettuce last week in our raised beds – all of which are heirlooms. How I Plant…

I’m a sucker for cheap perennials – annuals too for that matter. If I go to a nursery I look first at the shrubs and trees just to look – to see what they have. Then I hang out and hover over the perennials, herbs, and even the annuals. I gravitate to the cheap prices marked on perennials and annuals…

I was inspecting the Birdbath Garden the other day when a persistent buzzing sound became noticeable. I looked around a little closer and found this little bee happily buzzing among the stalks of the salvia. No wonder I like these plants! They are magnets for these happy little pollinators. This bee buzzed from stalk to stalk sampling all it had…

The rainy weather and “normal” temperatures seem to be headed back our way, so why not take a look back at some sunny blooms from summer’s past? These flowers all came from the July of 2009 version of my garden, some are annuals and others are perennials and some are somewhere in between!  The in between flowers are generally perennials…

My lately planted vegetable garden is doing its best to get back on track!  It’s been a busy spring time and everything got delayed until the official “whenever I could manage a few minutes” time.  But one of the great things about gardening in Tennessee is the long growing season.  Even if you don’t get the vegetable garden planted within…

It’s that time of year where the daylilies are becoming the showoffs of the garden. Daylilies (Hemerocallis) area very common collectable perennial here in the south. They propagate very easily through division and are a prime starter plant for people interested in learning how to hybridize plants. Here’s a look at a little of what is blooming in our garden…

In my last post I mentioned 11 Things to Think About When Designing Your Raised Bed Vegetable Garden.  Here are a few more ideas suggested by commenters! Think about a fence (From Tina).  Whether for aesthetics or for function fences are good for the garden. Different fences can solve different issues.  A simple wire fence may keep out the smaller…

Perhaps one of the easiest methods of plant propagation is through bulbils. Bulbils are simply baby plants produced along aerial stem of a plant. Lilies are well known for producing bulbils and you can take advantage of this natural plant ability to create more lilies for your garden. Not all lilies produce bulbils so be observant of your garden to…

Saving seeds of squash and zucchini is a very simple process. When the growing season begins to wan start allowing a few squash fruits to grow. They will become large and tough and won’t be well suited for eating but will be perfect for generating seeds. Once the squash fruits are of a suitable extra large size harvest them and…

Yesterday I posted an enhanced photo of a flower from my garden and asked readers to try to identify it. I disguised it a little by removing the color and cropping and zooming the picture. I though it was a neat way to look at one of my favorite plants in the garden, the coneflower! This particular one was Echinacea…