Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

What do Obama, McCain, the Nashville Predators, recipes, a 2002 Chevy, and the Williamson County Honor Roll have in common? Well it’s not politics if you can believe it!  While I have definite political opinions, I wish to stay non-partisan on this blog and will have to tell both Obama and McCain that they will now become dirt, or really…

I’m a huge fan of vegetable gardening – or any gardening for that matter – in raised beds. There are many reasons raised beds are great for gardens like being able to garden nearly anywhere (even on rocky ground), controlling the soil, or planting more plants in a smaller space but what actually makes a good raised bed? The best…

It appears that our local deer population has undergone a small expansion with the addition of a new fawn. Lately the deer have been keeping to the outskirts of the yard and haven’t been bothering the vegetable garden or any of our plants. Many of the plants in the other gardens have scented foliage and are considered deer resistant. 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…

Mums are the staple of almost every household in the fall because of their abundant fall blossoms and varied array of colors. One thing many people don’t think about is that they are actually perennials. Some people realize this of course, but often people treat them as annuals only to buy them all over again next year. That is fine…

I decided several years ago that I didn’t want to mess with chemicals in my garden.  It was an easy choice for me.  We had kids and I didn’t want to risk their exposure to dangerous substances.  I didn’t want to eat food covered in chemicals at the dinner table.  A tomato with a side of pesticide just wasn’t a…

Thursday I got my new camera and of course I couldn’t wait to get outside and take a few pictures to test it! Let me just say that I am impressed with this Nikon D40. The pictures are much more clear and precise. The camera just functions better than our old Olympus. I’ll still use the old camera from for…

The weather this weekend was perfect. You can’t say that much here in July but it was just plain perfect. I hope you got to enjoy it as much as I did! I hope you enjoy a looking at a few pictures from the weekend! Salvia ‘Black and Blue’ and Zinnias Moonflower vine climbing the front porch.’Silver Mound’ Artemisia

The truth is I never even considered remodeling our front porch for the Better Homes & Gardens 48 Hour Challenge but if I had considered it I did have some incentive not to. The two front runners in the challenge (Making it Lovely and This Young House) had some nifty ideas that they used in their porch remodels and some…

Last week was the first Seed Sowing Saturday on The Home Garden! Starting Seed Sowing Saturday has  definitely motivated my planning, thinking, and preparations for the seed starting this year. I failed this week in one element of my seed plans – the planning! I had intended to put together a list of the seeds I was going to purchase…

Today school was out, the roads were iced over, and the garden was draped in white. I always enjoy the one or two times each winter when our landscape is covered in snow. That’s the great thing about living in Tennessee – or one of the great things – the mild winters! It will snow a couple times each year…

While we were out of town this past weekend we visited one of my wife’s aunts. She has a custom built log cabin in the woods surrounded by her garden. Since her property is very shady one of the most prominent plants in her garden is her hydrangeas. She has several kinds of hydrangeas that I’ll show you in a…

The mockingbird has been causing trouble again. The suet was the issue of contention in the backyard because our resident Mockingbird King claimed it and all the surrounding territory. No other birds were allowed near the feeders, even if they only wanted sunflower seed for which the king has no desire. When the mockingbird gave us (or more importantly, the…

I’ll continue with the Seed Starting 101 Series tomorrow but I thought I would use today’s post to share with you a related project. Recently I purchased a seedling heatmat that I’ve been testing in the garage to see how seedlings will grow out there.  The results have been pretty good so far with good germination rates for kale, chard,…

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!

It hardly seems to me that spring had even started before it was gone.  This growing season has gone by so quickly, or maybe I’m just getting too busy!  Unfortunately the garden has been through some rough times.  Drought and unbelievable record heat have crippled gardening in many ways from killing plants to keeping gardener’s with common sense indoors (although…

I’ve been gradually tinkering away at the garden shed. A few tasks are underway that are necessary before the next big step for the outside – painting! I’ve been busy sealing up the cracks around all the openings with caulk. I think I’m just over halfway done with the caulking on the outside. The caulking around the big windows on…

The other day I posted about the next evolution of my garden on its way to becoming a more formalized vegetable garden. Today I’ll show you the layout of what I hope the vegetable garden will eventually become. There are some distinct advantages to the layout changes that I am planning on making that I’ll share with you below the…