Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

I just wanted to extend a thank you to the Maury County Master Gardeners for inviting me to speak tonight about plant propagation and cuttings! It’s a fun topic for me and I hope I didn’t ramble too long, apparently I have that tendency (at least Jenny says so!) Thanks again!Dave

It’s been a few days since any real vegetable garden update so I figured it was time to show you a little of what’s going on out there in veggie land! The cucumbers: I always direct sow cucumbers, squash, and other cucurbits. Unless you have them in biodegradable pots they don’t always transplant well. I also like the cost effectiveness…

Tuesday evening several of us Tennessee garden bloggers got together to meet. For some of us, including myself, it was the first time seeing the bloggers behind the screen. Our conversations ranged from garden topics, blogging topics, to air traffic control. So who was there? Who are the faces behind the blogs?Gail from Clay and Limestone is on the left…

As a garden blogger sometimes life is frustrating. During the winter you reach for things to say, stuff to talk about and begin dragging back old pictures of the previous year just so that you can produce something for people to read. Then before you know it the growing season is in full swing and you’re practically left behind with…

A few weeks ago an email came in my box asking me a question about propagating irises. I answered the question then received a picture of the questioning gardener’s garden. To say that I was impressed would be an understatement. Climbing roses mixed with many varieties of perennials create a living painting in Ennio’s backyard. And did I mention that…

In the spring time one ground cover really stands out due to its prolific flowering. Creeping phlox or Phlox subulata really punches out the color for a couple weeks in spring then fades into a nice lush and green carpet of foliage. You can use it on slopes, around mailboxes or as a low growing front border plant. It has…

Even though I’ve been fairly quiet recently about my plant propagation efforts I’m still working on several things.  Many of my cuttings I do indoors and keep away from the cold winter weather.  Very soon I’ll go and take cuttings from the evergreens but for now here’s what I’ve rooted recently. Confirmed rooted: Japanese Dappled Willows (Salix integra) – I…

Today my little 2 year old daughter and I went out and planted daffodils. She did pretty good, dropping the bulb into the hole after I dug it out. Initially Grace kept trying to rearrange the bulbs all over the bed. Then she started taking the spade I was using to dig the holes. Eventually we got a process together…

We managed to accomplish a little more on the greenhouse project this week. We ran into a small roadblock when we botched putting together the roofline and had to take the rafters down to reattach them to the center beam. I was trying to do things in a simple and easy way which turned out to be complicated and difficult,…

We all know we should compost. Most of use know the things we can compost. So here’s a couple ideas to help you compost! 1. We have a compost bucket outside our back door. The 5 gallon bucket stands ready to collect the compost until we can take it to the big bin in back. There are compost buckets you…

Here’s just a quick post to say Merry Christmas to everyone out there! I may not have a chance to post over the next week so I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday with lots of food, family, and fun! Hold true to the spirit of the holiday and it’s true meaning and you will have a very…

I did some collecting yesterday in the cold drizzling rain. Some friends of my parents wanted to get rid of a pile of wood that used to be their deck. They remodeled their house a while back and hard-scaped around the pool so they didn’t need the deck. The lumber was sitting near their garden just waiting to be used…

I thought I would take a moment to talk about hardwood cuttings. It is the beginning of winter and which is also a great time to go out and try to reproduce many of your favorite woody trees and shrubs in the garden. Many plants will easily propagate through hardwood cuttings and I’ve included a short list below that you…

You know how I am, if I grow it I see if I can root it! The challenge this time was to root a heuchera from a leaf cutting. It isn’t difficult if you take from the right part of the plant. Just taking a cutting from a leaf isn’t good enough as it won’t result in any new foliage….

This Saturday is the Middle Tennessee Plant Swap at Henry Horton Park. This is a fantastic opportunity to talk to other gardeners and exchange those extra plants you don’t need for some you do! If you haven’t already gotten your plants ready you should do that ASAP to give them time to recover from any potential plant shock. Exchanges aren’t…

It’s been a long time.  Last year, or last mowing season, I had the misfortune of blowing up my mower.  Well I nearly blew up my mower. It was close, very close.  While mowing one fine spring day last May the blades ran over a nylon cord and got caught.  I did what any responsible power tool user does in…

It’s been a while since I’ve written about our vegetable garden so I thought the end of April would be a good time for an update!  There are a few disappointments but overall most of the garden is right on track.  We’ve used raised beds for several years now but most of them have disintegrated.  I’ve replaced some with concrete…

Through my YouTube channel I’ve been doing an end of the month tour of our garden each month. This July was a rough month for us personally and resulted in less time in the garden. Overall I’m happy with the garden this year and the produce we are getting. The tomatoes and peppers are the prime crop right now and…