Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Here is a a list of posts that discuss using raised beds for gardening. Designing a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden: 11 Things to Think About Companion Planting Vegetable Garden Layout The Benefits of Gardening in Raised Beds My Vegetable Garden Layout My Vegetable Garden Layout Part 2 New Raised Bed Vegetable Garden Layout Building My Raised Beds

This time of year you will probably notice in the fields a beautiful tall purple flowering plant dominating the scene. It’s likely that it is mixed with some beautiful golden rod (solidago) creating a wonderful purple and gold landscape. That tall purple flower is a native plant called ironweed. There are several different varieties of ironweed and all of them…

A few weeks ago I happened to be in an antique store (I’ll bet you didn’t see that coming!) when I stumbled across this rusted old candle holder. It was only 5 dollars and I thought that it had some potential. If I cleaned it up and repainted it I could put it on our front porch during the growing…

Over the weekend our family visited Bountiful Blessings Farm here in Middle TN.  Bountiful Blessings is in the Williamsport area about 30-40 minutes away from where we live here in Spring Hill. The big draw for us was the strawberries.  My mom gave us a couple pints of strawberries from their farm about 2 weeks ago and they were so…

Don’t be afraid, unless you’re an aphid. These little larvae are on the side of good and fight the evildoers in the garden. They may look creepy at first but these little lady beetle larvae are some of the best friends you could have. They eat even more than the adults do! Lady beetles love aphids as well as mites…

Spring is just around the corner but the cold days of winter are still present here in Tennessee. Sometimes we have really nice, beautiful, spring-like days in February and it’s so tempting to get in the garden and get a lot of work done. One task I believe that gardeners should wait on is cutting back perennials and ornamental grasses…

Last week I was out of town teaching and was forced to come home early due to a awful case of food poisoning (watch out for those buffets!) When Saturday rolled around my outdoor work plans were drastically changed. I had planned on getting some mulch on a few spots but just couldn’t stand being in the heat and humidity…

Free Plants! The best possible price you can find right? Last week I was struck by a post at everyone’s favorite garden ranting website. The post discussed the “lies” of gardening and one of those supposed lies was that you don’t have to spend money to get plants. The author implied that to get good plants you have to spend…

This bell may not make a sound but it sure strikes a chord with the chickadees and titmice.  We received the seed bell as a stocking stuffer for Christmas.  The birds must have loved it.  After two and a half days the seed bell is all gone!  At least I managed to get some nice shots of the chickadees. Unfortunately…

This Thursday through Sunday is the Nashville Lawn and Garden Show put on by the Horticultural Society of Tennessee.  It’s a combination of show gardens, displays, and all kinds of garden goodies. The display gardens were impressive, filled with water features, flowering plants, and fire features! All the elements were at play in each of the designs. Natural looking water…

If you don’t like kitty cats then perhaps you should not read further! If you can at least mildly tolerate those wayfaring strays, then this plant that I plan on planting this year might be good for you too! It has some profound benefits that don’t necessarily involve fraternizing with your feline friends. The plant in question is catmint. Its…

Every garden experiences pest issues form time to time.  Insect pest can be frustrating and sometimes when you discover what is damaging your plants it’s already too late to do anything about it.  Here are five common insect pests that you may see in your garden for today’s Friday Five post!   Pest #1: Flea beetles You’ll first notice flea…

Every year I notice these little green insects, aphids.  Well, sometimes they aren’t green, I’ve seen them in orange and yellow and they come in red, brown, and black too.  Whatever fashion sense these insects display one thing is for sure: you don’t really want aphids on your plants!  Aphids are a soft-bodied insect that love to suck on the…

Creeping thyme or Thymus serpyllum makes a great ground cover that is very easy to grow.  Once started it quickly grows and spread to fill out areas. Creeping thyme is an extremely easy plant to propagate.  Why is propagating creeping thyme so easy?  Let’s take a look! I planted three small seedlings of creeping thyme a couple years ago and…

Just recently I checked some cuttings of Densiformis Yew (Taxus x media; also Taxus cuspidata) and found roots! Densiformis Yew is also known as a spreading yew and is a common evergreen shrub in landscape plantings. It makes an attractive foundation planting with its dark green needles. If you have animals fond of chewing on plants avoid planting yews since…

It’s Friday!  I think I may have heard you exclaim in glee from here…maybe that’s just my imagination.  The weekend is approaching and you are eagerly anticipating being outdoors in the garden.  Have you planned out your chores and tasks yet?  If not here are a few things that I need to do in my garden that you may need…

Gardeners garden for many reasons.  Perhaps the most common reason is to get back to that part of us that belongs with nature.  We want to see the world around us come through our garden and provide for its positive growth.  How we do that can vary in thousands of ways but almost every method provides some sort of food…

The daffodils are officially in bloom here in my Tennessee Garden! Every year I like to mark the beginning of the daffodil blooms as it is one of the many signs of spring. (Coming very soon: Forsythia) It’s hard not to get excited about spring’s arrival after such a cold winter isn’t it? The first daffodil of 2009 was photographed…