Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

This week is the Nashville Lawn and Garden Show!  For those of us here in TN this is a great opportunity to go out and take care of that gardening fix after a long cold winter.  There are always some interesting ideas to be found in the displays so make sure you bring a camera!  Here are some photos from…

This time of year can be very confusing.  Especially when the weather throws a few curve balls like extra warm temperatures!  It almost makes you think it will be fine to plant those tomatoes four weeks early.  I know why, everyone wants bragging rights about that first ripe tomato! I thought for today’s Friday Five post that I would mention…

If you start seeds yourself rather than purchase plants one important step in the process is transplanting. Repotting and transplanting tomatoes and peppers allows them to grow larger root systems so that when you do plant them in the garden they are more established (upsizing). There are a few tips that I want to share with you when transplanting your…

If you are a gardener you have probably heard people talking about how great woodchips are. That is probably because they are a very good resource for building up organic matter. Woodchips and leaves are also very easy to acquire and and best of all cheap! Woodchips do have a few drawbacks but if you are aware of those you…

It’s time for the SeedGROW project of 2011!  Last year Mr. BrownThumb and Renee’s Seeds sponsored the first SeedGROW project where Renee sent seeds to volunteer bloggers to document the seed growing experience. Nasturtiums were the seeds selected for last year and this year has a couple more garden favorites including lettuce, basil, and marigolds. In preparation for the SeedGROW…

Today was the day of the Middle Tennessee Plant Swap at Henry Horton State Park. If you missed it I really can’t blame you. The weather was cold, wet, and pretty miserable. It reminded me of early December Christmas parades back when I was a band director, and I sure don’t miss standing around in that weather! My wife and…

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…

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…

When you think of color in the winter garden you may think of evergreens first. You may imagine the dark green needle-like foliage of the pines, whose evergreen branches invoke images of winter scenes with snow covered trees. You may think of the glossy green leaves and the berries of the hollies that birds love to eat for winter time…

I was out today looking at the sorry state of the gardens and though it might be an interesting exercise to look back at how the gardens appeared last spring and compare them. Over the next few posts I’ll go back for a few photos of the spring time version and contrast it with that same garden today. Let me…

As I mentioned in a previous post about fall vegetable gardening we’re in the window of opportunity for getting those fall veggies going. All those cool season vegetables you planted for spring are eligible for a second go round in the garden. In our garden the radishes are rising, the sugar snap peas are sown, and everything else is will…

It’s time for another peek into the vegetable garden! The fall vegetables are picking up their pace while the summer ones are rapidly screeching to a halt among the rains that have been making Spring Hill, Tennessee seem much more like the Pacific Northwest. I saw the sun yesterday for about 15-20 minutes and used that time to scope out…

Imagine my surprise when I looked out of the back door and saw an accipter yesterday! That’s a member of the Acciptridae family which are birds of prey like hawks. Don’t worry I didn’t know that either until now. I looked into what kind of hawk-falcon this bird was and finally settled on a Sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) after comparing…

Helen at Toronto Gardens is treating us with a blast from last year’s fall foliage past. The palette of colors along the hillside is nothing short of stunning. The pictures are taken from Leaside bridge and offer a nearly bird’s eye view of the leaf landscape. Hopefully the leaves will be on the trees when Helen gets back home so…

My daughters from 2009 – Ages 2 and 4 My kids are kind of strange.  Of course I know what you’re thinking, all kids are a little weird.  They have their quirks, their unique traits that will eventually turn them in to unique adults. That’s not the kind of weird I’m talking about.  While visiting family over the Christmas season…

The signs of spring are showing themselves all over the garden. It’s not just in the flowers the bees and bugs are all coming out of their winter nesting places to sip on nectar and gain strength for another growing season. Here are a few pictures of the flowers I’ve seen over the week. The daffodils are coming up everywhere….

As old man winter starts to blow what will hopefully be his last breath this weekend I can look out my window at my yard and see the first mowing coming soon. Perhaps I should have already done the first mowing. Our unkempt clumps of grass are reminders of the upcoming work to be done in the season ahead. From…

Yesterday I fought the wind and dug a few more holes in our front garage/sidewalk garden. Its not much to look at now all bedraggled from the frost. Our perennials have said “good night” and only a few small shrubs look of any account, but in this bed I planted 60 tulips. I didn’t use a special power drill with…