Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Over Thanksgiving we spent some time in Mt. Juliet at my in-laws home. I always enjoy traipsing around the woods near their house just to explore. I did that often as a kid at my grandfather’s house and I’ve always been fond of spending time in the great outdoors. Often I come home with rocks for my garden borders but…

I am currently away from my garden so I thought I would share some Asiatic lilies from my mother-in-law’s garden. The blooms are spectacular this year! The lilies are mixed together with a variety of other plants in a raised bed garden made from local stone. Enjoy the blooms!For a look at other people’s June Blooms go to Carol’s site:…

I would like to wish you and your family a safe and very merry Christmas season! Photos: Nandina berries (top left), eastern red cedar under snow(middle left), blue garden shed (bottom left), happy little bluebird in snow (middle bottom), daffodil coming up in a March snow (bottom right), Our Snow covered house (top right). Coming up after Christmas: 2011 Project…

It’s time to start thinking fall garden if you haven’t already!  It may seem too hot, too dry or too much like August where you are but over the next few weeks we need to get our seeds started and growing. When to Start Seeds for a Fall Vegetable Garden? The tricky thinking about starting a vegetable garden in the…

I’ll simply title this next picture the off-season. If you garden, you know exactly what I mean! The leftovers of an Echinacea purpurea (Purple coneflower) seed head after the birds have visited.

…meal in my garden this year. Blood meal is one of those organic additives that contribute to the quality of your soil. It has a very important nutrient: Nitrogen. Nitrogen is responsible for growing the green leafy growth on your plants. Since blood meal is made form the dried blood of livestock it is an organic product and releases the…

Two falls ago (Fall of 2008) a lone buck came wandering through our yard. It was a magnificent sight to behold. Nature at its best…and its worst, at least for this gardener. You see this wandering deer was going through its normal fall ritual of rubbing its antlers for the winter. Their favorite target – young trees. That year I…

A few weeks ago I dropped a fairly large sweet potato in an old plastic peanut butter jar filled with water to make some sweet potato slips. Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite vegetables. To me having a simple baked sweet potato at dinner time almost seems wrong, it tastes like I am eating dessert for dinner! But of…

Summer is in full gear. Which means there is a lot to do in the garden, there always is isn’t there? The tomatoes and peppers are beginning to produce and in a couple short weeks should be ready to pick. Here are a few summer gardening tips to help you in your garden.   Watch for Pests Always be vigilant…

Recently a representative of Hartley Botanic asked if I would be interested in hosting a guest post. Since I knew of the beautiful designs for the Hartley collection of greenhouses I suggested she put together a post about how to choose a greenhouse. And here it is! Choosing the right greenhouse You would think that a greenhouse is an easy…

While earlier in the week brought progress to the outside of the greenhouse garden shed this weekend brought some progress to the inside. I had already insulated parts of the shed where there is no glass but I needed to cover the insulation. Fortunately there is plenty of scrap plywood laying around the shed from doing the outside sheathing plus…

Fads come and go and garden fads do the same thing.  What I like today might be different in 10 years, 5 years, or even 1 year!  But for this Friday Five post I thought I’d tell you a little about the plants I really like right now.  While this list contains some specific plants it also contains a types…

Even though the summer is upon us it’s still a good time to propagate plants. The key is to keep cuttings moist and at a steady temperature until roots have formed. Then they can be easily acclimated to outdoor temperatures. I do all of my cuttings inside our house on the windowsills or under a grow light to keep the…

Part two of my Arbor Day experiment will begin soon! Today I received my 10 free trees. I found them unceremoniously shoved into my mailbox courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service. Fortunately I don’t think any damage was done. I would think that a package that has LIVE PLANTS in big letters on the outside of it would dropped off…

Yesterday evening we had storms. Heavy winds and rain knocked down sunflowers and pretty much every perennial planting over 2 feet tall that wasn’t staked up. If it could catch the wind – it did. Unfortunately our Bradford pears remained in tact – I’ve been looking for an excuse to take them down, one of these days they will break……

One cold December morning a frost covered the land. It was still as everything and everyone was awaiting the sun to add warmth for the day. Miscanthus sinensis ‘Zebra Grass’ Rain Garden Achillea millefolium (Yarrow) Birdbath Garden ‘Powis Castle’ Artemisia, ‘Black and Blue’ Salvia guaranitica, Viburnum, and the remains of many others. Birdbath Garden Frozen Birdbath Birdbath Garden Clover The…

This year one of the tomato varieties I decided to grow was the ‘Tasmanian Chocolate’ tomato. Overall it proved to be a tasty and easy to grow tomato. The ‘Tasmanian Chocolate’ tomato is a determinate variety that is well suited for growing in pots. It grows to about 3 feet tall, at least the plant I grew did in my…

Recently our family made a visit to the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens in Nashville, TN. If you have never taken the opportunity to visit you should. The gardens are filled with a wonderful display of annuals, perennials, and themed gardens. Currently they have various playhouses on display with multiple themes like trains and foreign countries. We happened to be visiting with…