Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Many years ago back when I was in college I brought home a lemon from the store. On a whim I decided that I would plant a couple of the seeds from that little lemon into a cup and see if I could grow a lemon tree. The seeds sprouted and several little lemon trees grew. The little lemon trees…

In the very back of our property we have a shady area.  It’s about the only shady area that has occured naturally in our landscape.  A mixture of walnut, sassafras, hackberry, and maple trees create a shade area that until recently was completely unusable!  It was a problem area in our landscape which I thought would make a great subject…

Part 2 of incorporating herbs in the gardens is all about oregano, rosemary, sage, and thyme. These four go well together so why not post about them together? Oregano (Origanum vulgare) Oregano is such a great herb for the garden. It’s attractive, grows like crazy, smells great, tastes great, and is a general purpose repellant for insects! Could you really…

To me grass clippings are one of the best resources a gardener can get! I see grass clippings from lawn as an amazing way to gather organic matter for other uses in the garden ranging from composting and garden beds to mulching! Here are some really great ways to utilize this free organic resources in your gardening if you are…

July can be a tricky month.  The weather is normally hot and very dry which brings with it challenges for irrigating the garden and keep plants alive to produce well throughout the fall.  This July in TN has bee a lot different.  Out hottest days so far this year were like normal days in previous years and our normal days…

Recently I was sent three products to take a look at that could be used in the garden world fro various functions. Fortepromo.com specializes in customizing various products for companies and groups to make unique individual promotional products. The three items they sent me to look at were a tape measure, a water bottle, and a garden bag that is…

Fall is a great time of the year. It’s always been my favorite season because of the fall colors, the cooler weather, and there are always events to enjoy. The vegetable garden is enjoys the cooler weather too. Gone now are the peppers and tomatoes, which both succumbed to frost, but instead we have kale, pak choi, mustard, and Brussels…

My thoughts on gardening in 2020 2020 has been a crazy year so far hasn’t it? On the positive side it has introduced a host of new gardeners to the fun of home gardening. People these days are looking for ways to spend their time at home and maybe participate in a healthy activity that can offset some expenses with…

Here’s a quick look at my garden from the weekend! The ‘Diablo’ ninebark is in bloom.  It has beautiful purple-copper hued leaves and flowers with these clusters of white flowers each spring. In the vegetable garden the lettuce is coming along – finally.  It’s taken a while this year to get some good germination.  I think the weather fluctuations have…

Obviously if you are reading this post you have discovered the world of garden blogging, but do you know how it can help you in your garden? Do you know how to best utilize garden blogs for your benefit? I have a tip that may give you a few ideas, but first let’s look at what garden blogging is about….

Please bear with me while I make a few cosmetic changes!  I’ve been wanting to find a new look for the blog that is more functional and I think I have found a template that works.  There will be some minor tweaks and repairs over the next few days.  All the content and comments should be intact.  Think of this…

Early morning is the best time for so many things including plant propagation. Taking cuttings when it is cool prevents them from drying out and losing too much moisture before they get prepared. If a cutting dries out it very well could be the end of the road for your potentially propagated plant! This morning, as I always try to…

Aside from being the Boy Scout Motto, Tennessee gardeners need to be prepared this weekend for some of the coldest temperatures yet this fall. According to the Weather Channel the lows this weekend will be dipping down to a chilly 40 F, 38 F, and will end with a frigid 36 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday evening. Which means that this…

Here are a few garden layouts, plans, and designs that I have put together for my garden. Some are landscape plans while others are diagrams of my vegetable garden. The herb garden layouts were never actually implemented in my garden as I went with the interplanting approach. Eventually I may incorporate a formal herb garden in our landscape. You are…

Back in the fall I decided to take some arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) cuttings and test to see how well they would root over the winter. Propagating plants over the winter as hardwood cuttings has some big advantages so it was definitely worth trying. How I Took the Arborvitae Cuttings I used the same method for taking cuttings that I wrote…

This winter has been bitterly cruel.  Not bitterly cold, just bitterly cruel.  It’s tempted us into believing that spring was almost here, then the ground hog predicted 6 more weeks of winter..and we laughed. The weather was warm and what do groundhogs really know about the weather?  Do they have live Doppler radar in buried in their dens?  I don’t…

Here are some pictures of our sky yesterday morning September 11th 2008. It was a beautiful morning that I spent (at least before 7:00 AM) potting up a couple demonstration plants for what else? A demonstration! I’ll be giving a demonstration at our local gardening club (Spring Hill, TN) about propagating plants from cuttings. I potted up a Veronica and…