Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

A couple weeks ago I wrote a post about fall planting of vegetables. Even though it goes against our natural inclination to think about cool season vegetables in August it’s definitely time. Like with any task good preparation is important for success. My first step in preparing the garden for planting is to determine what I want to plant. Beets…

I’ve been so busy that I’ve neglected the blog for a few days.  I even had to miss posting the Friday Fives last Friday in order to get everything done!  Fortunately the weekend rains and Mother’s Day gave me a bit of a break to catch my breath but I still feel like I have a to do list a…

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…

So far this year we have planted two actual trees along with a number of shrubs. I’ll talk about the shrubs another day but here are the two trees we planted. I have always admired the canopy of maple trees and the fall color of the red maples in particular. We put this tree in a few weeks ago. It…

Last week I was in one of the home improvement stores and started wandering the gardening shelves…always a dangerous thing! I looked around at all the packaged plants which in most cases are way too early to plant out and got sucked in by the displays. I ended up coming home with one Arapaha thornless blackberry plant. I love blackberry…

OK I’ll have to admit when I was sent Sustainable Landscaping For Dummies for a review I had some mixed thoughts with the title. I’m a fan of sustainability, I think it’s of the utmost importance as we remodel our landscapes and improve our homes, but something about the dummy part of the title got me. I mean, I don’t…

For those of you who are interested in the status of my garden shed I posted a little more on the floor. I’m out of bricks and didn’t quite get the whole area covered but I’m happy with the progress for now.  Let me know what you think!

Spring in many ways is just like listening to your favorite song. The parts of the song that make it special to you are those that make you replay it countless times over and over again. The chorus of springtime is very much the same. Old favorites pop up again and again for us to enjoy. One of my favorite…

Have you ever stood back and tried to observe your garden at a different angle? Maybe from up high on a slope? Or down low from the ground looking up at the flowers and trees? Sometimes it’s helpful to take a different perspective in order to plan out your garden better.  Here’s an example. I took this picture the other…

The mockingbird has been causing trouble again. The suet was the issue of contention in the backyard because our resident Mockingbird King claimed it and all the surrounding territory. No other birds were allowed near the feeders, even if they only wanted sunflower seed for which the king has no desire. When the mockingbird gave us (or more importantly, the…

The other use for my pile of rock was for garden borders. I’m gradually edging all my garden beds with natural limestone rock. Limestone is readily available all over Tennessee which makes it either cheap or free! I’m happy with the look o limestone but nearly any type of rock will work well for borders if it is large enough….

“Blame it on the rain, yeah yeah.” OK I apologize for bringing up old Milli Vanilli lyrics, but those words have been going through my head for days and I figured I would share the pain. I’m in a state of depression about my vegetable garden right now and it’s all because of precipitation. This was July and is now…

For years now I have complained about our Bradford Pear Trees. In my mind they are one of the most problematic trees ever planted in the landscape. I despise Bradford Pear trees. There are so many reasons why Bradford pear trees are terrible for planting that I constantly wonder WHY were these things ever released to the public for purchase….

There are some plants that are tricky to propagate but stevia isn’t one of them! In fact stevia is very easy to root from cuttings. Read on to learn more about propagating stevia from cuttings! Why Would You Want to Propagate Steve from Cuttings? Stevia rebaudiana is an herb often used as a substitute sweetener for sugar.  It isn’t reliably…

Since we were gone for a few days one of the first things I did was check the vegetable garden’s progress. Things are shaping up even if it is a bit unkempt. The tomatoes need tied off again. I’m using bamboo stakes and twine to tie off the plants as they grow. I could easily have used store bought tomato…

Thanksgiving is coming up next week and soon those turkeys will be filling our homes with the savory scents of a delicious dinner to be enjoyed among friends and family (and perhaps a nap to follow).  A lot of preparation goes into preparing that perfect Thanksgiving dinner and this being a gardening blog we aren’t talking turkey here but rather –…

This are warming up again around our Tennessee garden this February.  While I’m writing this post spring-like storms are pouring down outside.  February again seems more like March than February!  But that’s how it is sometimes with our weather patterns in TN.  We get some crazy stuff sometimes.  The unseasonable warmth has given rise to many things that would normally…

Finally I braved the harsh August summer elements and trekked out to the garden shed to lay the brick floor down. I didn’t get finished but I did manage to get some important work done like leveling the crushed gravel underneath where the bricks will go. I took a board and a level and made sure that the gravel was…