Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Last year one of the areas of our yard that I was sorely behind on updating was the mailbox garden. Since mailbox gardens typically are the first thing that people see when they come to visit it’s nice to have something to greet them. It really doesn’t take much to refresh or renew a garden. A few bags of mulch…

Lately I’ve been looking back at all the pictures I took over 2009 like in my last post (the picture of rudbeckias.) Soon I’ll be talking about seeds and getting ready in earnest for 2010 gardening but I find that glancing back at the previous year’s pictures helps to guide me when it comes to the seed catalogs. I stumbled…

This afternoon I went outdoors in the beautiful 60 degree weather and harvested our potato crop.  Truth be told its a rather small harvest of potatoes but considering that I didn’t intentionally plant them I am quite pleased!  When you leave behind a few potatoes from the spring/early summer harvest they grow into a nice fall crop.  Growing potatoes is…

Disclaimer: The following post is a sponsored review of the Troy-Bilt TB490 XP ™ 4×4 Self-Propelled mower. All opinions are solely the opinion of the author who in exchange for goods and compensation was asked to do this review. In my last post I told you a little bit about my trip to Savannah, Georgia with the Troy-Bilt Brand Ambassadors….

Spring is hitting us full force right now in mid April. Flowers are blooming everywhere! The mailbox garden is covered in spring time flowers and in just about every other garden is a spot of color to talk about. This post is plant and garden photo heavy so be prepared! April Blooms in the Mailbox Garden We’ll start the garden…

I’ll continue with the Seed Starting 101 Series tomorrow but I thought I would use today’s post to share with you a related project. Recently I purchased a seedling heatmat that I’ve been testing in the garage to see how seedlings will grow out there.  The results have been pretty good so far with good germination rates for kale, chard,…

I began the first part of cleaning up the vegetable garden and preparing it for winter today. The summer garden went much longer last year and we had tomatoes until the end of the October. Unfortunately that’s not the case this year. The few tomatoes that were left on the vines were not worth waiting for them to ripen. Besides…

Coming up on April 25, 2008 is Arbor Day. It’s a day to celebrate a unique feature of our planet the trees. The trees are so important to us. They serve as the planet’s lungs filtering the air we breathe, they provide us fruit and nuts to eat, paper to read and write with, drugs like aspirin and shade to…

We’re in full fledged spring garden mode here in Tennessee. What does that mean you ask? Everything is blooming or budding. While allergy sufferers dread this time of year it still remains my favorite. I love the bright green colored grass as it comes up fresh from the earth. I love the play of the colors in my yard. My…

I know those of you in Canada and the Northern U.S. see snow fairly regularly, but in Tennessee it doesn’t happen often. When it does it’s usually fairly substantial. In our area of Tennessee, which would be the Southern Middle region, we picked up 3-4 inches of the fluffy white stuff. For me it brings back memories of growing up…

What a difference three years makes in the life of a plant. Welcome to my front sidewalk garden at the beginning of July. You will notice right off the bat several flowering perennials on the left side of the sidewalk that could use a little pruning. The Russian sages (Perovskia atriplicifolia) are towering over the walkway. In retrospect this probably…

It’s that time of year when we’re all struggling to come up with great ideas to give our favorite people. I’ve always found that the best gifts are those that you can use on an almost daily basis. A couple years ago at Christmas I was given an iron skillet. I thought for second “wow, an iron skillet.” It certainly…

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…

Last year we designed, built, and grew our first vegetable garden in our new home. The garden was made of two large beds that were subdivided into 3 smaller conjoined beds in an “L” shape. Unfortunately the vegetable garden layout we designed was built more around aesthetics than around function. Since then I’ve realized something: When designing vegetable gardens think…

Last week I wrote about my seed starting “mini-greenhouses” made from clear plastic cups so I thought I would share how my tomato seeds are doing so far. To sum things up I am very pleased with the results as I have very strong and healthy growing tomato seeds are in the mini-greenhouse cups.  Some of my tomato seedlings are already…

The holiday season is in full swing and while they say the recession is slowing we all should still be watching our pennies. Why not put together some low cost holiday gifts? If you’re interested check out my post on Low Cost Gifts For Gardeners at Complete Organizing Solutions!

Is it cold enough for you yet? Too cold if you ask me! Temperatures are not destined to be above freezing in the foreseeable future here in TN. I’m intentionally laying low indoors due to those low temperatures but others are not so lucky. The birds are fluffing their feathers out as much as they possibly can in an effort…

Are you looking for something, anything to keep you going until spring time?  Are you frantically searching the garden for signs of life?  Here are two early signs to look for that will tell you spring is just around the corner! The daffodils are rising!  The foliage of daffodils always comes up early but these are especially early.  This photo…