Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

This weekend a reader emailed me a few questions she had about my post 5 Fall Things To Do to Prepare the Vegetable Garden for Spring.  I thought that other gardeners may be interested in hearing the answers to those questions as well so for today we’ll begin an intermittent series of garden questions and answers!  Feel free to chime…

To put it simply: it’s darn cold outside! The frost pocket that is our backyard was down to 5.9 degrees F!

Since I havent’ shown the state of the front garden lately now seems like a good time! The daylilies are blooming like crazy (at least the yellow ones are). I’ll start with a long shot of the arbor from up the driveway. There are three moonflower vines planted at the base of the arbor that should take off very soon….

In the fall there are several iconic thoughts that spring to mind of most people. Cool crisp days evoke good feelings and memories created around fall festivals, apple cider, holidays, and other fall activities. One way to share the fall experience with your family is to add a backyard fire pit. What could be better than a cool crisp evening…

The last week has been extremely busy and there are a mountain of fun things to talk about that sprang from it as well as quite a few neat things that will be coming down the road for the garden.  Of course right now we have results of the last of this winter’s oppressive ice storms, Titan, hanging around to…

One of the great flowering summer trees of the south is the crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica). They typically grow well in zones 6-9 (Tennessee generally falls in the zone 6 area with a few areas in the 7). One of the growing traits of a crape myrtle that makes them good for propagating by cuttings is their ability to sucker….

Saturday Sunsets and Silhouettes of CedarsSubscribe to The Home GardenStumble it!

I knew what I was going to do today. Weather permitting I would get outside and harvest our basil and not only make our dinner using it but make enough to have pesto a couple times during the winter. I planned ahead and we stopped by the grocery store to get more Parmesan cheese. We also picked up some milk,…

Some plants just really know how to grow! Take this Ajuga reptans (Bugleweed) that I planted in my corner shade garden area last fall for instance. I had one plant that I divided into two and planted on either side of a large stepping stone. Those two plants have now become all those that you see in the picture below….

Video UPDATE: Bradford Pear Tree As I expected we now have a second Bradford Pear Tree boken. In fact it’s a rather dangerous situation due to heavy branch still attached to the tree. I’ve been working to get this tree cut down since this happened but take a look at why you shouldn’t plant one of these problem trees. In…

One of my greatest gardening pleasures is that of making a new plant, for free!  Well I don’t actually do the work the plant does, but knowing how to give the plant the optimum conditions for rooting is important for success!  The plants I’m listing today for The Friday Fives are easy to propagate plants from cuttings.  In case you…

It’s always nice to have a few flowers that are so extremely reliable that you can count on them even during the most awkward periods of weather.  Recently it’s been raining which has been helping us recover from our drought but these flowers were doing great in the drought conditions.  Let’s take a look! Orange cosmos is always a standout. …

Christmas is just about here and our minds are all focused on celebrating the season with family and friends but soon after Christmas our gardens will be need attention.  In gardening the correct timing can mean the difference between a great harvest, OK harvest, or even no harvest. Let’s take a quick look at some upcoming things that you should…

If you’re a gardener (and if you’re reading this you probably are!) spring time excites you like no other season. April is a great month to get in the garden and get some work done but always remember to take a few moments to appreciate what’s growing! Here’s a quick rundown of a little of what is growing in my…

I was looking back at photographs of the past year in the garden and found these shots of the front sidewalk garden. When the weather is cold and rainy outside it’s nice to look back sometimes and see how things were where they were in bloom. The sidewalk skirts the garage portion of our house and takes you up to…

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…

Spring is in full swing here in Tennessee and that means people everywhere are headed outdoors.  Some to play, some to work, and others to just hang out on the front porch with glass of sweet tea.  That’s what we do here in the south, sweet tea on the front porch.  This week I put together two small and very…

There was one plant that I knew I would purchase the second I saw it ‘Oranges and Lemons’ Gaillardia. I found one last year on a discount rack and rescued it from an unknown fate. ‘Oranges and Lemons’ quickly became one of my favorite plants in the garden. It bloomed forever and had some really attractive seed heads shaped like…