Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

I realized today that I left off a very important chore that I’ll need to do very soon, grass overseeding!Fall Grass Overseeding. I need to spread grass seed over our existing lawn. Last year I used Kentucky 31 fescue and our lawn looked great in the spring. It browned up over the summer since fescue is a cool season grass…

I like to reuse things as much as possible, so I took an old post from an old wooden palette, sanded it and gave it a cedar stain. I left some of the darker marks on it so that it would maintain that rustic look. Then I fastened a copper birdbath that we had and put it into the ground….

To our veterans and their families who have made the ultimate sacrifice, thank you. Without your sacrifice our country and our world would not be as it is today. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the rights accorded to us through the Declaration of Independence, were what you fought for, what you protected, and continue to be protected by…

A character on one of my favorite shows “Heroes” calls himself a “master of space and time.” Hiro can stop time and let it resume whenever he wants. At one time he was even able to go forward and backward through time. Wouldn’t that be a cool power to have? But this post is not about superpowers, it’s about becoming…

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” This ancient sentiment applies very well to the denizens of the garden. The tomato (tobacco) hornworm in the pictures is a being of great tomato destruction. This larval stage of the five-spotted hawkmoth is able to demolish whole tomato plants in a matter of days if not caught early. It feeds off…

Another unforeseen issue has arisen in my garden: blister beetles!  These voracious beetles are systematically devouring the foliage of our plants.  So far they’ve taken turns tasting our tomatoes, tomatillos, and even a clematis.  I’m not heartbroken over the clematis as it’s a sweet autumn clematis that grows like a weed – it will come back.  But I do want…

To say I’m furious tonight would be an understatement. The deer have struck again, and again this week, relentlessly. This week’s attacks have been the most brutal by far. I normally like the deer. It’s fun to see the fawns scamper through the backyard, or to watch the watchful mother and father deer looking after the young ones. But today…

Orange! The orange standouts are new to flowering this year although some were planted last year in anticipation of a showy display. Daylilies of course come in all kinds of colors. This one has a little orange in the center while remaining mostly yellow and was picked up at the plant swap last year. The Asiatic lily was a recent…

No this isn’t some heavy weight boxing fight over on pay-per-view.  This is a garden blog after all!  This is a comparison between two very similar fall flowering perennials that really are heavy weight garden stand outs!  This battle is between ‘Sheffield Pink’ and ‘Clara Curtis’ – the pink mums! In this corner we have ‘Clara Curtis’ sporting pink petals…

Over the years I’ve done several vegetable garden layouts for my garden. I’ve always tried to make improvements to the vegetable garden. My goal is to make it more efficient for growing yet still aesthetically pleasing and fun to be in. This year however isn’t just an adjustment, it’s a whole new garden! We moved into our new house in…

Panicle hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata) are garden favorites for many gardeners because of their showy cone-shaped blooms, cold hardiness, and easy-care nature. Whether you’re nurturing one plant or dreaming of a whole hedge, learning to propagate panicle hydrangeas can be both rewarding and cost-effective. I purchased a single ‘Limelight’ hydrangea last year to add to my garden with the idea that…

I decided several years ago that I didn’t want to mess with chemicals in my garden.  It was an easy choice for me.  We had kids and I didn’t want to risk their exposure to dangerous substances.  I didn’t want to eat food covered in chemicals at the dinner table.  A tomato with a side of pesticide just wasn’t a…

One of the coolest things about gardening is that every month brings a new scene. Different plants come to the forefront while others fade away leaving either seed heads or simply foliage in their place. Some may disappear completely among the foliage or die back to the ground revealing new fresh plantings that are coming into their own while some…

Could there be anything so easy to grow as a Morning Glory (Ipomoea)? Once a seed sprouts the vine will happily climb whatever structure it lies adjacent to whether it be a tree, shrub, trellis or post. It’s not picky!Of course there is the issue of Ipomoea invasiveness. Morning Glories are rapid growers and self seeding phenoms. They can quickly…

Spring is officially here and it seems like the daffodils were waiting for the memo. They are in full bloom now and their yellow flowers are a bright and happy sign that the cold dreary days of an extra long and extra cold winter are behind us. Sure we’ll have some cold days ahead, but those are little dips in…

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…

April is an amazing time of year to get in the garden. The weather is better, the soil is warming up, and the plants are coming alive from their winter rest. April is the time of year when gardeners need to be going full speed agead to prep their Zone 7 gardens before the heat of summer arrives. Here in…

I’ve been perusing many catalogs over the past several days trying to figure out what seeds to get. I finally wrote down the vegetables the other day but while looking at the plethora of pictures in the catalogs I found a perennial shrub that intrigues me. I’ve seen it before but the catalogs’ pictures make the Blue Mist Shrub come…