Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Fall is officially here but that doesn’t mean it’s time to stop propagating. In fact it means that many of the best plants are in their ideal state for hardwood and semi-ripe cuttings. Arborvitae is one such plant that does very well from cuttings taken from autumn to mid-winter. For an updated post on propagating arborvitae this subject check this…

My gardens haven’t seen any rain for several weeks now.  The grass is brown and I even commented to my daughter that it sounds like crunchy snow.  Of course the reality couldn’t be further from the truth – it’s hot!  No snowball could survive in our back yard today with temperatures expected to rise into the triple digits.  Droughts do…

A plant holding bed is a luxury that anyone who propagates plants might find very useful. (I know I will!) A plant holding bed can function as a coldframe or just as an out of the way spot set aside for plants to rest in while they grow. For me I just have too many propagated plants to continue storing…

Well you just know it had to happen. Another gardening season and another lawnmower incident. At least this time it didn’t involve flames! And I have to admit I am very thankful to have a nandina! How does a nandina fit in with the story? Let me recount the tale for you as I experienced it. It was a beautiful…

I always wonder exactly when the colors are going to peak. It always seems though that you never quite have it figured out until you’re actually past peak.  With that in mind are our fall color peaking?  Are the color changing maples, oaks, and sassafras at the height of their autumn radiance?  Hopefully not but we’ll see. Looking out over…

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….

Hello home gardeners, I need your suggestions!  You see a couple years ago my dad helped me build the  Blue Garden Shed.  One of the things I was eager to install was a green roof but I determined that I didn’t have the knowledge or the money at the time to do it correctly. As s substitute one of the…

You can feel it in the air can’t you? The coolness of an approaching autumn. The each passing day is getting noticeably shorter. We’re beginning that transitional period from the hot summer growing season to the fall growing season and that can mean a lot of changes in the garden. The vegetable garden may still be going full speed ahead…

May your Christmas be a time fill with friends, family, hope, and joy!

I know what this plant is, do you? See if you can guess it!The young foliage.The flowers.A stem covered with bugs! (Crane flies, harmless but they are everywhere right now)

Among many potential plants a gardener should consider in the garden are ground covers. Groundcovers allow you to fill in areas of the garden for a lush seemless scene. One such groundcover that is very low maintenance is liriope and in this post I’m specifically talking about Liriope muscari ‘Variegata’.  There are other varieties of liriope that aren’t as attractive…

I just posted on the greenhouse shed page with a new report on the siding installation. The garden shed is shaping up! Adding the siding really changes the look for the better – much closer to what I’ve envisioned. There’s always more to do but progress is being made! I forgot to mention in the post but I also installed…

One of the most interesting things about the fall season is the ability to observe the transformation from lush flowers and foliage to seed heads and dried leaves that flutter on the wind. It’s the beginning and the end of two gardening seasons for many plants. The seeds are the bridge that will reach across the gap and bring us…

Native plants have many advantages over exotic plants.  I thought for today’s Friday Fives Post I would mention five native plants that are pretty neat to have in your garden.  First though let’s define the terms native and exotic.  Exotic plants are those that are not indigenous to your region.  They’ve either been brought from other place by seed or…

I wrote about caryopteris last year so I won’t go deep into the details again but I thought you might like to see how I’m using it in the garden. First a bit of explanation. I once saw a picture of a row of caryopteris at Longwood Gardens and I thought “why not try that here?” The picture had caryopteris…

Spring time is such an exciting time for gardeners. The weather is better, the garden is growing again, and it’s time to add more plants to the garden! Thanks to Monrovia plants I splurged on plants for my garden the other day! Which one’s did I add? Heucheras and heucherellas! Before I tell you more you might be wondering, what…

The greenhouse shed project is coming along nicely. As I’ve mentioned before I’m not rushing things along but striving to do things as perfectly as possible. I’m very pleased with the results so far. Side to side and front to back, the greenhouse is almost exactly the same measurement. The greatest difference is about 1/4″ between the longest sides. I…

The other day the rain garden completed a mini-test. It really was more of a pop quiz. It wasn’t multiple choice or fill in the blank. It was true or false, did it work or not? There was only about 0.34 inches of rain but it easily handled that amount. Here’s what the drainage looked like before the rain garden…