Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

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…

My recent fascination with the snowy owl visiting our town isn’t something new, I’ve always been interested in birds and wildlife. Gardening and nature to me are so closely woven together in the tapestry of life that you don’t get one without the other, and if you do you’re doing something wrong. Nature in all it’s glory ultimately controls what…

Welcome to Worst Weed Wednesday! Today is the day that you can rant all you want about weeds, how much you despise them, how you would like to eradicate them (and do), and what kinds of things you say to them (please keep it PG or PG13!). I’ll update this post as more folks rant on the worst weeds in…

I mentioned in my last post I would show you the trees that dad planted.  There are quite a few and in this post I really can’t show you all of them but maybe you can see just how much dad loved his trees. This crape myrtle is really a beautiful fall color tree.  Most people usually consider crape myrtles…

Last Saturday I was shopping at a nursery where I found a ‘Walker’s Low’ Catmint (Nepeta faassinii). I’ve talked about the benefits of Nepeta before so it may not be a surprise that I bought one. I planted the new perennial the other day in our front sidewalk garden. Catmint flowering near a witchhazel and lemon balm. Simply brushing the…

Today I have a very cool giveaway to tell you about. The folks at Clean Air Gardening are providing a 60 Gallon Spin Bin made from recycled materials for one lucky winner here on The Home Garden. To enter into the drawing all you need to do is comment on this post before 11:59 PM CST on Friday June 4th….

It seems the frosts don’t hold much sway over Achillea! The mums have mostly wilted away, but this little guy by the mailbox is still blooming. I took this picture this morning in 30 degree Temperatures.

OK, I wouldn’t have titled the article with Pimp My Yard (I’m really not cool enough to do that) but there’s a very good article on Slate about garden coaching as an emerging horticultural profession.  Garden coaches offer guidance for do-it-yourselfers who want to learn how to garden better.  For more information beyond the Slate article go check out Susan…

There’s not much happening on the greenhouse right now – it’s too cold! I walked out this afternoon to see if I could add some weather stripping to the front windows but it was too cold to add them as it needed to be higher than 40 degrees, or so said the packaging. This time of the year it should…

Yesterday I posted an enhanced photo of a flower from my garden and asked readers to try to identify it. I disguised it a little by removing the color and cropping and zooming the picture. I though it was a neat way to look at one of my favorite plants in the garden, the coneflower! This particular one was Echinacea…

Can you guess what seeds these are? If you guess a certain state tree you wouldn’t be far. No prize for the winners,just a job well done!I thought a little game,might make winter more fun!

Here is Part 4 in The Home Garden’s series of posts about how to garden on a budget.Often when people go to the plant nursery they look around and see what they can get for that immediate impact in their landscape. They see larger more established plants and can easily see how they will fit in their garden. If these…

Today I put the final touches on the birdbath garden for the 2008 gardening season. It’s come a long way since it’s inception last fall. In the beginning it was merely a birdbath with a couple plants next to it. A few irises, two coneflowers (‘Sunset’), and a butterfly bush made up the whole garden. Later I added some discount…

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…

I had a very productive weekend! It’s been a while since I spent so much time outdoors and despite the heat, the sun, the sweat, and big case of farmer’s tan a bunch of chores were accomplished. One surprise though was my potatoes. The potato bed was overrun with Bermuda grass as I mentioned the other day but even before…

Low maintenance and hard working, it’s hard to go wrong with zinnias in the home garden! Zinnias have colors cover nearly any shade you could ask for in the spectrum. There are even varieties with multiple colors although I don’t have any of those in my garden. Zinnias are extremely easy to cultivate and just need a little water to…

I don’t know about you but I’m ready for spring. Notice I said spring not spring gardening. I haven’t done everything I need to do to get ready for the new gardening season but I’m already lamenting the cold temperatures that we are destined to have for the next two months (January and February). When March comes we usually have…

While the weather still may not be ideal I’ve managed to get a few chores accomplished outside the last couple days. There’s much more on my weekend to-do list but I feel good about what has been started so far. The short list of things that I did: Cut back a Russian sage.  After I cut back the Russian sage…