Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

It is officially fall and we all know what that means – its time for the Fall Color Project! Every year I encourage bloggers to use Growing The Home Garden as a hub to share the peak colors in their area.  Fall color is different every year and in every area.  There is no way a person can see it…

What’s not to like about ‘Homestead Purple’ Verbena? The only answer I could come up with to my own question is that I don’t have enough of it! It is a fantastic flowering ground cover. ‘Purple Homestead’ grows very well with little care in full sun. For Tennessee gardens it’s a must have perennial. Who Discovered ‘Purple Homestead’ Verbena? Do…

I successfully rooted a Florida dogwood (Cornus florida) from a cutting! This is a tree that’s been tricky in the past for me to propagate, and I finally had some success I think is worth sharing. In this post, I’ll walk you through exactly what worked, step-by-step instructions for how to root flowering dogwood cuttings yourself, and some tips and…

It’s about time! 5 years ago we bought a piece of land only 10 minutes away from where we’ve lived since 2007. We intended to start building the house soon after that but so many things happened that building a home just continued to get postponed. Job changes, life changes, society changes (COVID 19), and quite a few things have…

Hopefully this will be the last time this year but there is a chance of a slight freeze tonight and tomorrow night (April 28 & 28)! The weather forecasters are predicting temperatures in the mid to upper 30’s for both nights. After that we should be in the clear.Protect those plants!If you are like me and have already planted some…

I’ve been spending a lot of time dreaming about what is to come for our family, our new house, and the gardens. It’s easy to come up with ideas but always much more challenging to implement them. I’ve designed a potential house plan and I know how we would site it on the property. There is still a lot of…

This year I invested some money into heat mat.  I’ve heard for years how bottom heat speeds up seedling and root growth and I thought it was high time I got my act in gear.  So toward the end of last year I ordered one. And let me say, I’m enjoying it already!  It’s not really time to start seeds,…

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…

OK, maybe you didn’t, but what gardener doesn’t want to see flowers in bloom?  Here’s a quick look around at the blooms of my garden for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day hosted by Carol and May Dreams Gardens! The bees always love the coneflowers. Blackberry lily. Blackberry lily gets ts name from the seed clusters that resemble the compound fruit of…

The Plant of the Month for December over at Gardening Gone Wild is all about sedums!  Sedums (also called stonecrop) are a type of succulent and are capable of storing water in their leaves which makes them very drought tolerant here in Tennessee.  We have several kinds of sedum in our garden with one of my favorites being the Dragon’s…

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…

Last week I was out of town teaching and was forced to come home early due to a awful case of food poisoning (watch out for those buffets!) When Saturday rolled around my outdoor work plans were drastically changed. I had planned on getting some mulch on a few spots but just couldn’t stand being in the heat and humidity…

It may not look like much now but just wait and see what it turns into. This is the way most of my gardens start, one small little spot in the yard that projects an image into my mind. Can you see what this might turn into?Maybe not but I don’t blame you,right now all that is there is a…

We’re always looking for ways to save money and with today’s economy what it is it’s not just wise, it’s crucial for gardeners to save a buck when they can!  Gaillardia from a Discount Rack There are several ways gardeners can save money on their garden that are really easy to do and don’t require anything really crazy.  Today’s Friday…

Eastern Redbud Cercis canadensis Unfortunately these pictures were taken in the fading light after rains had nearly washed us away the other evening, but you can see the craggy weather-worn structure of our old redbud in the back. Redbud trees are very common here in Tennessee and to me they are the ultimate symbol of spring’s arrival. Their blossoms range…

This weekend’s weather was a sign that there really is a light at the end of this dark tunnel we call winter – and it’s not another trains headlight! Spring is coming and the warm weather that we’re having this week has me itching to get in the garden – which is exactly what I did over the weekend –…

The organic weedkiller winner is… as selected by the random number generator at Random.org… which came up with the number… (I’m drawing this out a little)… (just for fun)… (are we having fun yet?)….   3… which means that…. Meemsnyc from the blog: Gardening in the Boroughs of NYC is the winner! Congrats and email me your mailing address ASAP…

The other day I mentioned something I’ve been putting off: a tree removal. It didn’t take long but it was tough work especially the hauling away part. I don’t own a chainsaw and just used an old bow saw that has been worth its weight in gold over the years. The tree was a cedar. I don’t know exactly what…