Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

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…

The earliest vegetables to emerge from our vegetable garden are the sugar snap peas. I planted them back in February but the cold temperatures kept the peas from coming up as early as I hoped. I planted two 3’x4′ raised beds with the peas in the hopes that we would enjoy a large crop this year. Several of the seeds…

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…

There’s no rhyme or reason to the pictures in this post. It’s all random and just for fun! Or does saying that give it a theme or a reason? Hmm…. Verbena bonairensis beginning the process of reseeding in the self-sowing garden. Celosia in the reseeding garden! The front garden on October. I’ve noticed that this year there is a definite…

Grape vines area great edible plant to add to the garden. Grape vines can be used in many ways and have the attributes of an ornamental plant with high value as an edible plant. As an edible plant grapes can be used to make wine, juice, and their leaves are edible making them an interesting choice for wrapping food inside…

I did some collecting yesterday in the cold drizzling rain. Some friends of my parents wanted to get rid of a pile of wood that used to be their deck. They remodeled their house a while back and hard-scaped around the pool so they didn’t need the deck. The lumber was sitting near their garden just waiting to be used…

When people think of plants native to Tennessee the prickly pear cactus (Opuntia humifusa) probably doesn’t come immediately to mind. Still it is one of many of the unique plants you can find in our diverse state. This particular cactus was found in Mt. Juliet, TN in cedar glade conditions but you could find it anywhere in the eastern United…

About 6 weeks ago I was out limbing up a couple Yoshino cherry trees (Prunus x yedoensis) . I couldn’t let the clippings just go to waste so I thought I would try my hand at rooting a Yoshino cherry from the greenwood cuttings. Previously I’ve only managed to root one Yoshino Cherry from a hardwood cutting and it didn’t…

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…

It’s been a week since my last Fall Color Project Update and the colors are only getting more colorful as we go! Charlotte told me about her Fall Color Project post last Friday with some very rich and colorful fall favorites. In fact the plants she has pictured are some of my personal favorites! Japanese maples and pyracantha are two…

Here are some pictures that we have taken of 2008!Here is a snowfall on a very cold evening. I like how the white snowflakes are captured, frozen in time, by the reflected light of the flash. A visitor to our new bird feeder! This white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinesis) is cracking open the shell of a sunflower seed for his feast….

It is full fledged spring around our Middle Tennessee garden.  There is no shortage of work that needs to be done in the form of weeding and mulching on top of a myriad of miscellaneous projects.  For now though let’s just take a few pictures of the garden and we’ll think of that monster spring to-do list a little later….

Last week I received the seeds I orders from two different companies. I was very impressed with the delivery time from both Wildseed Farms and Baker’s Creek Heirloom Seeds. I made my order from Baker’s Creek last Monday and received all the seeds I ordered plus a bonus packet by Wednesday! That was very fast service. The crazy thing to…

Every gardener has an enemy, a nemesis, an evil villain that lurks in the garden that the garden would love to eradicate. I’ve had an invader this year that has been more aggressive than ever before – Bermuda grass. Once it gets a foothold in the garden it is extremely hard to hold back, let alone eliminate.  Recently I attempted…

It’s already time for another look at what’s blooming in my garden for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day. It’s mid-October and the trees are just beginning to turn but there are still plenty of blooms to see. And if you’re interested in showing off your fall foliage colors then please participate in the Garden Blogger Fall Color Project!Here’s what blooming in…

“If I had a million dollars…”This is the main chorus line in a very humorous song by the Bare Naked Ladies but doesn’t everyone think this every now and then?So with a gardening slant…If I had a million dollars I’d build a modest house of four bedrooms and put it on as much acreage as I could afford and still…

Today I did something I’ve been thinking about for a while, I ordered a new camera! My old camera has been great, it’s an Olympus D-560, but I’ve been thinking that it was about time for an upgrade. I began taking quite a few garden pictures when I started up this blog back in October 2007 and would like to…

Things are growing very nicely in the vegetable garden. The tomatoes (which are our favorite crop no matter what else we try) are growing like crazy, the zucchini has almost produced it’s first zucchini, and the cabbage are …well…you’ll see… Here are two of my raised beds full of tomatoes. The bed on the left contains mostly Roma tomatoes while…