Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

The autumn equinox is this weekend which means fall will be officially here but along the way nature has been telling us that fall is here already.  Let’s take a peek at some of the signs of fall around my garden. 5 Signs of Autumn’s Arrival The annual discussion of what causes allergies begins when the golden rod blooms.  Goldenrod…

Last year I planted two ‘Winter’s Snowman’ camellias in the front garden. I was hoping that they would bloom last year but alas it was not to be, but they have started blooming this year! The first of the white camellia blooms opened today.  It wasn’t fully open when I snapped the picture but I just couldn’t wait to share…

I love the spring time with its flush of new flowers and this spring’s flowers have one of the record books. Among those flowering plants one of the coolest is the Fothergilla major. Fothergilla is a small shrub in the Hamamelidaceae family that gets around 6 to 10 feet tall with a spread up to 5 to 9 ft. It’s…

I never let a good container go to waste (much to my wife’s dismay – admittedly, I do save way too many)! These foam containers are perfect for sowing seeds just like the store bought flats. Just poke a few holes for drainage in the bottom add soil, seeds, and water and you have an instant garden. Well, maybe not…

A few years ago I helped my parents build together a focal point in their yard. It is made of two concentric circles of decorative concrete retaining wall, with the center circle taller than the outer one. The circles serve as a central location in the yard for some garden pathways. In the center ring is a weeping cherry tree…

Broken branch of a crape myrtle Sometimes in gardening, as in life, we experience bad breaks. We don’t intend for these to happen, they just do. Whether caused by too much stress, mistakes, or happenstance the only power we have over these breaks is to clean up and hope for the best. Such is the case with one of my…

I suppose it’s human nature to second guess oneself and lately I’ve been wondering if the vegetable garden layout I decided to make was designed the best way. It’s very functional and all the vegetables have been growing wonderfully (until a couple pests came along, but that isn’t related to the garden’s layout.) Aesthetically the layout works well and there…

Very early in their blogging experience Garden bloggers find that the digital camera is their best friend. When I started blogging back in October of last year I discovered that illustrating my posts was essential to having a successful blog. People thrive on pictures. I’ve noticed that when a post has pictures more people are likely to read through the…

OK perhaps humming isn’t the proper word…buzzing…droning…that’s more like it! The cicadas are here and in action making a cacophony of sound all around. I noticed their cast off shells hanging on the tall grass foliage in the backyard while mowing the other evening but didn’t see any actual cicadas until Thursday. My daughter and I went exploring in the…

The fifteenth of another month has arrived which means it’s time for Bloom Day! This bloomday just finds me happy that I have plants alive and virtually ecstatic that I have blooms. If you’ve been reading along lately you probably have heard me complain before about the lack of rain and the really high temperatures. Water is so vital to…

This weekend I worked on two garden projects. One took a a good deal of time to complete while the other only took about an hour and a half. The big project was a plant holding bin to hold my propagated plants that aren’t ready for in the ground planting yet. Fortunately I was the recipient of some old deck…

While this won’t happen every Friday (I don’t have enough sponsors) I do have something that some readers and bloggers may want to try in their own homes or gardens. If you remember a month or so back I tested some products from a company called EcoSMART. The specialize in making insect repellents, organic bug killers, and other products that…

Earlier this week I spent an afternoon outside with my oldest daughter who had a half day off from kindergarten. She was running around outside and playing on the swingset while her brother (our youngest) was napping in the stroller nearby. Since he rarely ever naps I was not even remotely tempted to tempt fate by moving him indoors and…

The red maple (Acer rubrum) is one of the most beautiful trees for fall color. It leaves shone out in the fall like a bonfire beckoning all to admire. The red maple is such a great tree in the landscape.  I tend to like trees that have at least three seasons of interest and maples fit the bill.  In the…

Fall is the perfect time to start preparing tree and shrub seeds that need a period of cold weather before they’ll sprout. When seed starting tree and shrub seeds I use two techniques that help to trigger better germination rates. The first technique is simply soaking the seeds. The second process is called stratification and mimics the natural cycle seeds…

New to our garden this year ‘Powis Castle’ artemisia is proving to be a powerful perennial plant for foliage! I’ve always enjoyed artemisias for the silver foliage and really liked the ‘Silver Mound’ artemisia that we put in the front sidewalk garden so once I found this cultivar at a local nursery I thought I would give it a try….

Here is another little Tennessee wildflower I found over the weekend. It was located very close to the Yellow Corydalis and was thriving in that same environment. This particular wildflower is called False Garlic (Northoscordum bivalve). Here in the first picture you can see a blossom just starting to come out. This little flower grows from 4 to 12 inches…

A few years ago I drew a rough drawing of a garden area for my in-laws.  They had just built their new house and were excited to fill the landscaping in with something they would enjoy. What I came up with was a sitting garden. Essentially an area where they could go outside and relax while watching the garden or…