Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

A couple years ago I was fortunate to participate in the Better Homes and Gardens 48 Hour Blog Challenge. Three other blogs and myself competed with projects subject to online voting to see who would win. The winner took home $5000, unfortunately it wasn’t me but the whole project was fun anyway – and it paid for the arbor! My…

Large cocoon on ninebark For several months I’ve been watching this strange cocoon attached to my ninebark.  I was curious what might come from it, and a little apprehensive too, then yesterday I found a second one on a viburnum.  What if it was something that would chow down on my garden?  What if it was some dangerous?  What if…

http://www.growingthehomegarden.com/2010/08/garden-blogger-posts-of-week.htmlWelcome to the second week of Garden Blogger Posts of the Week. Last week I highlighted two posts that I thought were interesting, unique, or stood out in some way (cool pictures etc.). Today I’ll mention a few more. Please pay them a visit when you get the chance! I thought Nancy Bond’s pictures of the eagle were very cool….

Along the posts of the arbor project we added a little decoration. Welcome to Japanese Maple Leaf Decor 101: How to Stain an Arbor! First we put the initial coat of stain on the 4″x4″s then placed a leaf of a Japanese maple on the still slightly damp wood. Then we removed the leaf after a second coat of stain…

Even in winter gardeners in Tennessee need to keep up with the weeds.  Cool season weeds like chickweed and henbit can easily take over while you aren’t watching your garden beds.  I actually like the look of henbit in the lawn but not in the garden beds.  If you have a warm winter day get out there and do a…

…digging the rain garden. I looked back at the January 12, 2008 post to see what I wrote about one year ago. During that week I was heavily entrenched (forgive the pun) in digging the rain garden. Today I’m very pleased with how well it functions. This January we’ve had at least 3 inches of rain so far, possibly more,…

Every year I like to create a list of garden projects that I plan to tackle for the year. It’s a list of goals that I would love to accomplish but often due to time I find I planned for more than I can do. My goal list helps me to organize and prioritize what I need to get done…

To me it has always seemed that winter makes up for the lack of color in the skies of the sunrise.  What do you think? Are the colors of the sunrises and sunsets a substitute for the flowers and foliage of the spring, summer and fall?

Since I bought my new toy (a Sony Handycam HDR-CX130) I’ve been playing around with filming my garden in different areas. I have to admit – talking to a camera by oneself while wandering around your garden is a weird sensation. I’m convinced that my neighbors already think I’m crazy and I doubt video recording my garden is going to…

Yet again I could not resist the urge to look for discount plants, and I found some! I picked up three more ‘East Friesland’ salvias, three ‘Caradonna’ salvias, another viburnum, and two ‘Patriot’ hostas. My total for these nine forlorn plants was $8.74 after taxes. The salvias were all in great shape for being on a discount rack. The hosta…

It’s time for the SeedGROW project of 2011!  Last year Mr. BrownThumb and Renee’s Seeds sponsored the first SeedGROW project where Renee sent seeds to volunteer bloggers to document the seed growing experience. Nasturtiums were the seeds selected for last year and this year has a couple more garden favorites including lettuce, basil, and marigolds. In preparation for the SeedGROW…

There are always a ton of things to do in the garden when the growing season is in full swing. Hopefully most of the garden is set up and ready to go with only general maintenance needing the gardeners attention but this isn’t always the case. Sometimes projects pop up, problems arise, and then sometimes we haven’t gotten everything done…

It’s been a difficult year for many of use to get the optimum fall color shots since rains seem to be perpetual but Garden Lily has managed some very cool shots of her Canadian landscape! Cascading Japanese maples, beautyberry bushes, and burning bushes all provide some unique fall color in different ways. Go check out Garden Lily’s Flowers and Weeds…

The other day I had an idea.  Instead of taking my pruned Russian sage branches and just dumping them in the compost, I thought what if I tried to make cuttings from them? I’ve propagated Russian sage cuttings very easily in the spring from softwood cuttings and even some during the summer but I’ve never tried hardwood cuttings.  This may…

Is this a wildflower or a weed? Of course the phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” always applies to wildflowers. What one person appreciates another might find invasive and vise versa. Then again someone might appreciate it and find it invasive…what do you think? This wildflower is very common in the southeast and much of the United…

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…

It’s been a while since my last garden shed update and I’ve done a few more things. Not directly on the shed itself but around the shed. You’ll see in the pictures below that there are two distinct garden areas near the shed. One directly in front of the shed and the other to the left (eastern) side. In between…

It’s Sunday and another family wedding is complete! The happy couple said their vows yesterday before the thunderstorm arrived. Since the wedding was outdoors at my mother-in-law’s house it was fortunate that the rains only came during the reception that followed. Rather than talk too much I’ll show you the results of our wedding preparations.Here is the arbor with the…