Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to use my greenhouse lately. There’s just enough complete on the greenhouse construction to tantalize my imagination and since people use greenhouse in so many ways that the options are virtually limitless.I don’t grow orchids or many tropical plants which means the greenhouse won’t be used for them. It’s not ready to use…

This past weekend I put together a small corner shade garden. We have a garden spot on one side of our house that only receives 3-4 hours of morning sun per day. We thought that the spot would be a perfect candidate for a shade garden. When I think of shade gardens I think of foliage. Colorful flowers don’t come…

My daughter and I went out to play today in the 70+ degree temperatures. Our goal was to take advantage of the last gasp of warm weather before old man winter came for his annual visit. Almost immediately my daughter darted to the sandbox. We removed the covers from the sandbox to reveal an assortment of toys half buried in…

After being cooped up all winter my daughters and I hightailed it to the backyard and spent the day outdoors digging in the dirt. We accomplished many of the chores I mentioned on Friday (wait they weren’t chores because I enjoyed doing them!). One of those tasks was a rearrangement of the vegetable garden. I wanted to move four small…

Every home gardener wants their plants to thrive and do well. Often there are little, easy to do things that can greatly improve the chances of plants in your garden succeeding. Here we are going to talk about one thing you can do to help your tomato and pepper plants grow great: pruning off the lower leaves or as I…

It’s January and my garden is a mess.  That’s OK because it’s January!  My garden could be the perfect mixture of evergreen conifers and winter color landscape plantings specifically designed to brighten the gloomiest winter day, but it’s not.  I would love that, but my garden was never put together for the winter color.  I’m gradually adding plants for that…

The Ginkgo tree is one plant I don’t have in my garden but have wanted for a long time. The reason is simple, it has great fall color. When I was in college there were two amazing ginkgo trees on the campus. Each fall (I won’t tell you how many falls I spent there!) it would brighten into a beautiful…

Contrary to popular belief California does have fall color, and it’s pretty good too! Birches, maples, and crape myrtles all are displaying their fall show in Rebecca Sweet’s garden. The view of her ‘Forest Pansy’ Redbud really makes me wish the fall webworms hadn’t munched on mine. Take a trip to the Bay area of California to see what color…

The other evening some clouds were blowing. Here’s a look at what we saw. A small storm was on its way through our area which is usually when you get most interesting clouds!Please excuse the power lines. Half the neighborhood has them below ground, our half doesn’t.

This year one of the tomato varieties I decided to grow was the ‘Tasmanian Chocolate’ tomato. Overall it proved to be a tasty and easy to grow tomato. The ‘Tasmanian Chocolate’ tomato is a determinate variety that is well suited for growing in pots. It grows to about 3 feet tall, at least the plant I grew did in my…

Last year I spotted a little plant coming up in one of my garden beds. I left it alone to grow as I had a suspicion about what it wasn’t but still couldn’t quite remember what seeds I planted in that location. This spring has brought me confirmation – it must be a magnolia! A year ago last fall I…

I think you will see why I bought Coreopsis ‘Limerock Dream’.  I have a fondness for perennial coreopsis since they are so easy to grow here in Tennessee. The colors on this variety drew my eyes instantly. It’s not plain yellow like my ‘Moonbeam’ Coreopsis or ‘Jethro Tull’.  The yellow colors seem to begin in the center of the flower…

You’ve probably noticed that there’s a lot of talk these days about self-sufficiency.  People are striving to reduce their impact on the environment by improving how things work.  Self-sufficiency is a great goal to have for your garden as well.  Not only does being self-sufficient help the environment but it makes a cheaper and healthier garden.  Today for the Friday Fives…

Yesterday I promised you pictures of the greenhouse project so today here are a few. It doesn’t look like much here in the beginning but the work we did today was very important. Today my father and I put in the posts. Posts set in concrete was the best option for the shed-greenhouse idea that I wanted. Originally when I…

While the calendar says it is spring there are some other indicators of the season. I’ll name a few and you are welcome to add or comment on what you think some other signs of spring are!You know it’s spring when…the smell of grass clippings from a recent mowing wafts through your yard on the wind.the smell of onions wafts…

When you think about power tools do you think electric? Maybe it’s time you should! Recently Greenworks sent me their battery powered Greeworks Pro 80 Volt 18″ Chainsaw (Amazon Aff) to test. I had some doubts. Could a battery powered chainsaw actually cut through well enough to be a part of my arsenal of power tools? Would a charge last…

When I made the decision to begin my micro-nursery (Blue Shed Gardens/HomeGardenBox) I had to figure out first what kind of plants I wanted to produce.  This was a very difficult decision since I like pretty much anything there is to do with the garden. Selecting one type of plants or one area seemed just wrong because I was leaving out all…

Who doesn’t like free seeds? Today I have an opportunity for you to win a variety pack of garden seeds from a new seed retailer: Hometown Seeds! Hometown Seeds is offering to give these seeds to three lucky readers who visit their website and report to me about the most interesting seeds you see. That’s all you have to do!…