Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Here’s an update from the vegetable garden! So far things are going pretty good. My tomato frost scare wasn’t as bad as I originally thought and since I have some spares to plant I should come out fine. I saw a scary 39 degrees on the forecast for Tuesday night but I’m prepared with coverings. I’m also starting a few…

I took a few more red twig dogwood (Cornus stolonifera) cuttings yesterday. One of them did not even need rooting. You can see the mass of roots on the bottom of this little guy. The base of this stem was touching the ground which stimulated root growth. When this happens it is simple task to clip the branch with the…

Today I did a few garden related things just to get outside – nothing major – nothing terribly exciting. Just a few little things as an excuse to breathe some fresh (and rather cold) air. The weather forecast calls for snow flurries over night but little or no accumulation – at least in our area. Butterfly Bush Cuttings I took…

I just posted on the greenhouse shed page with a new report on the siding installation. The garden shed is shaping up! Adding the siding really changes the look for the better – much closer to what I’ve envisioned. There’s always more to do but progress is being made! I forgot to mention in the post but I also installed…

This are warming up again around our Tennessee garden this February.  While I’m writing this post spring-like storms are pouring down outside.  February again seems more like March than February!  But that’s how it is sometimes with our weather patterns in TN.  We get some crazy stuff sometimes.  The unseasonable warmth has given rise to many things that would normally…

In our haste to welcome the new gardening season many gardeners only think of the flowers beginning to bloom. The flower buds and blooms sure are interesting but why not take a look at the evergreens? Our collection of evergreens is relatively small but here are a couple that we have in our garden that are showing some nice color:…

I found it. I finally found it. The First Outdoor Bloom of 2010 Today while working outside for the first time in weeks I saw a little yellow bloom peeking out from the edge of a raised bed in the vegetable garden. It’s not much but it’s a flower nonetheless. And it may not even be a plant you like…

This summer heat, humidity, and assorted family issues have kept me behind in most of my goals.  One of which was expanding the side border garden so that the caryopteris wasn’t completely absorbing the whole area. I tend to take a more conservative approach to pruning my caryopteris and consequently I didn’t prune them back enough this spring. They responded…

My last garden shed post was way back in June and I’m definitely overdue to share some more progress. This one has much more to do with gardening than building a shed so go take a look at the first part of two posts! The Gardens Around The Shed

Winter is one of those times when many gardeners wish they could be growing fresh herbs or produce but the weather just doesn’t cooperate.  What is a determined gardener to do then?  Build something!  I decided to put together an indoor grow box/planter with a grow light to grow some plants while the weather outside is unsuitable.  I used cedar…

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…

This fall I took a scraggly looking branch off a little burning bush I had. The botanical name is Euonymous alata. These bushes are green during most of the growing season but turn fiery red in the fall before they lose their leaves. It is for this reason that people plant them. Yesterday I checked the cutting’s progress. I wasn’t…

The gardener gone A.W.O.L. was me of course, but for good reasons I assure you! No doubt you are familiar with the saying “make hay while the sun shines.” Well…the sun has been shining in our Tennessee home garden. The past couple days I have been busy in the yard trying to turn this place into a fantastic garden this…

There are some plants that are tricky to propagate but stevia isn’t one of them! In fact stevia is very easy to root from cuttings. Read on to learn more about propagating stevia from cuttings! Why Would You Want to Propagate Steve from Cuttings? Stevia rebaudiana is an herb often used as a substitute sweetener for sugar.  It isn’t reliably…

I managed to plant all the plants for my new winter garden on what was a warm December day. With temperatures in the 50’s it was somewhat pleasant, which is about the best you can expected from December in Tennessee. You’re probably wondering which plan I decided to go with, the Symmetrical Plan or the Asymmetrical Plan. The answer was…

Last month I put together a post based on search engine hits in the form of a question to The Home Garden and I thought I’d do the same for August. I picked out several questions that I thought were either interesting or important and hopefully both! August Garden Questions Q. How do you get rid of aphids on a…

Thank you to all the commenters who left entries into the Troy-Bilt CS4235 Wood Chipper giveaway.  It is a great tool for the garden and I know whoever is the winner will enjoy making mountains of mulch! We had 39 commenters* who left some great descriptions of their gardens.  What I found interesting to read were the very different situations…