Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Yesterday we went on a scouting mission. Needham’s Nursery in Mount Juliet was the territory we explored. The game was scarce as the season has not officially begun, but as I said it was only a scouting mission. We wandered the paths of our quarry occasionally stopping to observe, admire, and record the potential acquisitions.Although it was early, what we…

Great garden books are an awesome resource for any gardener. They become a reference that gardeners can go back to over and a over again to fill in the blanks or come up with new ideas. The New Southern Living Garden Book is just that, a great resource book for southern gardeners. I was sent a copy for review recently…

Of all the fall colors I’ve seen this year the Japanese maples seem to have topped all other trees.  This Japanese maple at my mom’s house was figuratively on fire with red foliage lighting up the scenery.  I didn’t have my camera with me when it was at its peak but even past peak it’s beauty can still be seen….

One of the more confusing aspects of gardening is when to prune hydrangeas. The confusion is because the best time of year to prune hydrangeas differs depending on the type of hydrangea you have. Some hydrangeas bloom on the old wood from the previous season while others will bloom on new wood. Determining which hydrangea is which will help make…

Recently I had the pleasure to try out the new Troy-Bilt Bronco VTT Vertical Tine Tiller which they sent me to test and use in my garden. I’ve used tillers periodically before in my garden and I was very curious to see how this one functioned. It’s design is significantly different from traditional tillers. The tines extend down like a…

Last week I wrote about my seed starting “mini-greenhouses” made from clear plastic cups so I thought I would share how my tomato seeds are doing so far. To sum things up I am very pleased with the results as I have very strong and healthy growing tomato seeds are in the mini-greenhouse cups.  Some of my tomato seedlings are already…

Sometimes there comes along a plant that is just a gardener’s dream. Beautiful during the growing season, native, great for pollinators, great for birds, useful in the landscape, and overall easy to care for. I’ve got you hooked already don’t I? This plant would be a member of one of my favorite groups of plants: the viburnums. Viburnum dentatum aka…

Hardwood cuttings are cuttings that are taken from trees and shrubs that are fully mature, dormant stems. These cuttings are normally taken during the late fall or over winter several weeks before spring growth will begin. Hardwood cuttings differ from softwood or semi-hardwood cuttings. While those are taken from soft, flexible new growth in spring and summer, hardwood cuttings are…

Fall, as I’ve said before, is probably my favorite time of year. I enjoy the processes involved with closing down the garden, the cooler weather, and the changes in the leaves. It’s also a great time to garden with its own set of unique challenges. For planting trees, shrubs, and bulbs there is no better time than autumn. For growing…

Sometimes looking at plants from above just makes you think of more winter, more cold, more rain, more sleet , more snow… ‘Autumn Joy’ Sedum – seed heads …but if you look underneath you just might find a little bit more to look forward to! ‘Autumn Joy’ Sedum – sprouting Greenhouse Update: I completed some work with some concrete blocks…

It’s finally time to get the chore to end all chores done: cleaning up the vegetable garden.  After a year of intermittent neglect, frustration, summer heat, and family tragedy it is definitely time to put this year’s garden under wraps.  Mostly under wraps that is.  We actually have a crop of greens on the way to help feed the family…

As our gardening season draws to a close I thought I’d update you on the progress of some cuttings and how they look now. First up is an echinacea that was a propagation experiment. I took basal stem cuttings (which come from the crown of the root) in the spring. Once it rooted I planted it in our front sidewalk…

A while back (a real long while) I setup a rain garden to take care of a drainage issue on one part of our driveway. Rainwater was pooling in one area of our driveway because it had no where else to go. The grass and soil was higher than the driveway on the side the water should have been draining….

This week I went to my mom’s house to do a little digging.  Back in the late spring we noticed small butterfly bush seedlings beginning to sprout in the pathway’s of her vegetable garden. As they grew large enough to transplant the weather became hot and transplanting wasn’t a great idea. Then my father passed away and just about everything…

We have tomato weather but no tomatoes! That’s not surprising for June here in TN as most tomatoes don’t produce ripe fruit until July.  Knowing that fact though doesn’t diminish the desire for that first fresh from the garden homegrown tomato! Our plants are doing very well so far, healthy and strong with stout stems and trunks.  At this point…

I’ll simply title this next picture the off-season. If you garden, you know exactly what I mean! The leftovers of an Echinacea purpurea (Purple coneflower) seed head after the birds have visited.

Making your own plant propagation chamber is not a difficult task at all. For the home gardener who is only doing a few cuttings at a time propagate plants for friends and family a plant propagation chamber can be a VERY simple project. In fact you can put together a simple home plant propagation chamber can be made with one…

Over the years I’ve planted quite a few heucheras for my garden.  Heucheras or coral bells are becoming more and more popular as a wide array of unique cultivars continue to come on the market.  You might even think that heucheras are relatively new to the horticultural world when in fact they’ve been tinkered with by horticulturalists since the late…