Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

A morning sun picture taken on Saturday October 4th, 2008.

It’s been a very, very long time since I mentioned anything new with the garden shed. Today I went out and took a look around at my overwintered plants, watered a few things, and saw some good signs that most of my plants made it through the winter – at least so far! Garden Shed February Update!

This winter has been bitterly cruel.  Not bitterly cold, just bitterly cruel.  It’s tempted us into believing that spring was almost here, then the ground hog predicted 6 more weeks of winter..and we laughed. The weather was warm and what do groundhogs really know about the weather?  Do they have live Doppler radar in buried in their dens?  I don’t…

Plant a tree. It’s a simple enough sentiment. They give us shelter, they give us shade and fruit, and they give us life. There are so many reasons why you should plant a tree that the opposing list of why not to plant a tree is very short. In fact some of those reasons are way out there.”I don’t have…

While out of town this past weekend at my in-laws home I took the opportunity to take more cuttings from their pyracantha (Pyracantha augustifolia). It is a favorite of shrub for birds due to its bright orange berries and is has an appropriately named common name: Firethorn. Firethorn’s thorns are quite sharp and offer the plant good protection from would…

Do you know the feeling you have when everything major is accomplished for a while and you have nothing pressing that needs accomplished? You may still have chores and tasks that need done but it’s more maintenance than giant projects that constantly beckon for your attention. After hosting our garden club meeting where I lectured about building an arbor and…

Here are two more great fall color posts for the Garden Blogger fall Color Project. These two posts come to us from the mid-west specifically Chicago, Illinois and Iowa.Mr. McGregor’s Daughter in Chicago, Illinois is observing some really fantastic fall color. The red oaks are competing with the maples for an extraordinary autumn show. Usually the maples win hands down…

Today I have two more Garden Blogger Fall Color Project posts to share with you! Take another trip overseas to Veg Plotting in Chippenham, England where VP has taken some great shots of the fall colors and pieced them together in a collage for us to see. Colorful smoke trees and Japanese maples are certainly brightening up what could be…

The battle has just begun. The lines have been drawn and the enemy has been sighted.I began scouting the territory in an attempt to locate the the wily villain and took these pictures. It was a difficult mission.I crept closer and closer to the encampment of the enemy, stopping often to cautiously take reconnaissance pictures. I was afraid of discovery….

Over the next several days I’ll be doing some minor changes to the site (emphasis on minor!) to help get better organized. I’ll just be making some posts that will house links to related posts to make things easier to find information. When I starting this blog I didn’t give a whole lot of thought on how to do things,…

I did a post a while back on my front yard garden spots where I wrote about my mailbox garden and felt today that I needed to update what I’ve done since then. I really haven’t done much, as far as adding plants goes, but I can definitely tell you that a little mulch goes a long way toward making…

This time of year when the weather is inhospitable I take a look back through the pictures I’ve taken and informally review the previous year. That’s one great advantage when you blog, you have a record of most things and photographs of almost everything else! Here’s a picture from September just outside our vegetable garden. In the fuzzy foreground is…

It’s taken me all summer to get to it but I’m finally taking the first steps toward changing the vegetable garden to the parterre layout. I had some of the blocks sitting around for months now and others I borrowed from our patio sidewalk expansion which I just haven’t had time to get to this summer.  Using the stone for…

I thought I would take a moment to talk about hardwood cuttings. It is the beginning of winter and which is also a great time to go out and try to reproduce many of your favorite woody trees and shrubs in the garden. Many plants will easily propagate through hardwood cuttings and I’ve included a short list below that you…

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…

There was one plant that I knew I would purchase the second I saw it ‘Oranges and Lemons’ Gaillardia. I found one last year on a discount rack and rescued it from an unknown fate. ‘Oranges and Lemons’ quickly became one of my favorite plants in the garden. It bloomed forever and had some really attractive seed heads shaped like…

Sometimes when you look really close at things they appear much different than you expect. Sometimes closeup pictures appear almost…alien. Like a strange land that contains unique flora of its own. What do you think? Can you imagine the foreign fluffy ferns and gigantic puffy cup-shaped mushroom fungi? Can you disappear for a moment into the picture and immerse yourself…

Today was beautiful. The sun was out and the temperature was in the low to mid 60’s. That’s what I call perfect garden weather! I didn’t have much time to garden but needed to do a little something and was able to spend about 30 minutes on a small project. Back in the fall I used my black tarp technique…