Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

The earliest vegetables to emerge from our vegetable garden are the sugar snap peas. I planted them back in February but the cold temperatures kept the peas from coming up as early as I hoped. I planted two 3’x4′ raised beds with the peas in the hopes that we would enjoy a large crop this year. Several of the seeds…

It was springtime in 1999. The day was warm and the windows were open in my college apartment.  I was in my upstairs bedroom reading a book and had left the backdoor open to create a cross flow of air through the apartment.  Motion in my bedroom door caught my eye and the little tortoiseshell colored cat was walking into…

Despite the snow I still managed to get a couple small things done outside this weekend. The most notable and exciting was the planting of the ‘Yoshino ‘ Cherry (Prunus x yedoensis). It is the first plant I’ve been able to put in the ground on our property this year. I’ve been planning this one since we bought the house….

The end of August is nearly here and the garden is shaping up for its conclusion.  Hopefully it will be a spectacular finish where the flowers bloom out and blend with the foliage as it turns into flaming reds, oranges, and yellows.  That may be the proverbial pipe dream as the weather has been strange this year and we don’t…

It’s been a couple months since I’ve participated in Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day so I figured I was due for a post! Amazingly despite a summer of neglect the garden has quite a few reliable blooms to share. If you like to think on the positive side you could consider the neglect as a test of what thrives with or…

Every year I notice these little green insects, aphids.  Well, sometimes they aren’t green, I’ve seen them in orange and yellow and they come in red, brown, and black too.  Whatever fashion sense these insects display one thing is for sure: you don’t really want aphids on your plants!  Aphids are a soft-bodied insect that love to suck on the…

Some days the rain gets you!Here’s one very wet cardinal finishing off the seed from our bird feeder in the rain.

Today’s peek into my greenhouse project is just one little picture, but it’s a view from the inside out. The biggest windows have been installed but, as you will see in the picture, need a thorough cleaning and painting. The misty haze on the panes is due to too much time spent outdoors under the effects of the weather.  Dirt…

Have you ever considered propagating arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) from cuttings? It’s an easy and fun way to make more plants. Arborvitae can make a great privacy screen and hedge. Here you will find the steps I take to propagate arborvitae as well as a video to see it in action. How to Propagate Arborvitae from Cuttings The first step in…

The past weekend I set out to complete small project with a little help from my gardening assistant. The goal was to put together a small pathway made from cheap concrete stepping stones that would lead up to the front porch area of my garden shed. Prior to this the area was weedy. So weedy that regular mowings were necessary…

While wasps certainly are a normal part of nature and serve an important function we don’t always want to be around them.  Wasp stings can be quite painful and some people even have adverse reactions to their sting (as I can attest to, see the post on my swollen foot – not for the squeamish!)  Removing wasps from an area…

A couple months ago I put together my little 6’x8′ Harbor Freight greenhouse.  It was an inexpensive greenhouse that I was hoping would be a good way to increase my growing area for my small nursery business.  I thought it was time I gave an update on how the greenhouse is working out for me. After one storm where a…

Yesterday we were finally the recipients of rainfall. It’s funny when you think about our weather situation. At the beginning of May we had way too much rain with some areas of Tennessee receiving 16-18 inches of rain and now we are just hoping for enough rain to wet the ground for a temporary reprieve from carrying out the hoses….

Water gardening is a subject that I have very little knowledge of but thought many readers might enjoy learning about so I asked Mark Best of Garden Pond Advice to write a guest post on water plants. Water gardening is not a new subject but it is becoming increasingly popular in the everyday backyard garden. I hope you enjoying reading…

When pruning shrubs and trees there are certain characteristics you need to look for to determine where to cut, how to cut, when to cut, or even what to cut. It’s like a good mystery movie with the who, what, when, and where! One very important thing to watch out for is crossed branches (this would be a who). Crossed…

With summers in Tennessee you never know exactly what your going to get. Usually you expect dry and hot. That’s a pretty safe bet.  But lately the temperatures have reminded me of fall. The scents are on the wind.  Fall blooming plants like goldenrod and ironweed are beginning to flower. The smell of fall is in the air – but summer isn’t over yet. When…

Today was one of those days when everyone decided to have a great idea at once, post about fall colors! Unfortunately I’ve been working all day on the greenhouse and have just now been able to update the project. Better late than never right?We’ll start today’s flurry of fall foliage posts in the order they were received!The first stop today…

Rooted Cuttings – Potted up Perhaps I should have titled this post “Here’s What I Potted Up Today” but rooting is more exciting don’t you think? Anyway this morning I potted several different kinds of cuttings that I’ve been propagating inside the house. This isn’t the end of the propagation process since they still need to grow stronger root systems…