Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Well it had to happen. More insects have attacked the plants in my garden. My second year hollyhocks are the lastest victims of an insect known as the cabbage looper. Eventhough their name is cabbage looper that doesn’t mean they will stop there. They like all sorts plants in the crucifer group like broccoli, collards, kale, and cauliflower as well…

Everything has it’s own time, even seeds. They just don’t last forever! Fortunately though many seeds do last a long period of time and you can use seed from previous years to grow your garden. I’ve had tomato seeds germinate that were over 10 years old. Best of all they produced healthy tasty tomatoes! I’ve had echinacea seed as well…

One of the best things about feeding the birds is seeing a new bird you have never seen before. We’ve seen grosbeaks like blue grosbeaks and cardinals (which are a type of grosbeak) but this is the first rose breasted grosbeak we have seen. It’s not a surprise that we haven’t seen them before since they are migrating north to…

What should we do with this sedum garden? That’s a question we asked ourselves several times. It was at one time a sedum garden but for some reason most of the sedum died over last summer. They may have been too wet, too dry, or both! The gutter from the garage roof gushes out water from at least 50% of…

Back in the fall I decided to take some arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) cuttings and test to see how well they would root over the winter. Propagating plants over the winter as hardwood cuttings has some big advantages so it was definitely worth trying. How I Took the Arborvitae Cuttings I used the same method for taking cuttings that I wrote…

This weekend found me still digging the greenhouse foundation out. Digging out a 10’x16′ area by yourself takes some time, especially when it rains more often than not. But in gardening, as in life, you take what comes and do the best you can with what you have. In three digging sessions I excavated three 4’x8′ areas to eventually remove…

When transplanting plants it helps to have a great container that allows the seedlings to flourish. I’ve found over the years that coir pots are a great option. I used to use them as part of my farmer’s market plant sale business. Today I use them in my garden every year as I transplant tomato, pepper, and all sorts of…

As the official date of the beginning of winter is almost upon us it’s time to say farewell to fall! What better way to say good bye to the fall of 2009 than by taking a look back at all the wonderful posts that our fellow bloggers have written about fall foliage. The weather was an issue for many who…

OK it’s not really a strawberry patch as much as it is a raised bed in the vegetable garden that is overflowing with strawberry plants. A couple years ago I planted the bed with these strawberry plants, I believe there were twelve plants total, and let them grow in the bed. I fertilized after their fruiting was complete with an…

Since I bought my new toy (a Sony Handycam HDR-CX130) I’ve been playing around with filming my garden in different areas. I have to admit – talking to a camera by oneself while wandering around your garden is a weird sensation. I’m convinced that my neighbors already think I’m crazy and I doubt video recording my garden is going to…

As I mentioned earlier in the week I prepared a handout for my presentation at the Spring Hill Garden Club. It’s has some basic information on rooting cuttings. You are welcome to download it and use it for your personal use at home. It’s in a PDF file so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to read it. I hope…

‘Autumn Joy’ Sedum seed heads persist through winter. This time of year the flowers are mostly faded and few things have retained enough foliage to be markedly interesting.  But those faded flowers have left something behind – seeds!  Seeds can do a few of very cool things: They sustain the plant species for the coming year as new plants are…

It occurred to me today that I’ve been writing this blog, The Home Garden for over two years. I completely missed the second year mark, which happened last week while I was totally immersed Fall Color Projects and the greenhouse project. Two years of blogging has past and has been a ton of fun. In two years I’ve published 858…

My wife told me today that when I post to one of the other offshoots of this blog I need to let people know with a post here!  I should listen to my wife more, but don’t tell her that! So what has been updated? For one the Fall Color Project now has several posts on it that will direct…

This weekend was a busy one and not even really in the garden. The garden chores that need attention are significant but sometimes I actually have to get out of the garden to do other things! Hard to believe but it’s true! This weekend had me shopping for materials on Friday night until 9:00 at the local home improvement store…

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…

Late this winter (or early this spring) I was contacted to try out some of John and Bob’s Organic Soil Amendments.  They have a variety of different formulations that contain humus, beneficial minerals, and microbes that help the soil do what it does best – feed the plants!  They sent me several things to test and I fully intended to…