Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Helen at Toronto Gardens is treating us with a blast from last year’s fall foliage past. The palette of colors along the hillside is nothing short of stunning. The pictures are taken from Leaside bridge and offer a nearly bird’s eye view of the leaf landscape. Hopefully the leaves will be on the trees when Helen gets back home so…

If you look in the garden you won’t see my nasturtiums. That is because they have developed a rare sort of variation called invisibility. No matter how hard you look you will not find them. They have developed a superpower beyond the ability of all creatures to completely evade detection! At least that’s what I’m telling myself… Well… I tried,…

This year I’m really excited about our watermelons. I picked out the ‘Moon and Stars’ variety which not only is reported to be an excellent tasting variety but looks really neat too. ‘Moon and Stars’ are an heirloom variety that acquire a mottled coloring on the rind surfaces that resemble the night time sky! The nighttime sky also appears on…

Here’s look at where I’m at with my cobblestone patio project. It’s still not quite finished but I do see a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s been a couple weeks since my last update on the patio and my progress has been very intermittent. Last week I woke up on Wednesday morning nearly immobilized with a terrible…

Since today is St. Patrick’s Day and tradition dictates that we do all things green and as Irish as possible here are a few things green from my garden! We have green in the vegetable garden in the form of sugar snap peas, spinach, and lettuce! Other things haven’t come up yet for a visit like the asparagus (which I…

This year I’ll be adding a little bit of my garden writing to a local website called Spring Hill Fresh. Their goal is to highlight Spring Hill, TN and the local area which is one of the fastest growing areas of Tennessee.  Spring Hill Fresh offers us locals news about current events, local happenings, and local business. A couple times a…

A springtime flowering favorite of mine is the Yoshino cherry tree (Prunus x yedoensis).  I’ve written about these trees several times in the past and I know I’ll write about it again as it is such a valuable tree in the landscape for it’s ornamental beauty. I’ve never been able to root this tree…until now!  A couple months ago I…

It’s amazing how fast time flies, isn’t it? It seems like just a short time ago I posted my 2010 garden project list (which I can never fully complete!) Soon it will be time to write a new project list and bring back some of those projects that have been hanging around for years! I’ll have that list up after…

Here are the flowers I gave my wife for Valentine’s Day. I like to give flowers that you can plant in the garden when they are done blooming. It seems wasteful to just buy a bouquet and let them fade away. Once the weather is warm enough I’ll but them outside where we can enjoy them next spring.Here are the…

It’s that time again! One of my favorite seasons of the year when the leaves change color and begin their graceful decent from the treetops. It’s bittersweet to be sure, since it symbolizes the end of the growing season, but it’s also a time of renewal as those leaves become compost and nourish our beloved trees and plants in future…

While the winter is still in gear I thought it might be helpful to begin reviewing some of the toughest plants I have grown over the years. I’ve grown a lot of them (and killed a few of them along the way). In my garden it has to be a tough plant to survive over the years. Today I’m going…

It won’t be long now until we get to pick our first crop of strawberries from the garden. These were all transplants from the “L” shaped raised bed layout from last year and have flourished in their new bed. The foliage is growing strong and tall and runners are starting to come out all over place, but what is exciting…

Everyday new flowers and blooms are coming to our garden this March. Spring is officially here, even if the calendar doesn’t agree. We still have a good chance of frost between now and mid April but so far everything is looking grand! The maple trees have bloomed although many people don’t stop to observe them. The willows are growing catkins…

Almost sounds like a Christmas song but White Nose is the name of a squirrel that frequents our yard and our back deck. He’s a pretty big little guy with a furry white nose, hence his name. He feels quite comfortable partaking of our bird buffet. I really don’t mind the squirrels visiting the bird feeders. The only bad thing…

I don’t think it would be false to say that Japanese maples are one of the most popular plants in the landscape today. With all the interesting leaf shapes and colors it’s easy to see why people like them. I consider myself a fan of Japanese maples and have two young trees in our gardens (one near the side garden…

December brings us to the end of another year. As a gardener you know that just because the calendar year may be ending our work (fun) is just beginning. It’s time to plan your 2019 Vegetable Garden. To me planning is the fun part. During the planning process I get to look for new varieties of seeds to try, think…

One of the plants I was looking for at the plant swap this weekend was sedum. We have a small area between our driveway and our sidewalk that I want to convert into a sedum bed. We already had three varieties of sedum (‘Blue Spruce’, ‘Autumn Joy’, and another unidentified sedum) and we wanted a few more to add to…