Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Rooted Basil It’s no secret that I love to propagate plants. I especially love to propagate the easy plants. The ones where success is almost 100% assured! Believe it or not there are a few of those. Basil is one that I almost always can get to root, and it’s SOOO simple! Just by using a jar of water. In…

Every month Gardening Gone Wild has a picture contest and I thought for August I would submit my first entry. The subject for the contest is “Down On Your Knees.” David Perry, the photography judge, is encouraging gardeners and shutterbugs to look at their gardens and plants in a different perspective. In the spirit of the competition I took quite…

To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day here is my Anything Green Post! You are welcome to join in and post anything that is green and growing in your gardens in the month of March!Here’s the tour of what’s green in my gardens.The daffodils in my yard are still green while most of the other daffodils I have seen in our area…

Rather than talk about useless resolutions for 2009 I thought I would discuss my project plans for the garden. I do have one goal that encompasses all things gardening and in my life that could be considered a resolution: to do all things better than I did the last time. That one statement covers pretty much any potential resolution in…

Since I decided to remodel the raised bed vegetable garden this year a lot of work has been done.  The beds have all been built for this year and all the grading I wanted to attempt is finished, for now.  The fence will be something of an ongoing project but we’ve erected a temporary wire fence made of 3 foot…

A few weeks ago an email came in my box asking me a question about propagating irises. I answered the question then received a picture of the questioning gardener’s garden. To say that I was impressed would be an understatement. Climbing roses mixed with many varieties of perennials create a living painting in Ennio’s backyard. And did I mention that…

During the wonderful yet wacky weather yesterday I accomplished several chores and started a few others! What do you think this hole is for? It is about ten feet across and five feet wide at its widest. I dug the hole about 18 inches deep at its deepest point and about 12 inches in the upper part, but the digging…

Google Patent Search has probably been around for a little while but since it says Beta it may be a relatively recent development. The patent search makes it very easy to find patented inventions including plants. Just type in the name of your plant and instantly you are provided with the patent records. This could be extremely useful for those…

It’s always nice to have a few flowers that are so extremely reliable that you can count on them even during the most awkward periods of weather.  Recently it’s been raining which has been helping us recover from our drought but these flowers were doing great in the drought conditions.  Let’s take a look! Orange cosmos is always a standout. …

The world is full of creative ideas and this ancient method of watering plants is a very cool one.  An olla is a clay pot that is buried in the soil near plants.  The non-glazed clay pot has a watering hole in the top that allows the gardener to fill it with water when needed.  When the soil is dry…

It is full fledged spring around our Middle Tennessee garden.  There is no shortage of work that needs to be done in the form of weeding and mulching on top of a myriad of miscellaneous projects.  For now though let’s just take a few pictures of the garden and we’ll think of that monster spring to-do list a little later….

The weather this past weekend was perfect.  No rain, lots of sun and warm temperatures have given all the plants the kick they need to break their dormancy.  Hopefully they will remain safe from any heavy frosts.  I’m looking forward to seeing the blooms on this Sargent Crab Apple (Malus sargentii).  It was a just sapling a few years ago…

Can you ever have too many sunset pictures? Here a picture of a sunset I took from Clingman’s Dome in the Smokies, taken about 3 years ago.

Yesterday I was walking around the garden when something caught my eye in the ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum… A baby mockingbird nestled behind the buds trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible. I’m glad the mother mockingbird didn’t get too upset that I was nearby!

One of the great benefits to being a part of a garden club is being able to see other gardens. This past weekend the Spring Hill Garden Club took a tour of a very cool garden based all around everyone’s favorite shade plant: Hostas! We visited Cornelia’s garden who is the president of the Middle Tennessee Hosta Society. Her garden…

I’m always excited to learn how to propagate something new. Recently I’ve managed to get a few cuttings of a dwarf chamaecyparis to successfully root. I started the cuttings back in the fall and kept them overwintered in the garden shed. I didn’t have any bottom heat even though I’m sure that would have sped the rooting process up significantly….

“Blame it on the rain, yeah yeah.” OK I apologize for bringing up old Milli Vanilli lyrics, but those words have been going through my head for days and I figured I would share the pain. I’m in a state of depression about my vegetable garden right now and it’s all because of precipitation. This was July and is now…

For today’s issue of Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day I can actually share with you some very nice flowers all thanks to the recent rains. The extra water perked up enough of the garden for it to be almost perfectly presentable just in time for the 15th of July. I hope you enjoy them as much as this happily buzzing bee…