Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Last year we designed, built, and grew our first vegetable garden in our new home. The garden was made of two large beds that were subdivided into 3 smaller conjoined beds in an “L” shape. Unfortunately the vegetable garden layout we designed was built more around aesthetics than around function. Since then I’ve realized something: When designing vegetable gardens think…

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The below normal cold temperatures have set us a back a little bit in our blooms this year. In comparison we had daffodils blooming in February of 2009. This March 2010 Bloomsday hosted by Carol brings us a few almost-bloomers. These flowers could all be just day or two away from full fledged blooms with a couple nice days in…

If coleus (Solenostemon) is not the easiest plant cutting to root, then it must be ranked at the top of the plant propagator’s list right next to the willows. Here’s the process of rooting Coleus in water. Whether you want to multiply your coleus plants or save some cuttings indoors over the winter coleus can root very easily in water…

Starting a fall garden is a great thing to do. Especially so when there is so much uncertainty in the world. A fall garden provides food security and is a great way to relieve stress! Fall gardens are not hard to get started but there are a few things you need to know in order to get one going successfully….

Through the generosity of other gardeners and the creative use of old materials you can do a lot! Last week a friend of my parents was cleaning out their basement and found some things that they passed along to me. One of the items was a kitchen sink. It’s really more of a bar sink with a slightly bent faucet….

You may have noticed that the daily blogging has slowed down a little bit on weekends. It’s been for a very good reason: The Patio Project. My commenting on other blogs has suffered as well but everything should pick up once the final touches have been made on the backyard remodel. It’s become more than a patio project and really…

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…

Last year I began what will become an annual tradition of laying out all the garden projects I plan to work on for the year. This way you can get an idea what I’ll be getting myself into even if I don’t! Last year’s list changed as I went through the year and inevitably this one will too. Sometimes projects…

This post is a little late in coming, especially since I actually received my Father’s Day present from my wife and children a couple weeks early. They gave me a Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum). I always like unique plants in the garden and a Japanese maple adds some foliar interest with its delicately shaped and burgundy colored leaves. I have…

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…

I thought the deer were gone but I was wrong. After a house was built behind the woods that skirts the edge of our property I thought the deer had left but when I returned home last weekend from my trip I discovered that the deer made a return.While they could easily make it into my vegetable garden they haven’t…

On our land I’ve purposely allowed the milkweed to grow. I want our land to be a haven and waystation for the monarch butterflies as they migrate south. I’ve been watching all summer to see when they would be passing through and took a short video of a monarch caterpillar that I found devouring a milkweed plant. Milkweed is the…

This weekend we were in West Tennessee attending a friends wedding and took a side trip to visit some of my wife’s relatives. While there I saw a horrifying site. At my wife’s grandmother’s house is a wonderful old oak tree that casts a welcoming shade on hot summer days, or at least it used to. On the right is…

Yesterday I traveled up to the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens to listen to Tina from In the Garden. She was doing a talk on Winter Gardening and all that it entails so we thought it would be a great opportunity for us to visit with her and check out the gardens while we were there. We also visited with Gail from…

While the weather still may not be ideal I’ve managed to get a few chores accomplished outside the last couple days. There’s much more on my weekend to-do list but I feel good about what has been started so far. The short list of things that I did: Cut back a Russian sage.  After I cut back the Russian sage…

For several years now I’ve written about the value of planting in raised beds.  One of the most viewed posts on Growing The Home Garden is my post Designing a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden: 11 Things to Think About.  It has 11 design tips that will help your vegetable garden layout achieve its maximum potential.  Hopefully you’ll find them useful! …

By now you may have received your first seed catalog(s) in the mail. It’s a fun time of the year for gardeners. We get to sift through the pages, read the descriptions designed to entice us, and dream of what we will plant next year. When the weather is cold and dreary the catalogs give us something bright and hopeful…