Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

After the daffodils and hyacinths have completed their performance the tulips take center stage in the front sidewalk garden. This time of year the front sidewalk garden is full of two kinds of tulips ‘Negrita’ and ‘Shirley’. These were both impulse purchases at a box store in the fall of 2007 and have really gone beyond my expectations. I planted…

Today my little 2 year old daughter and I went out and planted daffodils. She did pretty good, dropping the bulb into the hole after I dug it out. Initially Grace kept trying to rearrange the bulbs all over the bed. Then she started taking the spade I was using to dig the holes. Eventually we got a process together…

It’s no secret I like salvia in the garden. It’s easy to grow and hardy here in Tennessee. Most importantly it never fails to produce great blooms. The foliage is nice but nothing spectacular, however today I saw something very interesting. It happens every now and then on various plants and is responsible for the creation of many variegated varieties,…

One long anticipated task for me and my garden shed was the painting. It’s come a long way over the course of the past year – from nothing to an actual building capable of storing my lawn equipment, but I’ve really been looking forward to completing the painting. Even if the inside isn’t completely arranged and finished at least the…

I began the first part of cleaning up the vegetable garden and preparing it for winter today. The summer garden went much longer last year and we had tomatoes until the end of the October. Unfortunately that’s not the case this year. The few tomatoes that were left on the vines were not worth waiting for them to ripen. Besides…

Plant propagation sounds like something very complicated.  A lot of gardeners are intimidated by the idea of getting something to root.  It looks challenging but in reality there are a great number of plants that are very easy to propagate.  That’s not to say that a cutting will grow roots each and every time.  In fact I’ve lost many cuttings…

Here’s a new take on the name that plant challenge, Name that Seed! See if you can guess what plant these seeds came from and what they could grow to be. Each seed is slightly larger than 1/2 an inch in length and ovular in shape. The one clue that I’ll give you is that it came from a type…

Fortunately I’m not one to be squeamish with the natural side of the garden. The wasps usually don’t bother me, nor do the spiders, and neither do the snakes. I know many people can’t even stand the sight of snakes whether they are dangerous or not. It’s probably the fear that they could be poisonous that scares people. There’s an…

The other day strong winds blew through Tennessee.  They were not just your normal winter winds, these were March winds – in February.  The kinds of winds we normally get in spring when the weather changes more frequently between warm and cold fronts.  Unfortunately I wasn’t prepared for the high impact of the winds.  Two glass shower doors were propped…

A couple years ago I was given a blackberry lily (Belamcanda chinensis) to add to my garden.  I planted it when it was covered with seeds and let it go to grow as it could as I do with so many plants. I forgot about it but apparently several seeds landed in different location near our front porch entry area…

As a gardener you will find that you wear many hats.  We aren’t talking about fedoras, ball caps, or even straw hats here. We’re talking about the different roles you will be called to fill as a gardener! Gardening isn’t just about sticking a plant in the ground and watching it grow (although there is always some of that), gardening…

Before every Christmas season begins I am asked by various family members “What do you you want for Christmas?” Of course sometimes it’s phrased more like “Get me your Christmas list by X Date!” Does this happen to you too?  As an avid gardener and blogger I thought it might be fun to think of the books I would like…

Everyone starts somewhere with a vegetable garden.  You can’t instantly have the garden of your dreams. That dream garden has to come together bit by bit, a little each day.  That goes for experienced gardeners as well as those just starting their first vegetable garden.  It’s just the nature of gardening.  You don’t receive instant gratification but each day you…

Last Friday I mentioned 5 Vegetable Garden Design Tips for the Friday Fives post.  Today we’ll look at some more vegetable garden design tips that relate to organization of a garden’s layout!  I’ll have to own up and admit it that the organization part of gardening is a skill where I am somewhat deficient though I am striving to do…

THis first of the irises to bloom this year are the reblooming white irises we have in the Japanese maple garden. It’s a small garden just to one side of our patio that ,of course, has a Japanese maple! It was a gift a few years ago to me for Father’s Day. The reblooming white irises came home with me…

The evolution of a garden is an interesting thing to look back at from time to time. For this month’s Gardening Gone Wild Garden Design Workshop: Made in the Shade I thought I would take a look back at where my corner shade garden was and where it is now. Here it is last year before most of the work…

To say that deer have been a challenge over the years is somewhat of an understatement. Deer love to graze around my garden. In fact over the last couple months we’ve watched as a family of deer has grown. Several fawns appeared in the garden and have been growing like the weeds. Gardeners and deer can coexist but as a…