Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

There are many choice of trees to plant and reasons why you might want to plant them. In this post I want to highlight a few ornamental trees that might be worth planting in your landscape. Ornamental trees really could be any kind of tree but typically have great flowers or special and interesting foliage. They usually have more than…

I think in many ways March is the busiest month in the garden. So many chores need tackled this time of year from mulching to pruning to planting that sometimes it’s hard to figure out what to tackle first! Among the major chores like lawn mower servicing and tree planting there are quite a few little chores.  Like trimming back…

As you know I’m a huge fan of plant propagation.  I would bet that many of you reading this are too, or if you not a huge fan you are at least interested!  It’s a fascinating area and can be an amazing benefit for growing your garden.  Just think of all the free plants you can make from cuttings, or…

I’m a huge hosta fan. I wouldn’t call myself a collector but I really enjoy how well hostas thrive with very little need for attention. Hostas certainly have a few issues but to me they are a very easy going plant to grow in the garden. There are so many varieties of hosta available with all kinds of variegation that…

It was a pretty good weekend for me. You might even say it rocked! Of course that’s partly a play one words, can you guess why?Maybe I went to a concert.Nope. Once our kids came around exciting rock concerts were out of the picture. Not that I really mind I never was much for partying.Maybe I went rock climbing?Nope. I…

Coneflowers are a work horse in many gardens including mine, but they aren’t completely issue free. Recently one of my coneflower plants began showing deformed flowers with a complete loss of color in the petals. The petals appeared stunted and pale. In some cases the deformed flowers mimic some new interesting variety of coneflower but it’s not, these are the…

I’ve seen many posts around the garden blogosphere about signature plants. That’s a hard one for me because there are so many plants I like and every year I find a new one that seems to be the best of the best. Picking one plant from the hundreds of thousands of possibilities really seems futile. So rather than talk about…

From my rock haul the other day I managed to finish edging a couple locations in our yard and get a pretty good start on some others. I love using the rocks for my garden borders. Rocks look natural (because they are), they define the garden beds (because they create an edge), and the weed wacker can be used right…

My last garden shed post was way back in June and I’m definitely overdue to share some more progress. This one has much more to do with gardening than building a shed so go take a look at the first part of two posts! The Gardens Around The Shed

While I claim no great skill or knowledge about cooking that big ole Thanksgiving turkey I can tell you about a couple herbs that may help you have a successful culinary experience!; I have the good fortune to have a mom who is an extremely good chef and I’ll share the recipe (or at least where to find it) that…

In my last post I mentioned 11 Things to Think About When Designing Your Raised Bed Vegetable Garden.  Here are a few more ideas suggested by commenters! Think about a fence (From Tina).  Whether for aesthetics or for function fences are good for the garden. Different fences can solve different issues.  A simple wire fence may keep out the smaller…

It’s important for kids to have a place to play outdoors.  My kids are outside with me all the time but they don’t always want to garden so to help them have a safe place to play and explore I put together this children’s patio and mini-garden for Lowe’s Creative Ideas.  It’s a simple project that can easily be accomplished…

I’m not sure how this snowfall counts. Would it be the first one in Middle Tennessee? Would it even be enough to count? I’m not sure, I only know that we did not receive what our northern neighbors have been gifted with this December!I know it disappointed my two year old daughter who asked me several times to make a…

This past Sunday I asked a for some inspiration on perennials for fall plantings. Here is a summary of what people suggested. I’ve simplified this post to show only the specific perennials themselves but those who commented offered some great ideas for where to use these perennials and some other options like trees and shrubs so please go back and…

With every project comes some challenges. The biggest challenge for our backyard remodel and patio project was what to do with the septic line area since one of the most important things to remember with any major project is to avoid the utilities as best as you can. Unfortunately in our case the builder of our home did not put…

Yesterday MeemsNYC asked me in the comment section of my What Would Thanksgiving Be Without the Nuts? Plant them of course! I gathered up a small box of acorns and brought them home with me from my in-law’s house. You’re probably wondering why would he gather up a bunch of acorns to plant when they self sow readily on their…

The answer to today’s Name that Seed is the White Ash! The White Ash is a dioecious deciduous shade tree that grows to nearly 80 feet tall. Dioecious means that individual trees (or plants) are either male or female and not both, very similar to hollies. Last week I featured the Persimmon in a Name that Seed post which is…

This post was meant for Saturday morning but our internet connection was down all day. I went outside yesterday for the first time in several days to tinker in the yard. I was only out for about 15 minutes (not including the time it took me to adjust our satellite dish) but in that time I checked out the little…