Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

This year I thought I’d try to start something on each Friday.  At the end of each work week I’ll make a list of five things from the garden.  They could be anything, everything is fair garden, as long as it can be related to the garden!  To start things off I’m going to mention 5 easy to grow plants…

If you want a drought tolerant hardy perennial that looks great check out a ‘Moonbeam’ coreopsis. ‘Moonbeam’ is one of the threadleaf varieties and is more drought tolerant because of those narrow needle-like leaves. The smaller surface area means that the leaves lose less water through transpiration than other varieties of coreopsis. It still has the massive profusion of blooms…

After you have a good list of the elements your edible landscape needs and you have pieced together a solid “To Grow” list you need to evaluate what you already have in your garden.  Some people might put this step first and that’s OK but if you do your evaluation after you decide what you want to grow you can…

I’ll admit the title is a bit misleading. You would think that the first tomatoes I would be talking about would be the first ripe tomatoes, I’m sorry to say that it isn’t so! I would love to be able to tell you about how wonderfully tasty those ripe red Roma tomatoes are, how full and rich flavored the Brandywines…

My daughters from 2009 – Ages 2 and 4 My kids are kind of strange.  Of course I know what you’re thinking, all kids are a little weird.  They have their quirks, their unique traits that will eventually turn them in to unique adults. That’s not the kind of weird I’m talking about.  While visiting family over the Christmas season…

After the summer garden is gone there is still work to be done. My daughters and I went out last week to take care of some last minute raised bed winterizing. We are doing one important step now: adding organic matter. Why?  Because organic matter matters! By improving the soil you enrich it with the nutrients the plants need to…

When you look out at your garden in the winter what do you see? Is it dull and drab with little or no interest? Or does it have something in it that pops and makes your garden standout in the neighborhood? What might be the difference between that boring winter landscape and the awesome winter garden is the plants. Winter…

From time to time I’ll be posting some new graphics about specific plants with a little important information about them.  Today I share a few echinacea or coneflower planting facts.  Echinacea is one of my favorite choices to plant in sunny areas that don’t receive a lot of moisture. Coneflowers love the sun, are drought tolerant, attract beneficial pollinators, and…

You know the story. Everyone travels to grandma’s house for Thanksgiving. All the family gets together and stuffs their bellies full with turkey, ham, potatoes, numerous sides, and of course the stuffing (oh wait we call that dressing down here in the south ;)). And of course, you know it’s true, every family has one or two, and sometimes many…

Since I posted the other day on my Metal Sided Raised Bed I’ve received several questions about raised beds in general as well as questions about the metal raised bed itself. For today’s post I’ll answer those questions as many other people may be wondering the same thing – or may not have but may be curious to find out!…

I wanted to share a few more pictures from my visit to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens the other day but also wanted to give you a Friday 5 post so I thought why not put the two together?  For today I’ll give you 5 Great reasons to visit Cheekwood and show you some of the great features I saw during my…

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…

Some plants are determined. Something in their genetic make-up decided long ago that nothing would get them down and nothing ever does. Take this river birch (Betula nigra) for instance. I received it from the Arbor Day Foundation but this isn’t one of the 10 “free” trees I received with my donation. I actually purchased this one. It was one…

Many people have patios with permeable materials like sand and pea gravel in the cracks. These patios are open invitations for weeds that decide to drop in and make themselves at home in those cracks! It doesn’t take anymore than a seed to sprout an annoyingly hard weed to pull out. There are many methods that will work to clean…

As I mentioned yesterday I had a visit from another garden blogger to my garden. It’s not often that my garden gets company and I’m always a little nervous about the things someone might see. Like the loads of Johnson Grass invading the beds (all the beds) or the currently unkempt nature of certain areas of the garden I just…

Rain has been ever present in our garden for the last two weeks it seems. Even the “dry” days are still wet when you consider the soggy ground and grasses you have to walk through to get anywhere. Today I thought I would share a couple pictures that are enhanced by the rain. Raindrops on Clover Clover is one of…

When I started putting together our first garden areas in our blank slate of a yard I always second guessed myself. Every planting was met with the oncoming thought “is this going to work like I want it to?” or “does this look right?” Ideas flow freely from my mind all the time and I always try to imagine what…

I have been known to surf through the local big box home improvement store garden center for discount plants. I found all sorts of mums earlier in the fall for $0.50 each. All they needed was a little trimming and dead heading and they were good as new.I’ve found Viburnums and Russian Sage this way also!Today I found a 10-12…