Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

To me grass clippings are one of the best resources a gardener can get! I see grass clippings from lawn as an amazing way to gather organic matter for other uses in the garden ranging from composting and garden beds to mulching! Here are some really great ways to utilize this free organic resources in your gardening if you are…

To say I’m furious tonight would be an understatement. The deer have struck again, and again this week, relentlessly. This week’s attacks have been the most brutal by far. I normally like the deer. It’s fun to see the fawns scamper through the backyard, or to watch the watchful mother and father deer looking after the young ones. But today…

When growing products for a farmers market you have to keep your eye on what sells. In my last post I mentioned a few of the products that sell well at our local farmers market. Today here are a few more good selling products that you may want to consider selling at your local farmers market! Baked Goods Baked goods…

Last night I potted up a few more successfully propagated plants. While none of the cuttings were difficult by any means, I’m always pleased when I have a few more viable plants to add to the garden. The plants still need a little more time to develop their root systems, but they were ready to move into soil from the…

This time of year it’s interesting to see which plants are still performing well.  If we pay attention to how things perform and how long they last we can make better decisions when designing our gardens with plants in the future.  If you want to extend the foliage we need to note which plants have long lasting foliage.  The same…

It won’t be very long now until our first tomatoes and beans are filling up their respective plants taunting us with the tantalizing promise of tastes to come. The tomato plants are filled with blooms and in some cases are beginning to form fruit. One of the most prolific tomatoes we have are the Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. My eldest…

Breaking News: Fall Color has reached Virginia! Racquel the Perennial Garden Lover has sited some fall color in her neighborhood. Photos of a red oak and the borrowed view of her neighbors’ trees herald the southward march of the fall colors. Go visit her photos and share the fall color experience in Virginia!

Grape vines area great edible plant to add to the garden. Grape vines can be used in many ways and have the attributes of an ornamental plant with high value as an edible plant. As an edible plant grapes can be used to make wine, juice, and their leaves are edible making them an interesting choice for wrapping food inside…

The rain today had a couple of small openings for some sunshine to come through. It always seems that March has the most rainbows, what do you think?

The weather is changing, the shadows are getting longer, and of course the leaves are beginning to become more colorful which opens the door to a new season of gardening.  Every season has it’s own specific chores and things to do.  Winter is for planning, spring is for starting, summer is for maintenance and harvesting, and fall is for harvesting!…

Ninebark (Physocarpus) is a beautiful garden shrub that grows up to around 10 ft tall in the right location. Many varieties of ninebark have been developed for gardeners including ‘Diabolo’™/’Diablo’™ and ‘Coppertina’™ and can be a great addition to add a nice copper color to your garden foliage. Ninebark can also be very easy to propagate more of from cuttings….

Since today is St. Patrick’s Day and tradition dictates that we do all things green and as Irish as possible here are a few things green from my garden! We have green in the vegetable garden in the form of sugar snap peas, spinach, and lettuce! Other things haven’t come up yet for a visit like the asparagus (which I…

Fads come and go and garden fads do the same thing.  What I like today might be different in 10 years, 5 years, or even 1 year!  But for this Friday Five post I thought I’d tell you a little about the plants I really like right now.  While this list contains some specific plants it also contains a types…

At the request of a reader (xRay) on the original creatively pruned Japanese dappled willow post I thought I would show you how it looks now. It needs some touching up, especially around the base and a few more branches need to be thinned around the canopy but the overall form is in tact and filling in nicely above the…

It’s time to highlight a few more neat posts from the garden blogging world! Let’s get right to it! If you’re a fan of paths (and I don’t know any gardener who isn’t) I noticed two posts this week about paths that might interest you. Carol of May Dreams Gardens recently decided to remodel her gardens and is incorporating  a…

Over the weekend I tackled more prep work in the vegetable garden. I’ve already planted several things in the raised beds including onions, potatoes, lettuce, and spinach but planting wasn’t the main weekend task. One of the things I really didn’t like about my vegetable garden is now officially a thing of the past – the grass! In each of…

No matter where I go when I see seeds that are ripe I’m tempted to collect them. That was the case when walking around Knoxville last year and seeing some ripe magnolia seeds on some Sweetbay magnolia plants. Sweetbay magnolias have several names including: sweetbay magnolia, laurel magnolia, swamp magnolia, white bay magnolia, (simply) bay magnolia, or even beaver tree….