Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Well the end of my rock posts has come…for now! Here’s a quick summary of what we did this week with rocks. Feel free to take a look back if you missed anything. If you rocked this week tell me about it! Sunday (August 16, 2009): I’m a Fan of Rocks Monday (August 17, 2009): And the Rock is… Tuesday…

I would like to wish you and your family a safe and very merry Christmas season! Photos: Nandina berries (top left), eastern red cedar under snow(middle left), blue garden shed (bottom left), happy little bluebird in snow (middle bottom), daffodil coming up in a March snow (bottom right), Our Snow covered house (top right). Coming up after Christmas: 2011 Project…

This afternoon I went outdoors in the beautiful 60 degree weather and harvested our potato crop.  Truth be told its a rather small harvest of potatoes but considering that I didn’t intentionally plant them I am quite pleased!  When you leave behind a few potatoes from the spring/early summer harvest they grow into a nice fall crop.  Growing potatoes is…

This time of year can be very confusing.  Especially when the weather throws a few curve balls like extra warm temperatures!  It almost makes you think it will be fine to plant those tomatoes four weeks early.  I know why, everyone wants bragging rights about that first ripe tomato! I thought for today’s Friday Five post that I would mention…

Seed shortages on our minds saving seeds from your garden is more important than ever. So how do you save tomato seeds? There are a couple of methods that can be successful but one way you can do this is through fermentation of tomato seeds. This is not a hard process so don’t let it intimidate you! I’ve described the…

A couple months ago I put together my little 6’x8′ Harbor Freight greenhouse.  It was an inexpensive greenhouse that I was hoping would be a good way to increase my growing area for my small nursery business.  I thought it was time I gave an update on how the greenhouse is working out for me. After one storm where a…

Most people look at plant foliage and admire the wonderful variegation of the leaves or the shapes, but have you ever stopped to admire the multibranched vein patterns? If not take a look sometime when you are out in the garden or hiking in the woods. The veins form very unique patterns that whether follow the variegation or simply highlight…

I planted these daffodils late last fall. I found them after they went on sale in December and planted them soon after. They are just now blooming while all the other daffodils are fading which is pretty neat! I may plant a few late daffodils each year to achieve the same effect!

A couple weeks ago I saw a picture posted on Facebook with a display of sedums all planted in an old wheelbarrow.  It was a pretty creative idea to re-use a wheelbarrow that may have just been discarded and turn it into something of interest.  This gave me an idea for my latest project for Lowe’s Creative Ideas.  The theme…

We’ve all done it before, put something off to do later. We justify it as we don’t have time or come up with other reasons that may cover our laziness. Sometimes it’s not laziness but life that interrupts things we want to get done. Really who could blame someone for not doing a gardening task in the middle of the…

A few weeks ago I attempted my first ever leaf casting. We were putting some hand prints of the my children and nieces in concrete for my parents to add to their garden and had some leftover Portland cement to use. Conveniently my parents had a pile of sand in their backyard behind their shed (leftover from the patio/pavilion) that…

Once you have your seedlings growing strong and you’ve properly hardened them off (more on that next week) it is time to plant your seedlings in the garden.  But where should you plant them?  It may seem like a given that you’ll just go out and stick them in a hole and watch them grow, but it’s not always that…

I’ll continue with the Seed Starting 101 Series tomorrow but I thought I would use today’s post to share with you a related project. Recently I purchased a seedling heatmat that I’ve been testing in the garage to see how seedlings will grow out there.  The results have been pretty good so far with good germination rates for kale, chard,…

Today I have a very cool giveaway to tell you about. The folks at Clean Air Gardening are providing a 60 Gallon Spin Bin made from recycled materials for one lucky winner here on The Home Garden. To enter into the drawing all you need to do is comment on this post before 11:59 PM CST on Friday June 4th….

The earliest vegetables to emerge from our vegetable garden are the sugar snap peas. I planted them back in February but the cold temperatures kept the peas from coming up as early as I hoped. I planted two 3’x4′ raised beds with the peas in the hopes that we would enjoy a large crop this year. Several of the seeds…

This week finally brought us some nice temperatures, or at least nicer temperatures. We’re still a little under the normal highs for February and will most likely drop down again next week but the warmer weather is definitely something to brighten the spirits. Not only that it also improves the frequency of garden activities! Sunday February 14th Valentines Day Found…

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…

The other day I wrote about crop rotation, it’s importance, and it’s benefit in the garden so today I thought we’d begin looking at the individual families of vegetables and how they fit into the grand scheme of things. Since it is probably the most popular family, because of one of its members (the tomato), we’ll start discussing the nightshade…