Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

If you live in an area with plenty of trees you are blessed with adequate building materials for trellises and posts. They may be rustic in appearance but they can function pretty good.  Today I’ll show you my new trellis for my sugar snap peas.  It’s made from 5 pieces of dead wood that fell from our tulip poplar tree. …

The signs of spring are coming up all over if you know where to look.  In some cases like with the daffodils it’s obvious.  Bright yellow flowers and buds are beginning to stand up for us to take notice.  Other plants, like sedums, are beginning to show elements of growth.  On the left is an unnamed sedum that I believe…

One of the more interesting materials to use in the garden is stone. It comes in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and forms from small landscape gravel to river stones and large stone pavers. Its uses in the garden are nearly endless. Gravel can be used for patios, pathways, and for mulch. Medium and larger stones can be used for…

Welcome to Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day and the adventures of Skip the Skipper. Skip is a butterfly called a skipper, and a happy one at that. He spends his time skipping from flower to flower happily grazing upon the pollen he finds. Let’s see what Skip the Skipper has found today!I found our little friend resting upon a volunteer zinnia…

This morning I went out to tinker in the garden and had to capture some of images of the clear blue skies overhead. I was out taking cuttings on this cool spring-like morning that I’ll share a with you later today.The sky began as mostly overcast with a few spots of blue shining through.Soon the overcast skies gave way to…

In our newly formed back garden areas I’ve planted several things that are virtually rabbit proof. Things like caryopteris and Russian sage are perfect plantings here since the rabbits just don’t like them. But what do you do if you want to plant something that the rabbits believe is a deliriously delicious and divine delicacy for dinner? You have to…

The daffodils are officially in bloom here in my Tennessee Garden! Every year I like to mark the beginning of the daffodil blooms as it is one of the many signs of spring. (Coming very soon: Forsythia) It’s hard not to get excited about spring’s arrival after such a cold winter isn’t it? The first daffodil of 2009 was photographed…

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…

Recently I ordered plants (which I’ll cover in another post) and while choosing the plants I used a few criteria to guide my selections.  I wouldn’t rule out purchasing plants just because they might miss one or two of these characteristics but I do know that when all five can be found in the same plant I’ve got a winner!…

In my last post I showed you some of the perennials around our vegetable garden. In this post I’ll show you some of the perennials in the garden around our deck. Despite my title not all of these plants are perennials. One of the most striking plants in this grouping is in fact an annual – the moonflower. It blooms…

I love heirloom plants and hot peppers are no exception. The fact that the genetic makeup of a vegetable or fruit can be traced back in time many years makes the special. In some cases they have a historical context, but the main reason I like them is that heirloom peppers (and other plants) usually have a better flavor than…

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…

Stopping to smell the daylilies may get you a mild to severe case of nasal pollenitis. Symptoms include a dusty yellow-orange substance that can be found on the surfaces of the nose, possible sneezing and runny eyes, as well as a possible case of severe giggles.

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….

Fall, as I’ve said before, is probably my favorite time of year. I enjoy the processes involved with closing down the garden, the cooler weather, and the changes in the leaves. It’s also a great time to garden with its own set of unique challenges. For planting trees, shrubs, and bulbs there is no better time than autumn. For growing…

Springtime is full of all kinds of color.  New foliage comes out, flowers bloom, and all kinds of fresh growth begins.  One of the classic plants many people think of for spring is the tulip.  Tulips are usually best planted in the fall about 6 inches deep in the garden, but sometimes we forget to plant tulips in the fall…

Previously in my new series of posts about how to garden on a budget, Thrifty Gardening Tips, I wrote about finding and saving discount plants. After writing that post, I had an urge to go out and look to see what I could find. It was the Thursday before the Fourth of July holiday and I had this feeling that…

Christmas is just about here and our minds are all focused on celebrating the season with family and friends but soon after Christmas our gardens will be need attention.  In gardening the correct timing can mean the difference between a great harvest, OK harvest, or even no harvest. Let’s take a quick look at some upcoming things that you should…