Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

I found these little insects today resting and munching on our Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly weed). They are known as milkweed bugs or Oncopeltus fasciatus. According to the University of Arizona Extension the milkweed bugs feed on: Seeds and tissue of the milkweed plant (Asclepias spp.). In captivity, the bugs feed on shelled sunflower seeds. I’m trying to figure out the…

Our garden sits precariously between zone 6b and 7.  We’re in a very borderline area with multiple micro-climates within the 1.3 acres of land we have around us.  We’re far enough into the warm season now that the frosts should not happen again until fall, but then we thought we were done with frosts over a month ago! This weekend…

Broken branch of a crape myrtle Sometimes in gardening, as in life, we experience bad breaks. We don’t intend for these to happen, they just do. Whether caused by too much stress, mistakes, or happenstance the only power we have over these breaks is to clean up and hope for the best. Such is the case with one of my…

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!…

OK so you’ve gotten your big seed order in the mail, now what?  What do you use to actually start the seeds in?  What kind of pots?  What kind of soil?  After deciding what seeds to order you need to know what medium to plant your future garden in.  There are a lot of variables out there to choose from,…

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!

May your Christmas be a time fill with friends, family, hope, and joy!

Spring weather is at best fickle. One day it’s warm and sunny with temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s then next day the weather forecasters are bringing up the “S” word – SNOW! We didn’t have any of the white stuff thankfully. Sometimes I suspect that there’s a fair amount of weather sensationalism out there where bringing it up certain…

If you happen to be wondering what my project is for the 48 Hour Blog Challenge I have a few hints for you.  I’ve included three pictures of a few materials we plan to utilize.  If you want to see what the project is you’ll have to check the BHG.com 48 Hour Blog Challenge Website on Friday! Now for the…

After my post yesterday about the Snowy Owl Visit to Spring Hill, TN, Pete sent me a few of his pictures of the owl. He was able to get much closer to the bird than I could and his pictures are fantastic! He prefaced the pictures with a story that I’ll share with you in this post. I am a…

I did a video a while back on Youtube about collecting oak leaf hydrangeas from seed. I thought since now is the ideal time to start collecting those seeds again I would go ahead and direct sow some oak leaf hydrangeas from seed. Below you can watch a short video of the flat I put together but it is a…

What should we do with this sedum garden? That’s a question we asked ourselves several times. It was at one time a sedum garden but for some reason most of the sedum died over last summer. They may have been too wet, too dry, or both! The gutter from the garage roof gushes out water from at least 50% of…

Recently I was invited to the 48-Hour Challenge with Better Homes & Gardens. For my project I chose to build an arbor! I’ve highlighted a few aspects of it over the last several weeks but I haven’t put down a play by play of our challenge. Hopefully you can follow along and if you want to tackle this project you’ll…

Here is a a list of posts that discuss using raised beds for gardening. Designing a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden: 11 Things to Think About Companion Planting Vegetable Garden Layout The Benefits of Gardening in Raised Beds My Vegetable Garden Layout My Vegetable Garden Layout Part 2 New Raised Bed Vegetable Garden Layout Building My Raised Beds

Well you just know it had to happen. Another gardening season and another lawnmower incident. At least this time it didn’t involve flames! And I have to admit I am very thankful to have a nandina! How does a nandina fit in with the story? Let me recount the tale for you as I experienced it. It was a beautiful…

Today the major player in Bloomsday action is the tulip! Some of these pictures were taken a couple days ago so you can see the blooming process better but all of the flowers you see in this post are currently in bloom.Here is the bed in the front garden. This picture was taken from behind the tulips toward the sidewalk….

The redbuds are in bloom! Cercis canadensis is a beautiful native plant here in Tennessee and in other areas of the country. Redbuds are an understory tree that do best on the outskirts of forest areas or with partial shade locations. They don’t grow very tall, somewhere around 20-30 feet or so. Redbud flowers are very interesting because they appear…

Here is Part Two of my weekly series of posts about gardening on a budget, Thrifty Gardening Tips.One of the best ways to get plants and other garden paraphernalia is through other gardeners that you know. Those who garden are generous people and always seem to want to encourage others in gardening endeavors. Often all you have to do is…