Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

I have to admit it, I really do like my lawn. The “in” thing right now is eliminating lawns by replacing them with gardens. That’s great idea that I fully support but it just isn’t feasible when you have a large yard. The other option is letting areas become meadows which I think is pretty cool too (and for one…

One common issue many gardeners have when starting plants from seed is legginess. This is a problem that is normally a result of not enough light and is easy to fix! My current batch of tomato and pepper seedlings is showing signs of legginess and here’s how I intend to fix it! https://youtu.be/XZMwDDwutfw How to Fix Leggy Seedlings Better Lighting…

Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is one of those beautiful plants for fall color that unfortunately gets mixed up with one of similar appearance but of very ill repute: poison ivy (Rhus radicans).  The difference has traditionally been summed up in the phrase “Leaves of three let it be, leaves of five let it thrive!”  Physically speaking, that’s the difference between…

The Gardening Gone Wild photo contest for February is all about Winter Light. The picture below is my entry which I took from our upstairs window out across the yard. I’m calling it Shadow Play, you can probably figure out why! The shadows of the ice covered trees are dancing across the backyard and the children’s playset creating an unusual…

I posted this picture the other day on The Home Garden Facebook page but thought I’d share it here too. Dandelions may be the bane of the lawn care perfectionist but if you look close I think you can appreciate the beauty in even the weeds.

Spring will be here very soon.  The calendar gives us a date but that seems arbitrary.  Spring is more of a feeling.  The weather is warmer and plants are actively growing again.  This coming weekend will be much warmer than it has been and should trigger a lot of action in the garden.  Today I went out and checked around…

I’m a huge fan of vegetable gardening – or any gardening for that matter – in raised beds. There are many reasons raised beds are great for gardens like being able to garden nearly anywhere (even on rocky ground), controlling the soil, or planting more plants in a smaller space but what actually makes a good raised bed? The best…

You can feel it in the air can’t you? The coolness of an approaching autumn. The each passing day is getting noticeably shorter. We’re beginning that transitional period from the hot summer growing season to the fall growing season and that can mean a lot of changes in the garden. The vegetable garden may still be going full speed ahead…

Have Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year!

Here are the flowers I gave my wife for Valentine’s Day. I like to give flowers that you can plant in the garden when they are done blooming. It seems wasteful to just buy a bouquet and let them fade away. Once the weather is warm enough I’ll but them outside where we can enjoy them next spring.Here are the…

I’d like to thank all the participants of the Fall Color Project this year! We’ve been able to see lots of wonderful colors from across the country.  In a few days I’ll put together a wrap up post with all the participants listed but today I would like to take a moment to announce the winner of the solar water…

We were sitting at the breakfast table on Sunday morning when an unusual sight appeared from the wooded area in the back of our yard. We watched as this dog-like apparition glided from the woods and crept across the grass. It was a coyote and it wasn’t a welcome sight to my eyes. As a father of two small children…

Tonight while mowing I had no fear of the myriad of carpenter/bumblebees that were hovering through the garden. I was on my riding mower and said to the bumbles “my buzz is bigger than yours.”

In one of my last posts I mentioned receiving my free Arbor Day trees. Those trees have now been planted. While planting them I was pleasantly surprised by a couple things.1. The trees were marked very clearly with the color coding system. It was not just a thin little line above the roots indicating which tree they were, but rather…

Aside from being the Boy Scout Motto, Tennessee gardeners need to be prepared this weekend for some of the coldest temperatures yet this fall. According to the Weather Channel the lows this weekend will be dipping down to a chilly 40 F, 38 F, and will end with a frigid 36 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday evening. Which means that this…

Spring is officially here and it seems like the daffodils were waiting for the memo. They are in full bloom now and their yellow flowers are a bright and happy sign that the cold dreary days of an extra long and extra cold winter are behind us. Sure we’ll have some cold days ahead, but those are little dips in…

The other day the rain garden completed a mini-test. It really was more of a pop quiz. It wasn’t multiple choice or fill in the blank. It was true or false, did it work or not? There was only about 0.34 inches of rain but it easily handled that amount. Here’s what the drainage looked like before the rain garden…