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April Garden Tour of Our Garden
Welcome to a quick garden tour of our garden in April of 2022! There’s lots of blooming going on around here in our Zone 7 Tennessee garden. The viburnums are their usual showstoppers with their prolific blooms but there are many other things to observe as well. Solomon’s Seal, hostas, heucheras, honesty (interesting that honesty and money plant are the…
3 Milkweeds to Plant in The Home Garden to Help Pollinators
One of the keys to attracting pollinators is to plant what they like. That means providing plants that give the pollinators food and shelter for all stages of development. Monarch butterflies one pollinator that can benefit from planting milkweed but there are many other insects and creatures that can benefit from the perennial. Also please keep in mind that milkweed…
A Simple and Quick to Assemble Compost Bin
We all know about compost. It’s important, perhaps the most important thing we do as gardeners for our plants. Organic matter is critical for plants to get nutrients. It’s also extremely helpful as a waste disposal system. Rather than throw away your biodegradable wastes from the kitchen you can compost it and use it later for the garden. Composting makes…
Tuesday’s Tasks: Planting a Dogwood and Three Arborvitaes
Tuesday’s task was twofold: purchase and plant a nifty new dogwood and also transplant three migrating arborvitaes from a friend’s garden to my yard. It was a busy afternoon but the mission was accomplished after some hard labor. The dogwood I picked out was a ‘Constellation’ dogwood which is a hybrid of Cornus kousa and Cornus florida. Because of the…
Birdwatching: Goldfinches at the Feeder
Lately the birds have been returning to the feeders. These goldfinches (Carduelis tristis) all dressed in their winter coats after molting are partaking of a feast of niger seed, which is excellent for attracting finches. Like all birds they seem to prefer the seed d’jour. Afterall who doesn’t like the fresh stuff? Thistle, coreopsis, sunflower, service berry, birch, and alder…
Safe Planting Date
Gardeners in Tennessee should be wary of planting anything this weekend. I know the temptation to put things in the ground is great (it’s eating away at me too) but just look below at the temperatures for Sunday and Monday night. According to The Weather Channel it dips very close to freezing. A much better day to plant would be…
Dappled Willows and Winter Interest
One of my favorite shrubs is the Japanese dappled willow (Salix integra). In the springtime its new foliage emerges with variegated green and cream leaves that persist through the fall. The leaves darken some as they grow older (or for those who prefer different terminology “grow more mature”) until they bare themselves when the light levels drop and cooler temperatures…
The Birdbath Garden in February – What a Mess!
Its that time of year, just before blossoms begin to bloom when the garden looks it’s worst. Mulch hasn’t been spread – or at least not enough, old dead growth from perennials hasn’t been cleared away, and in general things look like a mess. But that’s OK! You have to start somewhere right? Every garden has it’s low point and…
The Arbor Materials
We did our shopping trip at The Home Depot recently in preparation for the construction of our new arbor for the 48 Hour Blog Challenge. Today I thought I’d tell you a few of the materials that are being used. Pressure treated pine lumber of varying dimensions, natural cedar stain, screws, two solar lights, 16″ retaining wall stone, retaining wall…
How to Make an Indoor Decorative Herb Planter Out of a Birdfeeder
The cold temps are keeping you indoors and you are going stir crazy. You need to do something in the garden, with the garden, or for the garden and the seed catalogs showing up in your mailbox just aren’t good enough to get your gardening fix. Then do this – plant an indoor garden! Recently I put together a small…
Reviewing the Troy-Bilt 4 Cycle Trimmer (TB675 EC)
This summer as part of the Saturday6 Bloggers with Troy-Bilt I tested a 4 Cycle Trimmer (TB675 EC). I’ll be completely honest and tell you that weed eating is not one of my favorite tasks in the garden. It’s necessary to keep things cleanly edged, keep weeds down, and even clean out brush areas. Weed eaters are very useful tools….
How to Propagate Lavender from Cuttings for The Home Garden
Who wouldn’t want to make more lavender from cuttings? Lavender is a great perennial plant to have around the garden and is an easy one for home gardeners to propagate. Designers use it in knot gardens, formal gardens, or even in pots. It smells great when touched and also has insect repellent properties to help keep the bites at bay….
How to Grow Buckeye from Seed (Aesculus pavia)
A couple years ago I bought a fantastic native plant at a local native plant nursery. It was a red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) and is great for attracting everyone’s favorite tiny garden visitor, the hummingbird. The flower clusters are red (you probably expected that from the name: red buckeye), tubular, and bloom in early spring. Red buckeye trees grow best…
5 Shrubs to Propagate in Late Fall or Winter with Hardwood Cuttings
We’re entering the middle of November which means not only is that turkey get closer to being roasted but it’s also time for hardwood cuttings! There are quite a few plants that will easily grow from hardwood cuttings and are well worth trying for any budget minded gardener. Free plants are always a good thing right? Well unless they’re weeds……
Perennials Around the Vegetable Garden
This time of year when the weather is inhospitable I take a look back through the pictures I’ve taken and informally review the previous year. That’s one great advantage when you blog, you have a record of most things and photographs of almost everything else! Here’s a picture from September just outside our vegetable garden. In the fuzzy foreground is…
A Day in the Garden with My Daughter
The other day while my youngest daughter was taking her morning nap my other daughter and I went out to play in the garden. It was a nice August day, very atypical as it was comfortably in the 80’s. Our first stop was down to her garden. It was full of the zinnias and sunflowers that we planted several weeks…
Beginning the New Front Garden
I mentioned several weeks ago (a couple months ago) that I was wanting to remodel my front garden. I was mostly speaking of the area directly in front of the house but since then an additional idea popped up. There is a small area around a Bradford pear tree that I envisioned an elongated oval shaped bed. Eventually that ornamental…
What Is The Least Favorite Plant in Your Garden?
For a long time now I have denigrated my Bradford pear tree. It’s smelly in the spring, although it looks nice. It produces loads of inedible fruit that spawns offspring in my garden and everywhere else the birds decide to fly. Bradford pear trees are generally weak trees that split because of their “V” shaped branch unions that cluster with more…
