Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Today I spent some time outdoors getting a raised bed put together for our back slope. It gives the slope a somewhat terraced visual effect but the wooden bed isn’t needed to hold the slope in place. It’s done fine on its own for several years! Here’s the view from one side with the garden shed to the left. The…

Every now and then I’ll be doing some posts for another blog called Complete Organizing Solutions. Tanna, the author of the blog, has invited several other bloggers to do a post every once a month or so to add greater diversity to her site. Can you guess what I’ll be talking about? And no, it’s not how to organize your…

Surely one of the greatest mysteries to appear in the history of the state of Tennessee. Recently strange shapes have appeared across the landscape. Covered with a cold and white mysterious substance these shapes reportedly have been erected by the mysterious “snowpeople” (the exact gender cannot be known except by manner of dress. Top hats and pipes tend to indicate…

As usual the weather forecasters just couldn’t nail our weather forecast. Several days ago they began hyping the massive snowfall of 1-3 inches that was on its way. The forecast at one point even predicted 2-4 inches! OK I know you northern gardeners are saying “massive snowfall?” Please keep in mind that everything is relative and a massive for Tennessee…

What a difference three years makes in the life of a plant. Welcome to my front sidewalk garden at the beginning of July. You will notice right off the bat several flowering perennials on the left side of the sidewalk that could use a little pruning. The Russian sages (Perovskia atriplicifolia) are towering over the walkway. In retrospect this probably…

Today I put the final touches on the birdbath garden for the 2008 gardening season. It’s come a long way since it’s inception last fall. In the beginning it was merely a birdbath with a couple plants next to it. A few irises, two coneflowers (‘Sunset’), and a butterfly bush made up the whole garden. Later I added some discount…

One of the locations in our yard that has the most fall color is the back tree line. We don’t have much in the way of mature trees throughout the rest of the yard but the back tree line makes up for it in the way of sassafras, walnut, maples and assorted other trees. One day this area will house…

It’s fall and the gardening season is winding down, but it’s not too late to save a few dollars for next year. There are lots of techniques gardeners can do this time of year to save money for next season. Today I’m going to give you five ideas that will help you save money on next year’s gardening budget! So…

In late May I wrote a post about how to propagate Asiatic lilies from leaves. I figured it was time to show you how things are coming along. After small little bulbs began to form on the base of the leaves I planted the bulbs into small pots. As you can see in the picture below the old leaves completely…

I knew what I was going to do today. Weather permitting I would get outside and harvest our basil and not only make our dinner using it but make enough to have pesto a couple times during the winter. I planned ahead and we stopped by the grocery store to get more Parmesan cheese. We also picked up some milk,…

Since so much of the garden right now is suffering from lack of adequate rainfall I thought it might be a good time to look back at a few past plant propagation posts.  Some of these are favorites of mine and hopefully they will be useful for you too! Propagating Shrubs: Hydrangea Cuttings ‘Shasta’ Viburnum plicatum var. tormentosa – A…

Google Patent Search has probably been around for a little while but since it says Beta it may be a relatively recent development. The patent search makes it very easy to find patented inventions including plants. Just type in the name of your plant and instantly you are provided with the patent records. This could be extremely useful for those…

Recently my brother and I purchased a gift for my mom for her birthday. Her old potting bench was rusting out at the feet and in several other locations and it was time for a new one. As so many of us do these days I went to Amazon and searched through the potting benches that were available. I found…

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 just can’t wait. Pretty soon the tomatoes will be ripening and we’ll be pulling them from the vine as fast as we can. Unfortunately the hard part of gardening is learning patience for we still have to wait. It takes time for things to grow and mature and you have to grow to appreciate the process from seed to…

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…

My thoughts on gardening in 2020 2020 has been a crazy year so far hasn’t it? On the positive side it has introduced a host of new gardeners to the fun of home gardening. People these days are looking for ways to spend their time at home and maybe participate in a healthy activity that can offset some expenses with…

You probably know rosemary as a fantastic herb for your garden. It’s great for seasoning chicken, fish, and (my personal favorite) used in an olive oil dip for bread; but what about in the garden as a landscape planting? I have two rosemary plants framing the front steps to our house. They help to define the entrance into the yard…