Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

The other day I wrote about crop rotation, it’s importance, and it’s benefit in the garden so today I thought we’d begin looking at the individual families of vegetables and how they fit into the grand scheme of things. Since it is probably the most popular family, because of one of its members (the tomato), we’ll start discussing the nightshade…

This summer has been a tricky one in which to garden in here in Tennessee.  June was the driest month I can remember and hotter than any June on record. July was strange too – extra moisture and cooler temperatures made up some of the lost ground caused by the spring drought. Having strange weather has mixed the gardening season…

Have you ever wondered what the inside of a dogwood (Cornus florida) seed looks like?  If you read yesterday’s Name that Seed post you caught a glimpse of some dogwood seeds that were cleaned off by the birds.  Many birds enjoy eating the berries that form on flowering trees.  In this case the bird ate the fleshy outer covering of…

My gardens haven’t seen any rain for several weeks now.  The grass is brown and I even commented to my daughter that it sounds like crunchy snow.  Of course the reality couldn’t be further from the truth – it’s hot!  No snowball could survive in our back yard today with temperatures expected to rise into the triple digits.  Droughts do…

Moss: Nature’s Carpet Edit: Here’s just a short note to mention that I finally managed a little more work on the greenhouse! If you go to the post you’ll see the beginning of a green roof overhang for the front door.

Thank you to everyone who entered the drawing for the ‘Woodle Orange’ Heirloom tomato seeds. You WILL enjoy these next year or I’ll give you your money back! (Oh wait you didn’t pay anything – oh well ;)) The winners as randomly selected by Random.org are can be seen below in the picture. Just count down the commenters until you…

Columbia, TN which is just down the road from us is currently having it’s annual Mule Day festival. It began on Tuesday and continues through this Sunday. It’s basically a festival with arts and crafts, bluegrass music, clogging, and several mule related events. There’s even a parade! I feel bad for the band members who have to March behind the…

Maybe you can help us figure something out. Jaime sent me this picture of a plant growing where she wanted to plant zinnias. If the plant growing there is something good then she’d like to see it grow to flower but if it’s a weed well, you know what she’ll do to that weed! I’ve checked out several weed pictures…

In the vegetable garden there is always a need for more space.  You never have enough.  The garden is constantly being filled with more plants than you really have room for and you have to find ways to organize it.  That’s why going vertical is a great option and the most classic way to go vertical is to use a…

I thought I would do something a little different for this Sunday and highlight a couple Garden Blogger posts this week that I thought were either very interesting, had very cool photos, showed me something new, or took me somewhere fantastic! I hope you’ll pay a visit to the bloggers listed below and see what I found to be very…

Lately I’ve been looking back at all the pictures I took over 2009 like in my last post (the picture of rudbeckias.) Soon I’ll be talking about seeds and getting ready in earnest for 2010 gardening but I find that glancing back at the previous year’s pictures helps to guide me when it comes to the seed catalogs. I stumbled…

I think I’ve failed to fully express my appreciation for my culinary sage. So let’s fix that!  Sage (or Salvia officinalis) is one of those herbs that I use in all kinds of culinary concoctions from soup to seasonings.  Almost any kind of meat tastes better with fresh sage. Chicken, meatloaf, turkey, just about everything…it’s almost like the bacon of…

The other day I had a surprise. While washing dishes at the kitchen sink I looked over at a small yogurt cup on the counter top to see this: Several small seedlings had appeared from some tomato seeds I was soaking. I’m going to have to admit one of my major failings here to properly tell the story, sometimes…I forget…

There are few trees that are more colorful in the fall than maples!  The Acer genus really has cornered the market on autumn brilliance.  That’s not to say that there aren’t other trees just as dazzling but its hard to actually beat maples for the color show this time of year.  The colors they show range from gold to red…

“If I had a million dollars…”This is the main chorus line in a very humorous song by the Bare Naked Ladies but doesn’t everyone think this every now and then?So with a gardening slant…If I had a million dollars I’d build a modest house of four bedrooms and put it on as much acreage as I could afford and still…

When it comes to vegetables from the garden sweet potatoes are a family favorite. The delicious sugary sweet baked sweet potato is an amazing side dish! Or we sometimes roast sweet potatoes with other vegetables to make a delicious dish in our favorite iron skillet. The nice thing about sweet potatoes is how easy they are to grow. In 2020…

If you are tired of hauling your old newspapers to the dump or recycling there are a couple good uses of it for around the house. First its important to note that newspaper is biodegradable and most of the inks are soy based so there will be no harm to the environment. In fact the newspaper should add to the…

The garden is gearing up for growth are you ready?  Have you prepared the garden and gotten everything set to grow?  I haven’t but the warm weather is going to be here this weekend and I’ll be making some headway into my garden’s preparation.  When to prepare the garden varies depending on where you live but several of these tasks…