Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

I mentioned earlier today in a post on Facebook about using homemade seed packets as a gift idea for stocking stuffers. You can read more about that type of seed packet in this post: using wrapping paper for homemade seed packets.  If you want a more typical style of seed packet that you can customize I put together a simple…

There are many ways to grow tomatoes. In the past I generally used tomato cages to hold up my plants. One method I’ve been trying lately in my garden is trellising. When you trellis a tomato plant you create a structure that allows the tomato to get good sunlight and airflow around the plant. This get help out immensely if…

I’d like to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving! And please, for the sake of this fellow and his friends here, take it easy on the turkey! I usually fill up on the sides anyway!

I thought I would put together a catch up post for anyone who might have missed the past Garden Blogger Assignments. You are welcome to write about any of the past assignments over the last several weeks. I won’t be putting together a new assignment until next Sunday so please enjoy taking a look back at what some of the…

…SNOW! Yep the southern Blizzard of 2011 got us pretty good this time. We have somewhere around 4-5 inches of snow on the ground. Here are a few pictures of our winter wonderland! Snow on the Arbor Snow on the Blue Garden Shed Snow on the butterfly bush Snow on the eastern cedar Snow on a hemlock Snow on a…

It’s time for my end of the year garden project review. In the remote case you don’t know what I mean I’ll explain. This is where I go back and see what I actually accomplished from among the lofty project goals I established on January 1, 2009. I’ll have a new set of projects for 2010 very soon but some…

It really seems that spring has sprung already. The warm temperatures have brought everything to life, I only hope that the plants aren’t doomed by the next freeze happens to come along. It’s reminiscent of the spring of 2007. Back then we had an early warm-up followed by a hard freeze that damaged a significant number of Japanese maples and…

Here are a couple pictures of the morning sky through the newly bare trees. The trees with leaves are either oak or eastern cedar depending on where you look.  The cedar of course is evergreen but the oaks tend to hang on to their leaves until much later. This old tree is marked for cutting but sometimes you can find…

Last Friday I mentioned 5 Vegetable Garden Design Tips for the Friday Fives post.  Today we’ll look at some more vegetable garden design tips that relate to organization of a garden’s layout!  I’ll have to own up and admit it that the organization part of gardening is a skill where I am somewhat deficient though I am striving to do…

Summertime in Tennessee will be HOT. No doubt about it! We frequently get into the upper 90’s and sometimes it can last for several days in a row. You need a plan for your garden to deal with the hot temperatures. Most warm season plants that you grow will do fine with a few basic techniques for dealing with the…

I wish you could smell the garden right now.  If I could bring you the scents of my garden through this post I would.  What’s making my garden so fragrant?  A combination of two plants: Viburnum x burkwoodii ‘Mohawk’ and the irises! The combination of the two is bringing a honeysuckle like fragrance to the backyard.  I’m a huge fan…

Fall vegetable gardening can certainly be interesting in Tennessee!  You never quite know how the weather is going to shape up.  Is it going to frost early?  Late?  Will the temperatures be normal or extra warm like we’ll be having this week?  You just never know.  For gardening weather this October we’ve had a couple light frosts but nothing damaging…

Last year I put together the circular raised bed in my vegetable garden.  It’s in the center of the garden layout which is in the parterre style garden layout I planned last year.  Of course my plans are changing a little this year too.  It never fails, the only thing I don’t change in my garden is the fact that…

Another year comes and guess what – I make more changes to my vegetable garden layout! I haven’t done anything yet but below you’ll see what I intend to change from last year’s vegetable garden design. This is step one in altering my garden into what will eventually become an awesome parterre layout. I can envision it now – brick…

George in Vermont (The Vermont Gardener and Vermont Gardens) has posted some wonderful colors of the Vermont wilderness. Filled with maples, the hills appear to be on fire with the autumn foliage turning. With photos of places like Marshfield Pond and Osmore Pond you start to think thoughts of camping and sitting by a fireside on a cool autumn day…

The answer to today’s Name that Seed is the White Ash! The White Ash is a dioecious deciduous shade tree that grows to nearly 80 feet tall. Dioecious means that individual trees (or plants) are either male or female and not both, very similar to hollies. Last week I featured the Persimmon in a Name that Seed post which is…

Here is the new plant of the week. Obviously this is an old picture since nothing is growing right now, but here’s a little taste of the spring to come. This isn’t from our yard but it is a nice example of a vine being used to accent a structure. Go ahead and make an educated guess!

I like warm weather, don’t get me wrong. I like the warm spring sunshine that bathes everything in light and encourages the flowers to grow. I like the summer days – when it isn’t above 90 degrees and 65% humidity – I’m not picky. I love the warm fall days where the sun trickles through the falling leaves. I even…