March Gardening To-Do List: Getting Ready for Spring in Zone 7
March is a awesome month here in Middle Tennessee for gardeners. Zone 7, this is the time to shift from planning to actually getting in the garden. Iâve been out in my front garden tackling some essential chores to ensure a productive and beautiful growingâŠ
Ice and Trees: Can Your Trees Recover?
Ice and trees do not mix well. A fact that weâre seeing all over Tennessee. The recent ice storm that barraged the state left people all over in varying states. A lot of people lost power due to fallen trees and ice. A lot ofâŠ
Stop Losing Cuttings! 10 Tips for Success with Hardwood Cuttings
Have you tried rooting hardwood cuttings only to have them rot or fail to grow? Donât give up just yet. Hardwood propagation is one of the most rewarding ways to grow your garden for free, but there are a few âmake or breakâ steps thatâŠ
32 Plants You Can Propagate from Hardwood Cuttings
Hardwood cuttings are cuttings that are taken from trees and shrubs that are fully mature, dormant stems. These cuttings are normally taken during the late fall or over winter several weeks before spring growth will begin. Hardwood cuttings differ from softwood or semi-hardwood cuttings. WhileâŠ
Starting Tree Seeds Outdoors: A Simple Guide to Diverse Landscapes
Trees are the anchors of our landscapes. They enrich the soil, provide oxygen, offer shelter and food for wildlife, and deliver incredible seasonal beauty. My goal is to diversify our property by replacing invasive plants with a variety of beautiful, beneficial trees and shrubs. InâŠ
How to Start Tree and Shrub Seeds in the Fall (Seed Prep)
Fall is the perfect time to start preparing tree and shrub seeds that need a period of cold weather before theyâll sprout. When seed starting tree and shrub seeds I use two techniques that help to trigger better germination rates. The first technique is simplyâŠ
American Beautyberry â Callicarpa americana
Every so often, I come across a plant Iâve been hunting for and I get pretty excited. That was the case this week when I finally tracked down American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) a native shrub thatâs been on my wish list for quite a whileâŠ.
With Dogwood Tree Cuttings Shorter Cuttings Work Best
A couple months ago I managed to root a dogwood tree from cuttings. Only 1 of 3 cuttings rooted but I still considered it a success. After all it was the first time I had managed to root a dogwood tree from a cutting. YouâŠ
âOctober Gloryâ Maple Tree (Acer rubrum)
Over the weekend I planted an âOctober Gloryâ maple tree. I chose this tree as one of my first fall plantings of 2025 for a several reasons. One of those reasons was a little sentimental. You see when my wife and I bought our firstâŠ
Maple Varieties and Fall Color
Fall color is one of the main reasons I garden. If you followed this website for a while you may remember the Fall Color project I hosted where Garden Bloggers from all over posted about their fall color and we shared our autumn experiences. ForâŠ
15 Perennials to Divide in Fall
Fall is a great time for many garden activities and could be considered one of the best times to divide perennials. The temperatures in fall drop and plants are finishing up their growing for the season. Dividing now allows them time to regenerate roots andâŠ
What to Do in Your Garden in Late August | Late Summer Gardening Tips
Late August is an important time in the garden. The summer heat is still with us, but cooler weather is on the way. For gardeners in zone 7, this is the point where preparation meets transitionâwrapping up the summer season while setting the stage forâŠ
Thank you for visiting Growing The Home Garden! I started Growing The Home Garden in 2007 as a way to chronicle my experiences in the garden.
All the content here is based on my personal experiences and research. A lot of my content is focused on raised bed gardening and plant propagation.
There is also a YouTube Channel for Growing the Home Garden which is over 38,000 subscribers (as of March 2024) that has a lot of gardening videos you may find helpful. Growing The Home Garden on YouTube. Thanks for reading and watching!
Raised Bed Gardening
How Deep do Raised Garden Beds Need To Be?
Raised beds are a great option for gardeners but how deep do they really need to be? The depth of a raised garden bed is an important factor to consider because it can greatly impact the health and productivity of your plants. The true answer to How deep do raised gardens need to be really is it depends! What theâŠ
Raised Bed Garden Ideas (Planning for the New Garden)
Pretty soon weâll be relocating to our new home. Our family is very excited about this but it also means starting the garden all over again. Everything including raised beds, sheds, and arbors will have to be rebuilt. While this is a tremendous amount of work I think itâs a great opportunity to start again and redevelop our garden withâŠ
How to Fill Raised Beds Cheap!
I love gardening in raised beds. It is one of the simplest ways to have success with a vegetable garden. That doesnât take anything away from all the other methods of gardening, only that I believe that raised beds are a great way for gardeners of all backgrounds and skill levels to garden successfully. The best reason to like raisedâŠ
Common Raised Bed Garden Questions Answered
Raised beds are one of the absolute BEST ways to grow a garden but there can be challenges to growing in raised beds. Often gardeners have questions about the best methods to grow in a raised bed. In this post Iâve taken some common raised bed garden questions and put together some answers based on my experience. Iâve grown inâŠ
Plant Propagation Information
Plant propagation is one of my favorite things to do in the garden! Below are some articles on how to propagate various plants. You can also check this page out with specific info on plant propagation: Plant Propagation for Home Gardens
How to Propagate Plum Trees from Hardwood Cuttings
Last year my plum tree was the victim of a savage deer rubbing attack. The bark was stripped all the way around the trunk leaving no possibility of water passing toward the top of the tree through the cambium layer. It was frustrating to sayâŠ
Propagating Arborvitae from Cuttings
Have you ever considered propagating arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) from cuttings? Itâs an easy and fun way to make more plants. Arborvitae can make a great privacy screen and hedge. Here you will find the steps I take to propagate arborvitae as well as a videoâŠ
Germinating Japanese Maple Seeds in a Plastic Bag
I love a nice Japanese maple! Who doesnât? There are Japanese maples  with variegated leaves, ones with deep burgundy colors, others with interesting shaped leaves that are highly dissected and many other kinds. The fall color on a Japanese is almost always guaranteed to be something special.  TheirâŠ
How to Propagate Arborvitae from Cuttings
Fall is officially here but that doesnât mean itâs time to stop propagating. In fact it means that many of the best plants are in their ideal state for hardwood and semi-ripe cuttings. Arborvitae is one such plant that does very well from cuttings takenâŠ
Rooting Japanese Dappled Willow Cuttings (Salix integra) In Water
In the world of plants there are few that are easier to root than a willow. Whether you have a weeping willow, contorted willow, or dappled willow they all root very easily. Rooting a dappled willow is extremely simple and can be done in aâŠ
Plant Propagation Cloner
I came across a video today on Youtube that I thought was a fantastic demonstration of how to build a plant propagation cloner! This is a DIY project I would love to try when I have a bit more time. If you have tried somethingâŠ
Growing Home Vegetable Gardens
Articles with tips and ideas on how to grow a great vegetable garden.
How to Save Seeds from Ornamental Peppers
So what can you do while itâs under 20 degrees outside and you are stuck inside but still want to do something garden related? Extract seeds from ornamental peppers! That probably wasnât the first thing on your mind but it works for me! Extracting the seeds from these âBlack Pearlâ ornamental peppers was one of those small items on myâŠ
A Garden Update: Peppers, Tomatoes, and Tomatillos
The vegetable garden is finally taking off! Even though it feels like things have been moving slowly, weâre already seeing exciting progress â tomato plants are starting to flower, and our pepper plants are showing off their first baby peppers. This year, I planted around 36â38 tomato plants of various types and a generous amount of both sweet and hotâŠ
The Best Way to Keep Green Onions Fresh
Green onions are a delicious topping to many soups and salads but they will go bad fast when stored in the refrigerator crisper drawer. However there is a way to keep green onions fresh for several weeks or more, and itâs so simple! To keep your green onions fresh put them with the bulb end down in a jar orâŠ
Fast Growing Vegetable Garden Plants
When your goal is to produce food from your garden as fast as possible you want to select vegetable plants that have a very quick turn around. When we are discussing fast growing vegetables we need to look at the days to maturity. Days to maturity means the approximate days from germination until harvest. Notice two important words here: fromâŠ
The Best Way To Plant A Tomato
Tomatoes have to be Americaâs favorite fruit of the garden. Yes it is technically a fruit, even though it has been widely accepted for years as a vegetable. This post is not about whether itâs a fruit or not but rather about how to plant a tomato plant, the most delicious fruit of the garden, the best way possible. When toâŠ
Pruning off The Lower Leaves of Tomato and Pepper Plants: Limbing Up
Every home gardener wants their plants to thrive and do well. Often there are little, easy to do things that can greatly improve the chances of plants in your garden succeeding. Here we are going to talk about one thing you can do to help your tomato and pepper plants grow great: pruning off the lower leaves or as IâŠ