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. I’ve been out in my front garden tackling some essential chores to ensure a productive and beautiful growing…
Ice and Trees: Can Your Trees Recover?
Ice and trees do not mix well. A fact that we’re 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 of…
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? Don’t give up just yet. Hardwood propagation is one of the most rewarding ways to grow your garden for free, but there are a few “make or break” steps that…
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. While…
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. In…
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 they’ll sprout. When seed starting tree and shrub seeds I use two techniques that help to trigger better germination rates. The first technique is simply…
American Beautyberry – Callicarpa americana
Every so often, I come across a plant I’ve 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 that’s been on my wish list for quite a while….
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. You…
‘October Glory’ Maple Tree (Acer rubrum)
Over the weekend I planted an ‘October Glory’ 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 first…
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. For…
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 and…
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 transition—wrapping up the summer season while setting the stage for…
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 the…
Raised Bed Garden Ideas (Planning for the New Garden)
Pretty soon we’ll 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 it’s a great opportunity to start again and redevelop our garden with…
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 doesn’t 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 raised…
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 I’ve taken some common raised bed garden questions and put together some answers based on my experience. I’ve grown in…
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
Garden Tips for Before a Frost
As the first frost approaches, now is the time to take essential steps to protect your garden and set yourself up for success next spring. Below are a few simple garden tips that can help you save money and preserve your favorite plants while extending…
5 Easy Perennials to Propagate from Cuttings
Isn’t it great to have a few easy to propagate plants that you can grow to increase your garden? The plants in the video below are all easy to grow from cuttings. salvia catmint creeping phlox monarda lemon balm General Propagation Procedures for These Plants…
How I’ll Use My Greenhouse
I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to use my greenhouse lately. There’s just enough complete on the greenhouse construction to tantalize my imagination and since people use greenhouse in so many ways that the options are virtually limitless.I don’t grow orchids or many tropical…
Russian Sage Propagation through Hardwood Cuttings Results
Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) is indeed easy to propagate from hardwood cuttings. In fact taking hardwood cuttings may prove more reliable than from softwood cuttings. I’ll continue with both methods at the appropriate times of the year but the hardwood cuttings have not had any…
How to Propagate Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius)
Ninebark (Physocarpus) is a beautiful garden shrub that grows up to around 10 ft tall in the right location. Many varieties of ninebark have been developed for gardeners including ‘Diabolo’™/’Diablo’™ and ‘Coppertina’™ and can be a great addition to add a nice copper color to…
How to Propagate Hardwood Cuttings of Russian Sage
The other day I had an idea. Instead of taking my pruned Russian sage branches and just dumping them in the compost, I thought what if I tried to make cuttings from them? I’ve propagated Russian sage cuttings very easily in the spring from softwood…
Growing Home Vegetable Gardens
Articles with tips and ideas on how to grow a great vegetable garden.
How to Ripen Green Tomatoes, Peppers and Color, and Avoiding Over-Tilling
This weekend a reader emailed me a few questions she had about my post 5 Fall Things To Do to Prepare the Vegetable Garden for Spring. I thought that other gardeners may be interested in hearing the answers to those questions as well so for today we’ll begin an intermittent series of garden questions and answers! Feel free to chime…
How to Fix Leggy Seedlings
One common issue many gardeners have when starting plants from seed is legginess. This is a problem that is normally a result of not enough light and is easy to fix! My current batch of tomato and pepper seedlings is showing signs of legginess and here’s how I intend to fix it! https://youtu.be/XZMwDDwutfw How to Fix Leggy Seedlings Better Lighting…
Vegetable Garden Layout with Raised Beds for 2011
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…
5 Things You Need to Know About Growing a Great Tomato!
Tomato planting season is almost here for Middle Tennessee so I thought now would be the perfect time to share some things you need to know about growing a great tomato! Tomatoes have always been my favorite crop from the garden. I like tomatoes fresh, cooked, preserved – it doesn’t matter how – I like a GREAT Tomato! There are…
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: from…
Growing Broccoli in the Garden
Last weekend we went to a family wedding in West TN. While out there we stopped by and visited my wife’s Uncle Joe in Jackson who loves to garden. He has a variety of plants ranging from broccoli, radishes, and spring greens to tomatoes and peppers. Since I don’t grow broccoli in my garden (I like it but my family…