Coral Bark Japanese Maple – Overview of the ‘Sango Kaku’ Maple
Usually when I buy plants for the garden I buy smaller 1 gallon pots and wait (sometimes for years) for the trees grow up. But occasionally, I want something that has a more immediate impact. I recently splurged $200 on a 7 foot tall ‘Sango…
Stunning Flowers and Foliage: Why the Onondaga Viburnum is a Must-Have!
If there is one shrub I would recommend to every home gardener for spring color, it’s the ‘Onondaga’ Viburnum (Viburnum sargentii ‘Onondaga’). This spring our ‘Onondaga’ viburnum is just beginning to put on it’s seasonal show, and it’s awesome! In the spring its most notable…
15 Gardening Tasks for April!
April is an amazing time of year to get in the garden. The weather is better, the soil is warming up, and the plants are coming alive from their winter rest. April is the time of year when gardeners need to be going full speed…
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…
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
Oak Leaf Hydrangea Propagation (Cuttings) the Results
Oak leaf hydrangeas are an awesome landscape shrub to add to the garden. They get big and need room and enjoy part shade/part sun locations but if you have the right spot for one by all means add one! I’m always trying to propagate a…
How to Grow Oak Leaf Hydrangeas From Seed
I did a video a while back on Youtube about collecting oak leaf hydrangeas from seed. I thought since now is the ideal time to start collecting those seeds again I would go ahead and direct sow some oak leaf hydrangeas from seed. Below you…
Making Free Plants for the Garden from Cuttings
Free Plants! The best possible price you can find right? Last week I was struck by a post at everyone’s favorite garden ranting website. The post discussed the “lies” of gardening and one of those supposed lies was that you don’t have to spend money…
Propagating Peppers Through Cuttings
You might think that peppers are one of those seed only grown plants. For many gardeners they are, but what if you want an exact copy of a favorite pepper plant? With peppers we typically sow the seeds in late winter and grow the seedlings…
How to Propagate ‘Purple Homestead’ Verbena
Flowering of the Purple Homestead Verbena If you haven’t tried growing ‘Purple Homestead’ Verbena in your home garden you really should! I’ve used this purple flowering perennial in three places so far and can think of many more locations I would like to see them….
8 Popular Plant Propagation Posts!
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…
Growing Home Vegetable Gardens
Articles with tips and ideas on how to grow a great vegetable garden.
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…
5 Fall Vegetables for Your Garden
Fall is creeping closer and closer each day which brings to mind cool evening breezes, pumpkins, festivals, the Fall Color Project (more on that later), and of course the fall vegetable growing season. Most gardeners seem to garden almost exclusively in the spring or summer and don’t even consider the fall. It’s probably since starting plants this time of year…
How to Build a Tomato Trellis (A Frame Style)
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…
Why Do Tomatoes Crack?
Everyone loves a good tomato but sometimes there are problems. Take cracking in tomatoes for instance. Cracking in tomatoes might seem concerning but the answer to why this happens is very simple: inconsistent moisture! Often tomato cracking can appear when there has been a dry spell followed by significant rainfall. The fix is also very simple, be more consistent with…
Growing Mustard in the Home Vegetable Garden
I’m a huge fan of mustard. There are few snacks I enjoy more than pretzels dipped in a delicious honey mustard. I love it on sandwiches and as an ingredient in all sorts of things from chicken dishes to potato salad. Mustard is simply awesome. That’s my opinion anyway. It’s also extremely easy to grow mustard in the garden. How…
