What You Need to Know about Milkweed BEFORE You Plant!
If you have spent any time in the gardening community over the last several years, you have have probably heard about the critical importance of growing milkweed to support declining monarch butterfly populations. It is an incredibly vital plant, serving as the sole evolutionary hostā¦
Coral Bark Japanese Maple ā Overview of the āSango Kakuā 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 āSangoā¦
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, itās the āOnondagaā Viburnum (Viburnum sargentii āOnondagaā). This spring our āOnondagaā viburnum is just beginning to put on itās seasonal show, and itās awesome! In the spring its most notableā¦
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 speedā¦
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. Iāve been out in my front garden tackling some essential chores to ensure a productive and beautiful growingā¦
Ice and Trees: Can Your Trees Recover?
Ice and trees do not mix well. A fact that weāre 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 ofā¦
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? Donāt give up just yet. Hardwood propagation is one of the most rewarding ways to grow your garden for free, but there are a few āmake or breakā steps thatā¦
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. Whileā¦
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. Inā¦
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 theyāll sprout. When seed starting tree and shrub seeds I use two techniques that help to trigger better germination rates. The first technique is simplyā¦
American Beautyberry ā Callicarpa americana
Every so often, I come across a plant Iāve 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 thatās been on my wish list for quite a whileā¦.
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. Youā¦
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 onĀ raised bed gardeningĀ andĀ 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.Ā 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 theā¦
Raised Bed Garden Ideas (Planning for the New Garden)
Pretty soon weāll 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 itās a great opportunity to start again and redevelop our garden withā¦
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 doesnāt 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 raisedā¦
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 Iāve taken some common raised bed garden questions and put together some answers based on my experience. Iāve grown inā¦
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
18 Plants to Propagate in July
July is a prime time to propagate plants from the garden. Summertime plants generally have plenty of good growth that is at the ideal stage (softwood or semi-hardwood cuttings) and have plenty of time to make enough roots to overwinter well. Plus the summer heatā¦
Coral Red Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens)
Coral Red honeysuckle or Lonicera sempervirens is the honeysuckle you want ā I mean really want- not the other kind. You probably have honeysuckle somewhere near you right now. Itās white, smells pretty good, and it may even be right behind you as you readā¦
How to Root Viburnums from Hardwood Cuttings
Around Thanksgiving I took 6 small 4 node cuttings from a single viburnum at my in-lawās house. I donāt know what variety the viburnum but that doesnāt bother me, I can find out when the leaves begin to grow and the flowers start to bloomā¦
Layering a Viburnum, The Results!
Itās not a secret that Iām a fan of plant propagation. Who wouldnāt be? You get free plants! One of the easiest ways to propagate a plant is through a technique called layering. With layering you essentially pin down a branch of a shrub orā¦
Plant Propagation: The Basics of Cuttings
One of the most interesting and rewarding parts of gardening is making new plants. Whether from seed, cuttings, or division it is exciting to watch new plants grow into your landscape. For me I really enjoy taking cuttings. If you have never done a cuttingā¦
Propagating Mums for Profit
Itās kind of an odd subject to bring up during spring but propagating mums for profit takes time. Spring is when you have to get started for fall mum sales. For the purposes of this article we are talking about the common chrysanthemum you findā¦
Growing Home Vegetable Gardens
Articles with tips and ideas on how to grow a great vegetable garden.
My Raised Bed Vegetable Garden Changes for 2010
Each year I try to expand the vegetable garden a little bit more. The first year in our home I didnāt have time to put together a garden before the growing season started and we missed out on any vegetable garden. The āLā Shaped Raised Beds: The second year I put together a set of raised beds that were arrangedā¦
Edible Landscaping for Beginners: Elements of a Sustainable Plan
In my last post I told you how to begin planning for an edible landscape and how to determine what to grow. Today letās examine what elements you need to incorporate into the plan. Ā With an edible landscape we need to focus on one thing: sustainability. Ā Sustainability is a word used a lot these days and for our gardening goalsā¦
Woodle Orange Heirloom Tomato
Summer is the peak time for tomatoes which makes it the perfect time for tantalizing tomato talk! Iām pretty excited about this particular tomato that my wife selected from the Bakerās Creek Catalog last winter. Iām talking about āWoodle Orangeā! Itās a funny name and prior to reading it in the catalog I had never heard of it before. Becauseā¦
A Garden Update: Peppers, Tomatoes, and Tomatillos
The vegetable garden is finally taking off! Even though it feels like things have been moving slowly, weāre already seeing exciting progress ā tomato plants are starting to flower, and our pepper plants are showing off their first baby peppers. This year, I planted around 36ā38 tomato plants of various types and a generous amount of both sweet and hotā¦
Vegetable Garden Layout ā Parterre Style!
The other day I posted about the next evolution of my garden on its way to becoming a more formalized vegetable garden. Today Iāll show you the layout of what I hope the vegetable garden will eventually become. There are some distinct advantages to the layout changes that I am planning on making that Iāll share with you below theā¦
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 hereās how I intend to fix it! https://youtu.be/XZMwDDwutfw How to Fix Leggy Seedlings Better Lightingā¦