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…
Viburnum nudum: A Native Alternative to Invasive Shrubs
If you’re looking for a versatile, wildlife-friendly shrub with four-season appeal, Viburnum nudum absolutely deserves a spot in your garden. Commonly called possumhaw viburnum, raisin tree, or witherod viburnum, this native plant brings glossy green leaves, colorful fall foliage, and clusters of berries that both…
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
How to Propagate Montauk Daisy
Two Cool Plants to Propagate in Spring: Agastache and Salvia
My addiction to plant propagation has reemerged from it’s winter slumber. It’s Spring which means it is time to get many kinds of cuttings ready for growing. It’s still early and many of the plants I’d like to propagate still don’t have adequate foliage but…
How to Grow Sweetbay Magnolia from Seeds
No matter where I go when I see seeds that are ripe I’m tempted to collect them. That was the case when walking around Knoxville last year and seeing some ripe magnolia seeds on some Sweetbay magnolia plants. Sweetbay magnolias have several names including: sweetbay…
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 Propagate Winter Jasmine by Taking Advantage of Aerial Roots
You all know how much I like making new plants, but you should also know that I really like it when plants make it easy for the propagator. Many plants do just that by creating aerial roots that normally will be used to grab onto…
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…
Growing Home Vegetable Gardens
Articles with tips and ideas on how to grow a great vegetable garden.
How to Save Seeds from Squash and Zucchini
Saving seeds of squash and zucchini is a very simple process. When the growing season begins to wan start allowing a few squash fruits to grow. They will become large and tough and won’t be well suited for eating but will be perfect for generating seeds. Once the squash fruits are of a suitable extra large size harvest them and…
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 on to plant out in the spring. Through cuttings we have another way to grow…
How to Direct Sow Squash and Zucchini Seeds
As far as gardening chores go direct sowing squash and zucchini seeds is a very easy task for any home gardener to accomplish. In fact it’s a great one to do with young children who you want to encourage to get outdoors and in the garden. Squash and zucchini seeds are large seeds that are easy for kids to handle….
My Favorite Tomato and Pepper Varieties
It’s getting close now. Can you feel it? Seed starting time! In preparation for my seed starting activities of 2020 I thought it would be fun to tell you about my favorite tomato and pepper varieties for Growing The Home Garden. In this video I go through some of my tried and try peppers and tomato varieties. They may not…
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…
Growing ‘Moon and Stars’ Heirloom Watermelon in the Garden
This year I’m really excited about our watermelons. I picked out the ‘Moon and Stars’ variety which not only is reported to be an excellent tasting variety but looks really neat too. ‘Moon and Stars’ are an heirloom variety that acquire a mottled coloring on the rind surfaces that resemble the night time sky! The nighttime sky also appears on…