The holidays are an extremely busy time of the year. We go from Halloween with spooky decorations, to Thanksgiving with autumn harvest styles, then to finally to Christmas. For those who enjoy decorating (and have the storage space for all that stuff) it can be a great deal of fun, but for others who may … Read more
Several years ago I built a patio using paving stones. I intended to complete the patio by adding a sidewalk that would bring the paved surface area all the way around to the garage and driveway. This weekend I finally made major progress on this neglected project. Making a paving stone patio, sidewalk, or pathway … Read more
Recently my mom had her bathroom remodeled. In the process she replaced on of her bathroom vanities and I thought that it might make a good workstation for my many DIY and Garden projects. I’m very pleased with the result which now will provide a clean solid work top, cabinet space, a pegboard area for … Read more
The summer heat is coming and with the heat comes a whole new set of rules for gardening. The warm season vegetables grow great while the cool season plants bolt quickly. What if you want to keep your cool season plantings growing longer into the summer? Is there a way to do that? The answer … Read more
Gardeners garden for many reasons. Perhaps the most common reason is to get back to that part of us that belongs with nature. We want to see the world around us come through our garden and provide for its positive growth. How we do that can vary in thousands of ways but almost every method … Read more
Spring is in full swing here in Tennessee and that means people everywhere are headed outdoors. Some to play, some to work, and others to just hang out on the front porch with glass of sweet tea. That’s what we do here in the south, sweet tea on the front porch. This week I put … Read more
This winter has been cold and nothing if not unpredictable. Here in Tennessee we’re experiencing a warm day every now and then followed by extreme cold. Hopefully now that March has arrived and spring is close things will be shaping up very soon. With that in mind I put together a project that will help … Read more
We’ve all been stuck indoors too long. It’s February and here in TN we should be getting 50 degree temperatures for highs but instead are stuck in the lower 30’s or below. In order to help alleviate the cabin fever and feed the gardening fix I put together a little project for one of our … Read more
The cold temps are keeping you indoors and you are going stir crazy. You need to do something in the garden, with the garden, or for the garden and the seed catalogs showing up in your mailbox just aren’t good enough to get your gardening fix. Then do this – plant an indoor garden! Recently … Read more
Winter is one of those times when many gardeners wish they could be growing fresh herbs or produce but the weather just doesn’t cooperate. What is a determined gardener to do then? Build something! I decided to put together an indoor grow box/planter with a grow light to grow some plants while the weather outside … Read more
I’ve always been a big fan of solar lighting. I like the convenience of adding light where I want it in the garden without having to wire in electrical lines. I also like how solar energy is collected during the day and distributed later when it is needed without using resources from the power grid. … Read more
October is always a fun time of the year. Fall festivals are in full swing, the leaves are changing, the weather is more cooperative for gardening, and of course there’s Halloween. We don’t typically decorate much around here for Halloween. Part of it is the difficulty of managing a whole lot of decorating with four … Read more
Fall is fast approaching. No matter how much we may wish to pause time and reap our summer garden harvest we have to start thinking about the fall garden. This weekend I redid and rebuilt one of my garden beds to update it for fall crops. If you’ve followed me for a while you may … Read more
It’s important for kids to have a place to play outdoors. My kids are outside with me all the time but they don’t always want to garden so to help them have a safe place to play and explore I put together this children’s patio and mini-garden for Lowe’s Creative Ideas. It’s a simple project … Read more
The world is full of creative ideas and this ancient method of watering plants is a very cool one. An olla is a clay pot that is buried in the soil near plants. The non-glazed clay pot has a watering hole in the top that allows the gardener to fill it with water when needed. … Read more
Springtime is full of all kinds of color. New foliage comes out, flowers bloom, and all kinds of fresh growth begins. One of the classic plants many people think of for spring is the tulip. Tulips are usually best planted in the fall about 6 inches deep in the garden, but sometimes we forget to … Read more
I finally managed to get my Indoor Hanging Wall Planter Project up on the wall! I ran out of screws so I’ll have to run to the store to pick up a couple more and make sure it stays up securely. It’s fine for now but I definitely need those screws attached before adding pots … Read more
The current project I’m working on for Lowe’s Creative Ideas fits into two categories for me: indoor gardening and vertical gardening. “Migration” was the theme given to us which means we were to bring the garden indoors but the issue with that for me is space. I bring plants indoors to overwinter each year like … Read more
Here’s just a quick post to show you the light post made from a front porch post that I put together for Lowe’s Creative Ideas. Finches, wrens and cardinals have all been sighted visiting the bird feeder. As an added bonus the birds get to land on the two hanging baskets to hang out and … Read more
I’m sure you’ve always been wondering “Where can I find a light post that can double as a bird feeder station and has a spot for hanging baskets too?” You’ve come to the right place because I’m going to show you my latest project for Lowe’s Creative Ideas: a garden light post and bird feeder … Read more
Is there a flower more typical of fall than mums? Probably not! There are definitely some flowers worthy of autumnal appreciation but the mum is the most common one you’ll find this time of year. I put together a little project for Lowe’s Creative Ideas that uses mums and reuses my dad’s old wheelbarrow. The … Read more
A couple weeks ago I saw a picture posted on Facebook with a display of sedums all planted in an old wheelbarrow. It was a pretty creative idea to re-use a wheelbarrow that may have just been discarded and turn it into something of interest. This gave me an idea for my latest project for … Read more
This month’s Creative Ideas Project with Lowe’s and Growing The Home Garden is all about organization! By using a $100 gift card donated by Lowe’s I’ve redone a part of my garage to make it more useful for our whole family – not just the gardener! I think the main problem people have with organization … Read more
What does a gardener’s garage look like? Before you put an image into your mind please realize that the photo I’m about to show you is extremely embarrassing. My garage has never been a priority for me – the garden has been! When you add three kids to the mix who never seem to be … Read more
You can never have enough arbors can you? Arbors are a design element for a garden that add vertical structure and can provide definition to garden areas. Today I put together a very simple gateway arbor as an entrance to the shade garden I’ve built for Lowe’s Creative Ideas. The last I built used gutters … Read more
A shade garden just isn’t a shade garden without plants right? So what plants should get planted in a deer proof garden? Oops I said proof again. Nothing is 100% proof against a deer. Resistant is a better word. So let’s try this again. What kind of plants should be planted in a deer resistant … Read more
I’ve always loved shade gardens. Foliage plants like hostas and heucheras are two of my favorite types of plants and I just don’t have enough space in my yard for them. The other issue I have is deer. They’ve eaten many of my plants over the years. They love sampling a little bit of everything … Read more
In the very back of our property we have a shady area. It’s about the only shady area that has occured naturally in our landscape. A mixture of walnut, sassafras, hackberry, and maple trees create a shade area that until recently was completely unusable! It was a problem area in our landscape which I thought … Read more
This week I put together another project in the vegetable garden. It was a little one that was another step toward designing my vegetable garden as a parterre style garden layout. The idea for this project was to create something that was both edible and ornamental! I decided that working in the vegetable garden was … Read more
Yesterday I brought home two more daylilies to add to our daylily collection. Please welcome ‘Serena Sunrise’ and ‘Custard Candy’ to the garden! ‘Serena Sunrise’ Daylily Both of these daylilies have already been crossed with each other (yesterday) and with my favorite daylily ‘Primal Scream’ (today)! I can’t wait to see the results, but wait … Read more
This week I’ve been posting about a backyard project that involves vertical gardening! It was a fun one that actually went 100% according to plan! (That can’t be said for all of my projects!) Often I end up improvising somewhere along the way. The project involved putting up an arbor and running spray painted gutters … Read more
It’s time to show you the construction phase of the vertical garden arbor that I’m building for Lowe’s Creative Ideas! In the previous post I listed the materials and dug the holes for the project so if you’re just now finding this project you may want to start with part 1 of this gutter garden … Read more
Recently the folks at Lowe’s Creative Ideas asked me if I could put together a once a month project using products I found at Lowe’s that fit a specific theme. Of course since I enjoy doing these types of projects around the garden I jumped at the chance! This month they wanted a project centered … Read more