Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Last weekend I put together a small front porch for my garden shed. It’s nothing fancy – just a small platform measuring 8’x4′ made from pressure treated lumber. It’s wide enough to fit a couple chairs when needed and provides a platform for entering the garden shed. The deck is free floating and can be moved if needed. It isn’t…

I propagated plants! Propagating is a great way to increase your landscape plants cheaply. What could be better than cheap plants? This was the first summer I seriously experimented with rooting cuttings. Some plants can be propagated by division, some by stem and tip cuttings and others by root cuttings. What I did was mostly the stem and tip cutting…

While aphids are easy to deal with they are definitely a nuisance! I discovered these on our hostas the other day feasting on the flower stalks. Aphids are easy to find, just look for the ants. Ants are opportunistic little insects that love a sweet and easy meal that the aphids provide. When the aphids begin to feed on the…

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 surfaces and climb. Vining plants (of course) are especially good at this like my Winter…

Is it spring yet? The weather sure seems like it! Today and tomorrow we are looking at temperatures in the mid to upper 60’s. Yesterday was warm also in the lower 60’s. The difference today will probably be the sun. That bright orange combustible ball of incandescent gas is out and warming things up instead of shyly hiding behind the…

Ginkgo trees are beautiful and amazing trees. These trees (Ginkgo biloba) are native to Asia and can be extremely long lived, as in over 1,000 years! In fact the ginkgo species existed at the same time as the dinosaurs. Ginkgo trees are also called the Maidenhair tree and have fan shaped leaves. In the fall the leaves turn an amazing…

On my trip to the Vizcaya gardens in Miami I saw this salvia (Salvia leucantha/Mexican Bush sage) and thought it was a perfect way to display it – against a red backdrop.  This salvia was located in front of a large patio area made from limestone blocks facing Biscayne Bay.  The faded red from the side of the patio is…

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 feature is the beautiful flowers; which is a lacecap style that are white with hints…

It’s a sure sign of fall when the goldenrod stands tall! These tall golden yellow plumes rise above most of the native grasses in our naturalized side yard. Unfortunately for this beautiful perennial flower it is commonly mistaken for a more insidious vegetative villain, ragweed. When you sneeze in the fall it isn’t goldenrod causing your problems. Ragweed is the…

Where do I find the seeds for my gardening activities? Lot’s of places! The most obvious location is in a store, either online or one of the old fashioned brick and mortar stores. The local Co-op always has seed to find as do the box stores (they have already begun putting out seeds for spring. You had better hurry they’ll…

Could there a be a plant more touchable than Lamb’s Ear (Stachys byzantina zones 4-10)? The soft fuzzy texture of its pale silvery tinted foliage just invites passing people to pet its leaves. It grows fast, likes full sun, and can easily take over a garden bed so be prepared if you plant it to make many divisions to give…

Spring is in full swing and we all know that gardener’s everywhere are flocking to garden shows across the United States. This weekend is the Bloom ‘N’ Garden Expo in Williamson County presented by the Williamson County Master Gardeners. It’s hard for plant nuts to restrain themselves at these festivals and like everyone else I always bring home something –…

Please forgive this short ranting post you are about to read. My next post for this afternoon will have a couple videos of the flooding in our backyard then I’ll get back to gardening but I wanted to say a few words about a subject that is really irritating me. The rant is below.  It’s short, non-political, and I felt…

Plant propagation can continue at almost every time of the year, the winter is no exception. This is especially true if you have a little space in your house to put your cuttings or can manage to manipulate them into interesting centerpieces! In this post you will see how to propagate Leyland cypress from cuttings. A Brief Bit About Leyland…

Fall vegetable gardening can certainly be interesting in Tennessee!  You never quite know how the weather is going to shape up.  Is it going to frost early?  Late?  Will the temperatures be normal or extra warm like we’ll be having this week?  You just never know.  For gardening weather this October we’ve had a couple light frosts but nothing damaging…

Here is the view from one cold January morning in Tennessee. The thermometer read 8.7 degrees Fahrenheit at 7:00 AM this morning. I looked outside and the sky was showing this captivating display. Feathery white clouds are wisping around while the the peaking sun shines through the skeletal trees. Sometimes cold mornings make the best pictures!

Being mid-November there isn’t much to show for blooms. We’ve had several light frosts and a couple hard freezes which for the most part silences the perennials and annuals that worked so hard for us during the growing season. But there is always something worth looking at in the garden! Like these pansies in the front garden. The salvia by…

For a quick, easy, and cheap stocking stuffer gift idea try a homemade seed packet! I learned how to put together these seed packets that use a technique of  paper folding from Nancy Ondra’s blog Hayefield House. Go take a look at her post titled Origami for Seed Savers to learn how. The only thing that you need to do…