Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Even in winter gardeners in Tennessee need to keep up with the weeds.  Cool season weeds like chickweed and henbit can easily take over while you aren’t watching your garden beds.  I actually like the look of henbit in the lawn but not in the garden beds.  If you have a warm winter day get out there and do a…

Today I had an odd thing happen. I was working in the garage when all of a sudden something slammed into the wall above the garage door. How a bird could mistake a wall for open air I don’t really know. Of course many birds aren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed. After all where else would the expression…

It won’t be very long now until our first tomatoes and beans are filling up their respective plants taunting us with the tantalizing promise of tastes to come. The tomato plants are filled with blooms and in some cases are beginning to form fruit. One of the most prolific tomatoes we have are the Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. My eldest…

Happy Valentine’s Day! I gave these to my wife but thought I’d also share them with you.     Too bad you can’t smell them!

At least for these plants! This time of year it’s simply amazing how lush and green all the plants are. Green happens to the be subject of the latest Gardening Gone Wild Photo Contest. This morning I went out and took a few pictures of the greenery around the garden that might be contest worthy. Here’s a look at a…

Since our yard was rather devoid of color and life this past season with the possible exceptions of the verbenas, mums, and asters I am making a strident attempt to improve the year round color situation. Our house was at one time a rental house that was not cared for very well inside or out. As you can imagine the…

Spring is officially here!  Spring’s arrival means it is really time to be thinking about the garden (as if we haven’t been since fall).  It’s always important to get the spring gardening season off to a great start.  Today let’s look at a few garden tasks that need done to help get your garden going. 5 Garden Preparation Chores and…

Trees serve as the backbone of the garden. Trees add structure and height, clean the air, filter water, prevent soil erosion, provide shade and can be a habitat for wildlife. If you have ever sat beneath a maple tree in the heat of summer and enjoyed the cool shade it provided you understand the value of that tree. To me…

Part of my worm bin composter is finished.  This really is a very simple project that anyone can do at home.  To complete this part of the composter it only took about 30 minutes which also included the time to gather the materials and to put them away.  Since the weather outside this week is terribly cold this makes a…

Fortunately I’m not one to be squeamish with the natural side of the garden. The wasps usually don’t bother me, nor do the spiders, and neither do the snakes. I know many people can’t even stand the sight of snakes whether they are dangerous or not. It’s probably the fear that they could be poisonous that scares people. There’s an…

‘Bluecrop’ Blueberry Bush As I indicated in my last post about the two camellias in one pot I’m always looking for ways to garden cheap.  Imagine my excitement when I stumbled across some ‘Bluecrop’ blueberries that are normally over $20 marked down to $5 each!  Of course I snatched two up (I might have gotten more had they had a…

Friday afternoon and evening I was in the yard and garden vigorously hauling compost from truck to the raised beds. Fortunately one yard of compost was all that was necessary to complete the filling of the beds.   Saturday’s task will be mulch: mulch for the garden paths and for various other locations around the yard. I can’t wait to…

Pours, and pours, and pours, and pours, and pours to a total of 6 inches of rain within 48 hours. And there is more to come! I have never seen this much rain in such a short period of time since we moved to this house.  During one period within 45 minutes we received more than 2 inches of rain….

Have you ever put something in the garden that you just shouldn’t have? Maybe you thought “I don’t have a better place to put this so I’ll just stick it in here” or even “I’ll stick this plant here and keep it trimmed back.” I’ve thought both of those many times and made mistakes and the latter statement gets me…

You may have noticed a few changes here at The Home Garden lately. The changes are not completely set into how I want them to be yet but they are well on their way!  You may be wondering why did I change things?  To start off there were some major issues going on with something in the html code.  I’m…

The Gardening Gone Wild photo contest for February is all about Winter Light. The picture below is my entry which I took from our upstairs window out across the yard. I’m calling it Shadow Play, you can probably figure out why! The shadows of the ice covered trees are dancing across the backyard and the children’s playset creating an unusual…

Saving seeds and cuttings in the fall is one additional way you can save a few bucks for the next gardening season. In the fall, plants produce their final batch of seeds and the thrifty gardener can take advantage of this! Seeds in general aren’t very expensive. You can find all sorts of mail order seed places and find a…

Every year I show off the first daffodil to bloom in my garden.  This year, I have to say, my first daffodil is less than impressive.  The cold and wet weather has put a damper on the beauty of this little yellow flower.  So far it’s the only one in bloom that I have seen but I haven’t fully explored…