Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Snow is falling in the northern parts of our country as we are experiencing record 75 degree temperatures in Middle Tennessee in December! The forecast goes down from here with even a possibility of snow in the future for the weekend. Strange weather! Mid 50’s would not be surprising for this time of year but mid 70’s? I guess it’s…

Is it cold enough for you yet? Too cold if you ask me! Temperatures are not destined to be above freezing in the foreseeable future here in TN. I’m intentionally laying low indoors due to those low temperatures but others are not so lucky. The birds are fluffing their feathers out as much as they possibly can in an effort…

While this won’t happen every Friday (I don’t have enough sponsors) I do have something that some readers and bloggers may want to try in their own homes or gardens. If you remember a month or so back I tested some products from a company called EcoSMART. The specialize in making insect repellents, organic bug killers, and other products that…

Today I did something I’ve been thinking about for a while, I ordered a new camera! My old camera has been great, it’s an Olympus D-560, but I’ve been thinking that it was about time for an upgrade. I began taking quite a few garden pictures when I started up this blog back in October 2007 and would like to…

Moss in the garden is a curious thing. Some people can’t stand it in their yards. They view it as a blemish in their finely manicured landscape where they think there should be grass. I think differently. Why replace the moss with anything else? It’s green year round, it grows in a trouble spot, and it prevents erosion.Moss thrives where…

As I mentioned in a previous post about fall vegetable gardening we’re in the window of opportunity for getting those fall veggies going. All those cool season vegetables you planted for spring are eligible for a second go round in the garden. In our garden the radishes are rising, the sugar snap peas are sown, and everything else is will…

OK, here’s your chance!  Your weekend assignment is to come up with a garden/landscape plan that would fit a roughly 6′ by 10′ area that incorporates as many elements of the winter garden as you wish.  There are no rules or guidelines to follow, just do something that you think will look great and show it off!  Do your best…

Here you can find links to my posts about building a rain garden.The First Step to RecoveryDigging the Rain GardenWorking on the Rain GardenThe Rain Garden is Almost DonePlanting the Rain Garden(still to come)

Self Sowing Garden Unfortunately I don’t have any new things to share with you like my title says.  The new things in the garden refers to what new things I would like to accomplish with my garden this year. I’ve been doing a lot of virtual gardening lately; looking at old photos of the garden and I glimpsed a few…

Here’s another question for another Sunday! What are the best ornamental grasses in your garden? Ornamental grasses are great plants to use whether as a background or as a feature plant. There are all kinds of ornamental grasses to choose from; some are native and some exotic. In our garden we only have two varieties but I hope to add…

This time of year the native honeysuckle growing on my arbor is one of the showiest flowers around. Tons of flowers are covering the controllable version of lonicera. The native honeysuckle goes by the name of Lonicera sempervirens and not Lonicera japonica. I have the exotic foreigner too but it came with the garden! And it’s been ignoring my eviction…

Several years ago I started a little nursery business where I sold plants at a local farmer’s market. It was a fun garden side hustle but ultimately I closed it down and shifted to a different business as our family needs changed. My dream has always been (and still is really) to have my own nursery. Every now and then…

Every year I put out a list of my intended gardening projects that I personally want to accomplish this year.  Then back at the end of the year I review them to see how I’ve done.  This year is a little tricky.  I have quite a few projects leftover from last year that I still want to accomplish in my…

Maybe you’ve heard of this already or maybe you’ve seen it in the stores yourself but Triscuit is promoting the “home farming” movement. It’s an interesting idea that backyard gardeners have been doing for many many years. Simply put home farming is growing your own food in the home garden. While gardening may be an all inclusive term to describe…

Have you ever wondered “How in the world do I keep the squirrels from emptying out our birdfeeders?” It’s a common problem that so many of us have while trying to feed our fine feathered friends. We spend all kinds of money adding seed to the feeders to feed the birds only to have it thrown all around on the…

Cilantro is one of those plants that you either like to eat or don’t. Fortunately I’m a fan, especially when it’s in guacamole, but even if you don’t like to eat it cilantro sure looks good when in bloom! I let my cilantro go to seed each year so that I can collect the seeds and plant it again. I…

The other day I wrote about crop rotation, it’s importance, and it’s benefit in the garden so today I thought we’d begin looking at the individual families of vegetables and how they fit into the grand scheme of things. Since it is probably the most popular family, because of one of its members (the tomato), we’ll start discussing the nightshade…

Our House Under Construction Welcome 2023! This year is shaping up to be one of our most exciting years as a family and for myself as a gardener. Our house construction is underway and that has opened up quite a few potential projects. One of the things I’ve always enjoyed doing instead of New Year resolutions is to create a…