Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Several years before we had a house with a little land we had to garden on our back porch. Friends and people I worked with thought we were crazy but it really makes a lot of sense. For small spaces gardening in pots is an excellent way to garden. Many vegetables come in varieties that are perfect for pots due…

Next week I’ll be starting my seed sowing and I wanted to invite all other bloggers to join in to share their experiences. Each Saturday we’ll post about what we’ve done with our seeds, what we’ve selected, what we’ve planted, and how it’s doing. From sowing to growing it’s all fair-game! What can we talk about? seed selection how you…

Among many garden chores that come in spring perhaps the biggest is the trimming of the ornamental grasses. Trimming back perennials can be time consuming but the ornamental grasses can be a bear. It’s not the tiny little hair-like strands of the Nassella tenuissima (Ponytail grass), or the tall and narrow ‘Karl Foerster’ Feather Reed Grasses. The panicums aren’t a…

It’s no secret that we like sedums around here. In fact we even have one garden area completely devoted to housing the sedums. It rests between a sidewalk and the driveway where the summer sun unmercifully beats down upon anyone unlucky enough to be planted there. It just so happens that succulents like sedums are perfect for these problem spots!…

When most people, including myself, think of hostas they imagine a beautiful dark green to light green foliage plant with variegation. It’s too bad that the flowers are often taken for granted since they really are quite showy! The show starts with this little pineapple-like bud. The tightly bound buds eventually open to reveal a flower with six petals that…

Among many potential plants a gardener should consider in the garden are ground covers. Groundcovers allow you to fill in areas of the garden for a lush seemless scene. One such groundcover that is very low maintenance is liriope and in this post I’m specifically talking about Liriope muscari ‘Variegata’.  There are other varieties of liriope that aren’t as attractive…

The moment I found out what that particularly green feathery weed in my yard was, it was war! RAGWEED! It was everywhere in our yard. The front, the back, the sides, underneath hollies in all the garden beds, and pretty much everywhere else you looked it was there. Like an alien entity overlooking our planet while planning its method of…

In my last post I told you how to begin planning for an edible landscape and how to determine what to grow. Today let’s examine what elements you need to incorporate into the plan.  With an edible landscape we need to focus on one thing: sustainability.  Sustainability is a word used a lot these days and for our gardening goals…

Just what you want right?  Even more things to do in the garden.  I’m sure you have everything perfect.  Everything is mulched to 2 inches high.  Every weed is pulled and the gardens are in pristine condition!  Not our garden, not even close! An extra long weekend is ahead which (unless you’ve been deluged with rain from Isaac) will give…

I’m a couple days late on my entry for the GROW project so here it is!  The Italian Cameo basil is still going strong and is beginning to flower.  It’s done well in a soil mix that I think is probably too compacted.  I didn’t get a picture of it but it really doesn’t look much different than it did…

I know, it’s early to start seed but I have a plan and just couldn’t resist. Inside of a walk-in closet I put up a grow light and suspended it about 12-14 inches above the seed starting spot. The lights are 48″ fluorescent shop lights that I used last year to start my seedlings. I even made a little light…

Recently a representative of Hartley Botanic asked if I would be interested in hosting a guest post. Since I knew of the beautiful designs for the Hartley collection of greenhouses I suggested she put together a post about how to choose a greenhouse. And here it is! Choosing the right greenhouse You would think that a greenhouse is an easy…

It’s a little hard to see the changes that have happened over the last two years but I was looking through the pictures back in 2008 and was amazed on how much has changed. A maple tree in the back is twice as large now, the vegetable garden has been redesigned and now has plants around the outside of it,…

OK gardeners and garden bloggers I need your help. Years ago I bought our first video camera to help film the antics of our children.  I bought it just before our oldest was born and many things have changed over the years. Essentially technology has made my old mini tape video camera obsolete. I can’t even hook it up to…

Here is a collection of vegetable gardening posts that I’ve written over the last few years. Some are gardening designs and others are more general but in either case hopefully they will be of some use to you! Garden Layouts and Designs The garden layouts and designs section contains a group of posts about designing a raised bed vegetable garden. …

Salvia is a excellent plant to put in a garden. They are drought tolerant (which is important in Tennessee) and look great. They also come in many colors including red, pink, white, orange, blue, and purple. Depending on where you live and the variety you choose it may be a perennial or an annual. According to the website Floridata, there…

‘Autumn Joy’ Sedum seed heads persist through winter. This time of year the flowers are mostly faded and few things have retained enough foliage to be markedly interesting.  But those faded flowers have left something behind – seeds!  Seeds can do a few of very cool things: They sustain the plant species for the coming year as new plants are…

Moss: Nature’s Carpet Edit: Here’s just a short note to mention that I finally managed a little more work on the greenhouse! If you go to the post you’ll see the beginning of a green roof overhang for the front door.