Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Everyone starts somewhere with a vegetable garden.  You can’t instantly have the garden of your dreams. That dream garden has to come together bit by bit, a little each day.  That goes for experienced gardeners as well as those just starting their first vegetable garden.  It’s just the nature of gardening.  You don’t receive instant gratification but each day you…

OK, I wouldn’t have titled the article with Pimp My Yard (I’m really not cool enough to do that) but there’s a very good article on Slate about garden coaching as an emerging horticultural profession.  Garden coaches offer guidance for do-it-yourselfers who want to learn how to garden better.  For more information beyond the Slate article go check out Susan…

…digging the rain garden. I looked back at the January 12, 2008 post to see what I wrote about one year ago. During that week I was heavily entrenched (forgive the pun) in digging the rain garden. Today I’m very pleased with how well it functions. This January we’ve had at least 3 inches of rain so far, possibly more,…

Happy Halloween! Here’s our pumpkin and our little girl dressed as Tigger!

I’m always trying to start something new, usually I bite off more than I can chew but in this case I’m taking our back ornamental garden at a casual pace. In other words I’m not pushing myself to get it done but just doing what I can when I can.  It fits a general long range goal I have at…

This weekend I found myself in the shed working on some shelving and countertops for the reclaimed cabinets I picked up from the dump (yes I’m that cheap!)   I’ll talk more on the garden shed later in the week but for now I thought I’d show you a little of what is going on in the garden. Things are winding…

I’m starting a new theme for Sundays that will last through winter until Spring time after all the seeds have been planted. Seed Sundays will be all about seeds! Seed planning, plotting, planting, and any other seed related subject that can be thought of and written about. You’re welcome to join in if you wish to talk about your seeds….

Sometimes we trap ourselves into thinking one notion and stereotype things accordingly. We tend to think of fall color as a time of changing leaves, which it is, but often we leave out the perennials and shrubbery that provide us with color throughout the fall. Asters, fall crocus, and eupatorium seed heads grant us readers a different perspective from the…

Last January I came up with 9 garden projects that I wanted to accomplish. As is my tradition over the last several years it’s time to review and see what I actually achieved! The block areas are from my 2010 project list and the bullets are what was accomplished. 1) First and foremost I need to finish the greenhouse. I’m…

As always I’m excited to get new plants through plant propagation and I’m pretty excited to add 5 new dwarf arborvitae to the collection!  I bought the ‘Little Giant’ arborvitae (Thuja occindentalis) last fall on the discount rack and planted two of them in the birdbath garden on either side of the pathway to the bench spot.  The idea was…

My daughter and I went out to play today in the 70+ degree temperatures. Our goal was to take advantage of the last gasp of warm weather before old man winter came for his annual visit. Almost immediately my daughter darted to the sandbox. We removed the covers from the sandbox to reveal an assortment of toys half buried in…

It’s time for October’s Garden Questions of the month! These are questions people have asked the search engines and found The Home Garden and hopefully they have also found the answers.  Q. Can you prune silver mound in the fall? A. It’s better to wait until spring. The foliage that remains above the plant will help protect it over the…

It’s that time of year where the tomatoes are coming in faster than I can pick them. That’s a good thing but I wonder sometimes if I’m in over my head trying to find ways to use all these tomatoes. I planted over 20 tomato plants this year which may have been too many but I couldn’t resist. There are…

I haven’t made it out into the garden much lately other than to gather the occasional item for the kitchen but I did manage to grab the camera and head into the yard this afternoon for a few minutes. Here’s a little of what I found! This is a ‘Golden Globe’ arborvitae.  It has a nice rounded habit with golden…

There are probably a million things I could think of that need done around the yard and in our various gardens but here are a few that are bouncing around in my head at the moment. I’ve been distracted with the deer the last couple days and several things that need done haven’t been tackled yet.Dave’s Fall Garden To-Do ListBuild…

Flowering of the Purple Homestead Verbena If you haven’t tried growing ‘Purple Homestead’ Verbena in your home garden you really should! I’ve used this purple flowering perennial in three places so far and can think of many more locations I would like to see them. ‘Purple Homestead’ has found homes in our landscape in the mailbox garden, our front garden,…

A couple years ago I bought a fantastic native plant at a local native plant nursery. It was a red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) and is great for attracting everyone’s favorite tiny garden visitor, the hummingbird. The flower clusters are red (you probably expected that from the name: red buckeye), tubular, and bloom in early spring. Red buckeye trees grow best…

One of the tasks I accomplished last week on the greenhouse garden shed was to complete most of the siding on the backside. It was a complicated task due to many little cuts and some creative problem solving that was involved. One of the issues was with the “secret door.” I wanted the backdoor where my mower will enter the…