Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Nandina domestica, otherwise known as ‘Heavenly Bamboo’, can be an interesting plant to put in your landscape but you may want to think twice before doing so. I’ll explain why in a minute but first let me tell you why so many people like it. It retains its leaves year round, it has bright red berries that are fantastic for…

Here’s a quick look at the backyard from our side yard area. Of course the ugly but necessary heat/AC unit sits on the right so please ignore that now that I’ve pointed it out and drawn your attention to it. 😉  On the left is a rain garden with a river birch and ornamental grasses. Caryopteris will form a blue…

All this rain has put me behind on planting in the garden. The tomatoes and peppers are doing good but there is more to the garden than tomatoes and peppers! Hopefully this week I’ll get a chance to accomplish a few of these things: Plant my succession crops of beans, corn, squash and zucchini. Build a better trellis for my…

The other day I went out to the garden and picked one of the best cantaloupes we’ve ever eaten. The taste of a store bought melon can never beat that of one that is homegrown!Cantaloupes are actually muskmelons (Cucumis melo ‘reticulatus’) that are given the name cantaloupe to sound more palatable. Musk just refers to the smell but if you…

Last year we designed, built, and grew our first vegetable garden in our new home. The garden was made of two large beds that were subdivided into 3 smaller conjoined beds in an “L” shape. Unfortunately the vegetable garden layout we designed was built more around aesthetics than around function. Since then I’ve realized something: When designing vegetable gardens think…

With every project comes some challenges. The biggest challenge for our backyard remodel and patio project was what to do with the septic line area since one of the most important things to remember with any major project is to avoid the utilities as best as you can. Unfortunately in our case the builder of our home did not put…

Corner Trim on Garden ShedEvery day that I get a few minutes to work on the garden shed I get a little closer to finished. Of course I’m still not close enough for my tastes but I’ll keep plugging away at it and eventually it will get completed. A couple weeks ago I managed to add the trim to the…

Here’s just a quick post to share a few photos! Enjoy the red mums of fall!   From bud… To blossoming… …to flower! Don’t forget to join in the 2011 Fall Color Project when your fall colors are at their peak!

Arrowwood viburnum (Viburnum dentatum) is one of my favorite shrubs (among too many to list) for good reason! It’s easy to grow, it’s dark glossy leaves change to various colors in red hues during the fall, and it provides nourishment in the form of berries for our local avian population. This variety is called ‘Morton’, a ‘Northern Burgundy®’ viburnum which…

March is a awesome month here in Middle Tennessee for gardeners. Zone 7, this is the time to shift from planning to actually getting in the garden. I’ve been out in my front garden tackling some essential chores to ensure a productive and beautiful growing season. If you are looking to get your hands dirty this weekend, here are the…

This weekend I partially accomplished one of the major garden chores of the fall The Fall Vegetable Garden Cleanup! There’s a second section of the vegetable garden that needs cleaned up still but I really wanted to leave the tomatoes alone for now so that maybe, just maybe they could ripen up a few more before the end of the…

Things are going well with the vegetable garden remodel even though the pictures may not fully illustrate it (see the layout to get an idea as to what it will look like). Right now it looks kind of like a war zone complete with with bunkers, foxholes, and fencing but soon it will come together.  You have to start somewhere! …

If you’re looking for a plant that provides fall color in the form of berries as well as late season nourishment for the birds than look no further than the beautyberry (Callicarpa). Our beautyberry that we purchased in the spring is turning a deep purple that will last into the winter. While it may never be listed as the birds…

Planting time is here, but before you plant there are a few things you should do to prepare your garden beds.  Here are a few things you should do to get the soil prepared before planting out your garden. Weed – This one is pretty obvious but it has to be done!  Weeding the garden removes competition for valuable nutrients,…

I mostly use raised beds for my vegetables but the truth is almost any plant can do great in a raised bed. Herbs, flowers, and ornamentals can all thrive in raised beds.  What makes a raised bed an awesome growing method is the soil that it uses.  You can mix the perfect soil mixture for any plant you want to…

In one of my last posts I mentioned receiving my free Arbor Day trees. Those trees have now been planted. While planting them I was pleasantly surprised by a couple things.1. The trees were marked very clearly with the color coding system. It was not just a thin little line above the roots indicating which tree they were, but rather…

Yesterday I traveled up to the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens to listen to Tina from In the Garden. She was doing a talk on Winter Gardening and all that it entails so we thought it would be a great opportunity for us to visit with her and check out the gardens while we were there. We also visited with Gail from…

This year I decided to make a salad, or rather a salad green bed! This is one of the 3’x4′ beds in our raised bed vegetable garden. I decided to section it off into four smaller squares rather than plant in rows. I prefer to sprinkle the seed for lettuce and spinach instead of placing each seed (I think it…