Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Ornamental grasses are some of the easiest plants to propagate and they look so good in the garden. Today I potted up seven rooted sections of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum). Four of them were ‘Shenandoah’ which gains a reddish coloring in the leaves in late summer and fall and three were ‘Northwind’ which has a taller and more upright shape. Switchgrasses…

When we purchased the Harbor Freight 6×8 greenhouse back 8 years ago we weren’t sure how long it would last. We spent around $250 on this little backyard greenhouse and based on that I really think it’s done a good job for what it is. It can be assembled in a weekend and you can go ahead and start growing…

My rain garden is well underway and now is the time to plan my next project. I still need to plant the rain garden so it will remain on the list but there are a host of other projects to talk about. This will be the first of two posts. One post is just to list what has been started…

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…

This fall I took a scraggly looking branch off a little burning bush I had. The botanical name is Euonymous alata. These bushes are green during most of the growing season but turn fiery red in the fall before they lose their leaves. It is for this reason that people plant them. Yesterday I checked the cutting’s progress. I wasn’t…

Among the many chores I mentioned in my last post was the toppling of several large trees. There were three trees in that were dead and needed removal. At some point recently one of the branches of the trees fell and speared the ground below to a depth of 6-8 inches. To keep the trees in such a state in…

I’m finding that this year has by far been the most challenging year for the garden. At least so far. It’s not just because of the sweltering heat that is sitting on us like some big ole bear on a circus ball. And it’s not just the complete lack of rain over the last couple week (wait I did feel…

My daughters from 2009 – Ages 2 and 4 My kids are kind of strange.  Of course I know what you’re thinking, all kids are a little weird.  They have their quirks, their unique traits that will eventually turn them in to unique adults. That’s not the kind of weird I’m talking about.  While visiting family over the Christmas season…

Here is an inexpensive little project I’m working on that hopefully will work to hold a tomato plant. This homemade tomato cage is made from the pliable branches of a sycamore tree my neighbor limbed up. I offered to take the branches to dump in a pit in the backyard and mentioned I might use a few of the branches…

This winter has been cold and nothing if not unpredictable. Here in Tennessee we’re experiencing a warm day every now and then followed by extreme cold. Hopefully now that March has arrived and spring is close things will be shaping up very soon. With that in mind I put together a project that will help me to get a jump…

This week is greenhouse week! My wife took the kids to her parent’s house and left me to work on my greenhouse project.  While I have no illusions of getting the project completed I do hope I get a major chunk of the groundwork done so that I can tinker throughout the fall until it’s finished, hopefully just in time…

OK, you might be thinking to yourself that this headline “How to Buy Mums” is about a topic we don’t even need to discuss. Really, how hard can it be? You go to the nursery, pick out a full bushy plant full of blooms. You walk to the check out counter buy it and go home to plant it. If…

We have three children in our household who love to be outdoors.  It’s extremely hard for this gardener to sneak outside without someone tagging along.  That’s a good thing! I’m thrilled that they love to be outside in the open air experiencing what all kids should have the opportunity to experience.  It’s important though that the garden be a safe…

During the wonderful yet wacky weather yesterday I accomplished several chores and started a few others! What do you think this hole is for? It is about ten feet across and five feet wide at its widest. I dug the hole about 18 inches deep at its deepest point and about 12 inches in the upper part, but the digging…

On a cold morning such as this you might be wondering “what can I do in the garden?”  Or you might be wondering “why does he know what I’m wondering?”  Or…maybe not, whatever the case is cold winter days are good for the garden and the gardener.  The garden needs those cold winter days to get enough stratification time for…

The other day I wrote about the value of using echinacea in the garden. As it turns out that it’s not only valuable to us as an ornamental or as a pollen plant for beneficial insects but it also can be a host plant for the Silvery Checkerspot butterfly (Chlosyne nycteis)! This weekend I discovered this mass of tiny black…

Over the weekend I planted an ‘October Glory’ maple tree. I chose this tree as one of my first fall plantings of 2025 for a several reasons. One of those reasons was a little sentimental. You see when my wife and I bought our first home an ‘October Glory’ was the first tree we planted there. We wanted a nice…

After two days of heavy rain fell, a veil of mist rose to met the sun.The sun’s rays beamed through the mist and illuminated the trees still mostly bare from their winter rest. With the sun comes the promise of warm spring days to come. The promise of new life, new growth and new experiences. The excitement of a new…