Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

But there’s a such thing as too hot! This weekend has been miserably hot. The temperatures have raced each morning to break above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Three days now in a row of triple digit temperatures are doing their best to put an early end to the garden. To make things worse the last rain we had was about a…

Achillea millifolium is one of the easiest perennials to grow. Almost no care, very little maintenance, and bright punches of color make it a very good plant for low-maintenance gardens. In our garden we have 4-5 varieties which unfortunately are mostly unnamed but their colors include red, yellow, white, and pink. The only thing I do to maintain achillea is…

If there is anything that 2020 taught us it’s that we need to expect the unexpected and adapt to the changes. One surprise in 2020 was the increased number of home gardeners. The quarantine and stay at home orders forced people to find home based hobbies and activities like gardening to keep busy. The nice thing about gardening is that…

It’s that time of year when the leftovers of the gardening season go on sale at the nurseries and home improvement centers. The last of the stock plants are ready to go home like misbegotten playthings on the Island of Misfit Toys. For whatever reason these plants remained unsold and can now be found as a bargain for the thrifty…

May is always a great time for the garden. Plants and flowers generally look great this time of year. The weather is beginning to warm but the oncoming heat of summer hasn’t bleached out the beauty of the flowers and foliage. Many things are happening around the garden and here’s a few images from my Tennessee garden at the end…

I posted a new update about the front doors to my greenhouse shed. The work was done back before Christmas. Take a look at the Greenhouse Front Door work if you’re curious!

The truth is I never even considered remodeling our front porch for the Better Homes & Gardens 48 Hour Challenge but if I had considered it I did have some incentive not to. The two front runners in the challenge (Making it Lovely and This Young House) had some nifty ideas that they used in their porch remodels and some…

I finally found some Muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris) to add to the garden. It’s been on my radar for a while and it was even more desired after seeing it in such impressive displays at Frances’ Garden! Yesterday I planted it in our Japanese maple garden next to the Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’ that I had already planted. The miscanthus…

This time of year I spend some time looking back at old photos from the garden. It’s fun to see how stuff looked back when it was growing, when leaves were on the trees, and at the most a cold wind only brought you down into the 80’s on the old thermometer. So if you’re like me and can’t wait…

How Would You like to Win a Free Shed? If you live in the UK you just might be able to! Walton Garden Buildings, a company based in the United Kingdom, is sponsoring a design your own shed contest. The idea is for people to come up with an interesting shed design then send it in to them. They will…

I wanted to say thank you to Barbara Wise for an excellent container gardening presentation this past weekend at the Spring Hill Garden Club Meeting! The slides and photos of the work you do were fantastic and the garden club appreciated seeing the ideas created by a expert in the field of container gardening. It was definitely a perfect start…

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…

It was a pretty good weekend for me. You might even say it rocked! Of course that’s partly a play one words, can you guess why?Maybe I went to a concert.Nope. Once our kids came around exciting rock concerts were out of the picture. Not that I really mind I never was much for partying.Maybe I went rock climbing?Nope. I…

Irises! when you think of springtime, do you think of irises? Of course I’m sure you think of all kinds of flowering plants, bulbs, and trees but irises are distinct. They offer a variety of colors, of shapes, and sizes to decorate the spring garden. The irises in my garden have recently begun to color our gardens with their displays…

Middle Tennessee and much of the south is expected to receive a freeze tonight.  We all know how damaging a freeze could be and we have no to look no further back than 2007 to see the results.  That year many gardeners lost trees like Japanese maples and crape myrtles due to the flow of sap in the trunks freezing…

Another unforeseen issue has arisen in my garden: blister beetles!  These voracious beetles are systematically devouring the foliage of our plants.  So far they’ve taken turns tasting our tomatoes, tomatillos, and even a clematis.  I’m not heartbroken over the clematis as it’s a sweet autumn clematis that grows like a weed – it will come back.  But I do want…

I was able to get outside this afternoon and do a little potting with some cuttings that had rooted. It’s a constant process right now since as soon as one batch gets rooted I start some more. You never know if you will have enough! Sometimes you give away the plants to friends and family, other times the little plants…

Last year I told you about the Japanese maples that grew naturally from underneath a tree at my parent’s house. I over wintered young trees in my garden shed (see the April Video update) and have been taking care of them here in our garden. The other day I transferred the Japanese maple seedlings from the shed because it was…