Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Homesteading has seen a resurgence over the last several years which is very cool.  More people are opting to build a strong connection with the land and are moving toward mini-farms and homesteads to raise their families.  Before beginning a homestead future farmers should do one thing: learn to garden!  The garden is one major component of a successful homestead…

I thought I would do something a little different for this Sunday and highlight a couple Garden Blogger posts this week that I thought were either very interesting, had very cool photos, showed me something new, or took me somewhere fantastic! I hope you’ll pay a visit to the bloggers listed below and see what I found to be very…

The shovel, the rake, and the hoe.  Three tools no gardener should be without.  Ever.  They dig, they grade, and the chop the earth.  They cut roots and aid the gardener in tilling when the tiller is kaput.  While they take a little muscle to use they are capable of great deeds, such as Bermuda grass removal! Raised Bed Vegetable…

Today the major player in Bloomsday action is the tulip! Some of these pictures were taken a couple days ago so you can see the blooming process better but all of the flowers you see in this post are currently in bloom.Here is the bed in the front garden. This picture was taken from behind the tulips toward the sidewalk….

Fall has always been one of my favorite times of the year. The fall color was especially nice this year all over Middle TN. For a while I really wondered how great it would be due to the dry conditions we had in the summer and early fall. The rains eventually came and our fall color was spectacular! Today I…

It’s nearly summer which means that it’s time for the daylilies to be showing off their flowers. Daylilies aren’t native plants by any means but they do really well here in Tennessee.  They have very few problems and tend to grow nearly untended!  I’m sure that combining their low maintenance attribute with their beauty is why they have become so…

I got a few more pictures this morning of the Snowy Owl here in Spring Hill, TN from Pete.  The first one can only be described as spectacular with a sunrise in the background.  He also managed to get a  few close-ups!     Related Snowy Owl Posts: A Snowy Owl Story Snowy Owl Visits Spring Hill, TN

How much salvia is enough? I really don’t know the answer but I can tell you that I haven’t reached the salvia threshold yet. The easy answer is when I run out of room, but most likely enough will be reached well before that point. If you have salvia in your gardens you can probably identify with me. It is…

All of us experienced gardeners can tell you, you are going to make mistakes!  It’s inevitable.  No matter how much planning or forethought you put into your garden you WILL make a mistake!  How’s that for thinking positively?  You positively will make a mistake, and you know what?  That’s OK!  We’ve all done it – albeit some more than others…

When pruning shrubs and trees there are certain characteristics you need to look for to determine where to cut, how to cut, when to cut, or even what to cut. It’s like a good mystery movie with the who, what, when, and where! One very important thing to watch out for is crossed branches (this would be a who). Crossed…

Before the first frost of the fall I took a few cuttings of my Persian Shield (Strobinlanthus dyerianus) to hopefully overwinter it as a houseplant. This was the first year for Persian Shield in my garden and I’ve only seen it at one nursery around so I wanted to be sure I had some for next year in the garden….

This morning we awoke to what is our first hard freeze of the season. Here are a few photos of the frost for your chilly enjoyment! Frost on Grass Frost near the garden shed. Frost on the ‘Shasta’ Viburnum. While you can’t see the frost on the Sweet Autumn Clematis I thought the seed heads were worth a look!

Several weeks ago I wrote a post about one of my favorite shrubs, the Japanese Dappled Willow ‘Hakuro Nishiki’ (Salix integra). It’s a fast growing variegated willow that works well as a privacy screen and is hardy in zones 4-9. It’s deciduous so it will be bare over the winter but the new growth in the spring time is fun…

It’s not often that I am so impressed by a nursery that I feel compelled to write about them.  So many nurseries just do things the same way, the established way.  I know it works well but when a nursery steps it up a notch it REALLY works. Growild Nursery in Fairview, Tennessee (7190 Hill Hughes Rd, Fairview, TN 37062) to…

Since Labor Day is the unofficial/official end of summer I guess that means it’s time to start thinking about fall! And what else do you think about with fall?  FALL COLOR!  Which means it’s time for The Home Garden’s annual Fall Color Project! Since 2008 The Fall Color Project has been bringing fall color from Canada, The United States, Germany…

Last week I caught my first glimpse of something I have never seen before, a fox in my backyard.  There was a little doubt in my mind when I saw it.  Was it some sort of dog that resembled a fox or did I really seen one?  I’ve never been fortunate enough to see one in the wild just in…

I love a nice Japanese maple! Who doesn’t? There are Japanese maples  with variegated leaves, ones with deep burgundy colors, others with interesting shaped leaves that are highly dissected and many other kinds. The fall color on a Japanese is almost always guaranteed to be something special.  Their highly ornamental nature makes them very popular trees in the landscape. Last summer I gathered…

Every garden changes and goes through transitions. Some are simply seasonal transitions that will happen every year. We know about these seasonal transitions and are able to adapt and to some extent predict them. Spring changes to summer, summer to fall, fall to winter, and back again to spring. We are prepared for these transitions since we see them each…