Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

I’m a sucker for cheap perennials – annuals too for that matter. If I go to a nursery I look first at the shrubs and trees just to look – to see what they have. Then I hang out and hover over the perennials, herbs, and even the annuals. I gravitate to the cheap prices marked on perennials and annuals…

Here is Part 5 of Growing The Home Garden’s series of tips on how to garden on a budget. One of the best fertilizers has to be compost. It’s cheap, easy to create, and makes plants grow like crazy. With compost you can replace most of your fertilizer use! Now why don’t more people do it? Maybe because they believe…

I have always loved maples. When I was a kid I’d climb the maples at my grandfather’s house in Pennsylvania and watch them as they changed colors in the fall. The fall brilliance of a maple is something to be cherished and remembered. It is one of the greatest fall trees and Kim over in Maryland has two wonderful blazing…

One of the projects I’ve been cultivating this year is my self-sowing garden. Part of the motivation for this garden is due to its location. Nearby is a gas utility line and I didn’t want to plant anything here that I would feel bad about removing should the need arise, but I still wanted plants that looked great. Nearly every…

Here’s just a quick post to say Merry Christmas to everyone out there! I may not have a chance to post over the next week so I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday with lots of food, family, and fun! Hold true to the spirit of the holiday and it’s true meaning and you will have a very…

Several years ago I built a patio using paving stones. I intended to complete the patio by adding a sidewalk that would bring the paved surface area all the way around to the garage and driveway. This weekend I finally made major progress on this neglected project. Making a paving stone patio, sidewalk, or pathway is not an easy task….

Gardeners experience many challenges when starting gardens. One frequent challenge is usually how to get good germination in your seeds. Achieving good seed germination isn’t a difficult task if you consider one very important aspect of growing seeds: moisture. The secret to good seed germination any garden is to keep the moisture levels consistent. Once a seedling is planted the…

Last week I received the seeds I orders from two different companies. I was very impressed with the delivery time from both Wildseed Farms and Baker’s Creek Heirloom Seeds. I made my order from Baker’s Creek last Monday and received all the seeds I ordered plus a bonus packet by Wednesday! That was very fast service. The crazy thing to…

Here’s just a look at some foliage and flowers. The foliage is of an Euonymous fortunei ‘Emerald Gaiety’. The purplish tulip goes well with the bright green colors provided by the new leaves. I’ll be adding more color for tomorrow’s Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day!

Several years ago we began to create a garden along the fence at my parents home.  As you can see in the first two pictures there was very little there. A birch tree was planted along the fence to eventually create some shade. On the right are two apple trees that died and were removed since this picture was taken….

The tomatoes are doing great! They have a strong healthy start in our seed starting area. I planted them a week and a half  ago and many of the seedlings are now getting their true leaves.  As the roots start to emerge from the peat pellets I’ll transplant them deeply into individual pots.  Deep planting is the best way to…

I invited native plant expert and advocate Benjamin Vogt to write a guest post on attracting bees to the garden with native plants. I hope you enjoy it! -Dave This morning, once the sun hit the main garden, I took my video camera outside. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do, recording the most active part of the day in…

I’ve been a fan of oak leaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia) for a long time. The large oak shaped leaves and white flowering panicles are two of its best traits but in the fall its color changes are very nice too. The leaves change through a range of colors from the year round greens to the autumn golds and reds. Our…

We made our official announcement this morning about building an arbor for the 48-hour Blog Challenge. An arbor has been in my mind to start the side corridor pathway to our backyard.  Now we could go out and purchase the arbor and stick it up fairly easily but that wasn’t in our plan. We had to go and make the project more…

Yesterday we were finally the recipients of rainfall. It’s funny when you think about our weather situation. At the beginning of May we had way too much rain with some areas of Tennessee receiving 16-18 inches of rain and now we are just hoping for enough rain to wet the ground for a temporary reprieve from carrying out the hoses….

Gladiola Flowers The beginning of June is quite capable of leaving us mesmerized by all the flowers that appear. There’s no shortage of blooms for pollinators or for the gardener to gawk at!  So today I’m going to share with you a bunch of blooms.  And I mean a bunch!  I probably took too many photos for this post but…

We had another harvest of tomatoes this week! We’ve been loving the sheer volume of tomatoes this summer and are sadly lamenting the end of the harvest that will be coming soon. The weather is still warm enough for the tomatoes to produce and there will probably be another crop before the frosts but the end is near! Most of…

Fall colors are certainly on their way. Here in Tennessee the trees are beginning the process but many people are worried that the colors will not be what they could be without the rain. Whatever the case we will be happy with whatever colors we do have and will enjoy watching all the colors around the continent as the color…