Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Saving seeds and cuttings in the fall is one additional way you can save a few bucks for the next gardening season. In the fall, plants produce their final batch of seeds and the thrifty gardener can take advantage of this! Seeds in general aren’t very expensive. You can find all sorts of mail order seed places and find a…

One of my favorite shrubs is the Japanese dappled willow otherwise known as Salix integra. This was the first plant I experimented with for making cuttings. Maybe it was this shrub that launched my plant propagation obsession. My in-laws planted a few of these ‘Hakuro Nishiki’ dappled willows in their garden several years ago and I began taking cuttings from…

On Saturday I purchased most of the vegetable seeds that we plan on growing for this season. We are dividing seeds with my parents since neither of us need all the seeds this year. The raised beds still need to be assembled but the wood is in the garage just waiting to be used. We also bought some herb and…

Have you ever wondered “How do I separate those tiny seeds from the chaff?” It’s not hard and shouldn’t cost you a dime to remove all those tiny seeds. There are quite a few methods for separating the seeds from the chaff, this is just one possible method you might use. Take a used plastic container form your recycling bin….

Before you really get into producing plants for sale it is very important to come up with a way to get the plants to the customers.  I don’t have a place where costumers could just come by and browse the plants since I do all my production from my own garden.  One day perhaps, but I needed to come up…

The signs of spring are showing themselves all over the garden. It’s not just in the flowers the bees and bugs are all coming out of their winter nesting places to sip on nectar and gain strength for another growing season. Here are a few pictures of the flowers I’ve seen over the week. The daffodils are coming up everywhere….

Fall color is one of the main reasons I garden. If you followed this website for a while you may remember the Fall Color project I hosted where Garden Bloggers from all over posted about their fall color and we shared our autumn experiences. For me few trees have more outstanding fall color than the maple. Red maples and Sugar…

Last year I began what will become an annual tradition of laying out all the garden projects I plan to work on for the year. This way you can get an idea what I’ll be getting myself into even if I don’t! Last year’s list changed as I went through the year and inevitably this one will too. Sometimes projects…

You may have noticed that the daily blogging has slowed down a little bit on weekends. It’s been for a very good reason: The Patio Project. My commenting on other blogs has suffered as well but everything should pick up once the final touches have been made on the backyard remodel. It’s become more than a patio project and really…

I’m starting a new theme for Sundays that will last through winter until Spring time after all the seeds have been planted. Seed Sundays will be all about seeds! Seed planning, plotting, planting, and any other seed related subject that can be thought of and written about. You’re welcome to join in if you wish to talk about your seeds….

I was looking back at photographs of the past year in the garden and found these shots of the front sidewalk garden. When the weather is cold and rainy outside it’s nice to look back sometimes and see how things were where they were in bloom. The sidewalk skirts the garage portion of our house and takes you up to…

Yet again I found myself taking more cuttings of a Japanese dappled willow (Salix integra). Sometimes I just can’t help myself. Or maybe I do help myself? Whatever the case I brought home with us a bunch of willow branches for propagating. They came off of the sides of the mother plant because it had begun impeding the pathway to…

One area that I’m extremely unhappy with in my yard is the front porch garden. To put it simply, it’s a mess! It’s not just the weeds that I haven’t had time to pull it’s the plantings and the way they are arranged. In the front of the beds I’ve planted severla things over the last three years that I’m…

A few years ago I wrote post about propagating rosemary from cuttings placed in water. That method for propagating rosemary is a viable method for sure but you probably will have more success if you take your rosemary cuttings and stick them in soil instead. Recently I posted a video on the YouTube channel that explains both propagation methods for…

Shirley Tulips in Bloom And here’s where you can find Shirley! The Front Sidewalk Garden. This is the third year the tulips have come back in this garden. I’ve heard people complain about tulips not returning but these have been very faithful. The front sidewalk garden is located on the north side of our house and receives little sunlight during…

For my farmer’s market business I grew a lot of tomato plants.  In fact I grew more than I think I can sell over the next couple weeks and after that no one will be looking for plants.  Gardeners will be wanting to harvest their tomatoes instead of planting more.  I planned a few weeks ago that I would take…

Many gardeners take the winter season off from gardening. They work hard from early spring through late far then take a little break but you don’t have to stop growing vegetables in your garden just because the weather has changed. One way to continue growing vegetables in cold weather is to construct a hoop house. A hoop house is simply…

Pepper Seeds The other day someone asked me for some general seed sowing and I realized that I had not yet gone through the whole process from start to finish.  I have some scattered information (pun intended ;)) about seeds and seed starting throughout the blog but a complete guide was lacking, until now!  Beginning with this post I’ll go…