Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Garden projects and chores are like kudzu, they grow fast and long and sometimes seem insurmountable. They develop a life of their own. Here is part two of my to-do list. This is where I plan and plot over what is next. As I write I can think of quite a few things to add to the list. Like buying…

I hope everyone had a very happy holiday! We just got back in tonight after visiting several family members in various parts of Tennessee. We’re very fortunate to have both sets of parents within easy driving distance so we can visit them both at Christmas. We also spent several days in west Tennessee in Trenton and Union City where some…

It’s not everyday I get to write about something this life changing! You may remember that a while back I made an offer for some land. That piece of land didn’t work out and I was pretty disappointed. Sometimes life has better plans and we just don’t realize it at the time. Recently we found another piece of land for…

This spring on one corner of my house I installed a shade garden. I removed the old $30 builder special privet bush and put an oak leaf hydrangea in its place. I added astilbe, ferns, hostas, heucheras, and heucherellas. We traded at a plant swap for some variegated Soloman’s seal and added annuals like caladiums, coleus, and impatiens. What I…

Much of the time I find myself wandering around the garden with a new plant in hand just trying to find a good home. It usually happens as a result of an impulse buy or a plant swap/present that I wasn’t really counting on getting. Sometimes I see the plant and think “that would look good over there by the…”…

One of the most beautiful trees we have in the Spring is the Red Buckeye, Aesculus pavia. In the fall it produces seed pods which you can gather and plant to grow more red buckeye trees. Last year the squirrels beat me to it but not this year! Here’s a short video of me gathering and planting red buckeye seeds….

You can’t have a greenhouse garden shed without having a place to put the plants can you? I’ve finally gotten far enough along that I can assemble a long plant bench. Since I’ve collected scrap lumber from a variety of projects and people I decided to use that for this first plant bench. As money allows I may upgrade or…

Several weeks ago I told you of a little dappled willow pruning experiment I tried at my in-laws home.  Before I show you the results let me quickly revisit some characteristics of dappled willows and why I like these shrubs. About Dappled Willows: Japanese dappled willows or (Salix integra ‘Nishiki’) are shrub willows that will quickly grow between 10-12 feet…

Today while at my in-law’s house I made a few cuttings from one of their viburnums. I’m not entirely positive about the variety but I believe it is a Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum.  Viburnums are beautiful flowering shrubs in the spring that have very few pest and disease problems. The fall color can be good too so you get a…

Before reading a certain garden blogger’s post I had never heard of a cotton plant with dark foliage (Gossypium herbaceum ‘Nigra’). Then this spring Nancy Ondra of Hayefield emailed me and asked if I would like to try some seeds. Me being the seed collecting addict I am I said of course! She also sent along some seeds for an…

Milkweed Seeds Seed starting is just about to begin in earnest for the year. In some cases the seeds you might want to grow may require some extra steps to germinate best. Annuals tend to do just fine without much pretreatment but often perennials need a period of cold to break dormancy and begin to germinate. This cold period is…

Today I did something I’ve been thinking about for a while, I ordered a new camera! My old camera has been great, it’s an Olympus D-560, but I’ve been thinking that it was about time for an upgrade. I began taking quite a few garden pictures when I started up this blog back in October 2007 and would like to…

Sunday was a bit of a catch-up day. Over the past few weeks I’ve had several chores that needed done in the garden but just haven’t had the time to get them accomplished. I finally made a dent in that to-do list. Here’s what was accomplished: Birdbath garden and pathway Transplanted: Birch, 2 dappled willows, redbud (these do not transplant…

Yesterday I commented on a post on Gardening Gone Wild written by Nan for the Garden Blogger Fall Color Project and said how some people consider the Sassafras to be a junk tree. Inadvertently I may have given the impression that I believe it is. The truth is that while it may not make my top ten tree list I…

Last year I came up with a layout for our vegetable garden that I later decided wasn’t as effective as I hoped. This year I made a better raised bed layout that focused more on the convenience of the gardener and it is working great! The central path makes getting around a breeze and the smaller paths around each bed…

I’m definitely no expert in roses.  Recently I saw this rose blooming at my mother-in-law’s home and was curious as to it’s identity. The insides of the bloom are a creamy yellow color while the outside of the petals are a kind of red-peach color. The rose has a cluster of four flowers which make it most likely a type…

Self Sowing Garden Unfortunately I don’t have any new things to share with you like my title says.  The new things in the garden refers to what new things I would like to accomplish with my garden this year. I’ve been doing a lot of virtual gardening lately; looking at old photos of the garden and I glimpsed a few…

It’s a simple fact of life that you will eventually make a mistake. You don’t know when or how, but sooner or later everyone will make a gardening goof or gaff! Mistakes range from the minor ones like forgetting to water your peace lily during the week (why do I keep repeating this one?) To cutting power lines or waterlines…