A gentle breeze, a nearly perfect temperature. I’ve been sitting on my patio long enough that the birds pay no attention to me and go about their business. The sun is casting long shadows across the lawn, but we still have close to an hour of daylight left. It is as perfect an evening as we’ve had so far this season. This is the place to be.I can look across the garden and see that there is much I could tend to. Daisies to dead-head, some weeds to pull, nearby a stack of mulch that should be put … [Read more...] about An Evening in The Garden

When I go out and buy plants for containers, I have an idea of what I want to get, but no set list. I generally just pick out what I like, bring it all home and hope that I have a good combination of tall plants, medium sized plants and trailers to fill up the my pots and hanging baskets.This year, I picked up a couple of pots of the petunia pictured here, and the more I see it growing, the more I like it! The variety is "Merlin Blue Morn" and upon closer inspection of the label, I find that it … [Read more...] about No set lists, buy what you like!

I spent the evening weeding the vegetable garden and then giving it a good soaking. I am pleased to report that after more than 24 hours of being uncovered, the corn and beans are still there, and there appear to be no signs that the rabbits have found them. Or if they have found them, they aren’t eating them.While heading out to the garden I noticed a lot of feathers under the locust tree. At least one bird has been in a fight. I don’t know if it was with a neighbor’s cat, another bird or … [Read more...] about When I’m Not Looking…

I uncovered my beans and corn today and said a little prayer that the rabbits would leave them alone or at the very least, if they do eat some of my crops, they will leave enough for me to get a decent harvest, so I have something to show for my time and effort.Growing under the garden cloth, along with my beans and corn, is that darn weed purslane. Do rabbits bother to it eat? I don’t think so! It is the bane of my vegetable gardening experience and a source of constant annoyance and … [Read more...] about “Pusley”

I have a large flat topped foundation stone under one of my trees. It’s from “the old homeplace”, which is where the ancestors of my paternal grandfather first lived in southern Indiana. This stone was once part of the foundation for their house. I got it from one of my uncles who used these foundation stones in his landscape, and graciously gave me one to have in my garden.When we were kids and visited the family farm, it was a big deal to walk across the fields to the actual “old homeplace", … [Read more...] about Foundation Stone

This is a picture of my fruitless sweet gum tree.I bought this tree 8 or 9 years ago at a local nursery/garden center, primarily because it was labeled as a "fruitless sweet gum". I thought, what could be better than that!? The sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) is a great tree, if you ignore the fact that it has all these seed balls that eventually end up on the ground. So, if this variety was fruitless, it would be an almost perfect tree, right?But look closely, and you will see that the tree … [Read more...] about Nursery vs. Big Box Retail