i just found this site. my name is matt. i moved here in 1994 to work @ amana from IA. grew up with ridiculously large gardens which i did not appreciate at that age but now i like to see stuff grow. we moved again 6/06, still lincoln county & flatter land. i can even dig here. i put in in 14 or 15 shade trees & hope to get more garden in this year along with several shrubs, central a/c, windows & the list seems to go on & on. hope to make it to the plant swap though i don't have much here. maybe i can talk the people who bought our other house into letting me get some things from there. i posted a message about strawberry varieties for this area but i ordered a couple varieties from henry fields (earliglow & eversweet) already.hope those will work out.

Hi, I'm Dani and I live in Millington (just north of Memphis). I've been at GW for a while but I'm usually a lurker. I thought I'd say hi this time, though.

I've been married for about 17years and dh is by go-to-guy for labor but I'm the gardener. lol I like ornamentals and veggies. Although I don't really eat them. I just like growing them and I'll usually give away the ones I don't like. Dh thinks I'm crazy but okra is jus fun to grow, yanno?

Anyway, my biggest gardening challenge is my youngest child. She's such an efficient "deadheader" that she'll even pop the buds off. She's almost 4. Last year was a lesson in patience although I did erect a chicken wire/stake fence around my veggies until they got big enough that she couldn't do much damage.

Glad to meet everyone!

C'mon Dani stop lurking and be a part of the show! We're happy to have all the new folks and to see some of the lurkers are coming out. We would love to see you all come to the Middle Tennessee Plant Swap as well as the Knoxville Plant Swap and the Memphis Plant Swap. Get out an be a part of these fun and exciting events...you'll be glad you did!

We'll it's 10:30 and we have about 2 1/2 inches of snow here at Cheapwood. I've already gone out and helped push a couple of folks up the hill here at Blackman Rd. I have no idea why they thought that they could climb this hill in the snow. People sure are funny.

How's everybody else?

Hi all,

I've been lurking here for quite a while, though I've posted several times at the Home Forum. I've lived in Knoxville most all my life, but as an adult in my own place I've never had a yard or done any gardening. Well, last year Housemate and I bought property in Blaine; we hope to build soon. Eventually, I'm going to have to learn something about gardens and lawn care, and this forum is my most favoritest research site. :-) (I recently posted for the first time to ask for advice about ground cover.)

Most of our property is open, but there's a couple of lines of cedars and/or junipers; we lost one of the older trees in a storm about a week ago, but last night, everything survived!


------------ Trilby

Hi,
I have never attempted to even grow a houseplant. But we moved in December 07 to Tennessee from Texas, and are on a farm. I'm feeling like I should have a vegetable garden, and I know absolutely NOTHING! My 83 yr old mother in law knows what to do so that will be helpful, but I'm afraid she might get too adventurous for me the first time out of the gate.

What I want is a small garden with just a few of each vegetable to see how i do and to learn. It needs to be SUPER EASY stuff. I'm thinking carrots, onions, potatoes, corn, bell peppers, tomatos, based on a garden my mom and dad had in Texas when I was a kid. But does that work here in NorthEast Tennessee????

I'm not sure how many different vegetables I should even try with the first attempt. Also I love fresh herbs so I would like to try Basil indoors. What herbs are easy?

I have a 10 yr old son and I'm hoping this will be fun for him too like it was for me when I was a kid.

Any suggestions are appreciated!
Ronda

Hi Everyone, My name is June and I live with my husband John in Brentwood. We have about an acre and a half that backs up to a farm which we absolutely love! One of our goals this year is to put in another pond. We already have a small koi pond but want to put in a larger one. We have eight grandchildren and a year old doberman who loves being around the kids and people. We moved here about 29 years ago from Marin County,California and have claimed Tennessee as our home. We plant a vegetable garden every spring and some of our favoite plants are hostas, lilacs, and butterfly bushes, plus anything that will attract humming birds. We are often visited by a Red Tail Hawk, a Falcon, and sometimes even a coyote that likes to go after the squirrels and the birds that we feed. We looked forward to more postings on the GW.

All is well here in Smyrna - have had alot of good rain.

My name is Katie & I work from home as a Purchasing Manager for a company that supplies burlap/twine/bamboo and all other related nursery supplies to landscapers/growers/nurseymen all over the US.
Husband, John, works for Nissan for the past 22 years.
I love gardens & rocks - if I keep going - John won't have to mow anything.
Am looking forward to my first plant swap on 5/17.

Hello to all, I have not been on Gardenweb much since last year. I live in upper East Tn. I am getting garden fever and can't wait to be able to work outside.My flowers are coming up already. Hope for a better year . Happy Gardening Patricia

Could have sworn I posted on this right after you put it up.

Hi All!
I am Lani. Hubby and I live in Munford/Atoka. We have been here for 20 years now.Hubby and I started in Memphis (him raised there, me a retired navy brat). We are raising our grandson now along with the plants.lol
I hate to be inside if at all possible. If it grows, I will plant it. We fill the freezer each year with home grown food.

I am looking forward to our first Memphis swap. WooooooooooHoooooooooo! Do come join us.

Hi - I am new here! Just found this wonderful forum.

I am Angelia pronounced Angela from Woodlawn. I have been married to my high school sweetheart for 25 years but if you ask him it's been 30 since we dated for 5 years before we married! Kerry is the other half of me. He is my worker bee and tries hard to keep me busy. We have one monster child, Martin, who will be 20 in June.

I haven't been able to garden for quite a few years due to major health issues including 2 heart attacks last summer but I'm hoping to do some container gardening this year. Hubby is going to build me a green house and I have been busy starting all kinds of goodies. The only things that have survived with the lack of love is my grandmothers daylillys, yellow iris, and bridal wreath. I never knew my grandmother but my mom had these plants and when we bought out land she passed them down to me. They are all majorly over grown and could use lots of work so maybe if I can make the swap I can bring some of them.

As for the tornadoes we lost a few shingles but Kerry's parents home was hit hard. They lost the roof on their home, garage, and camper shed. Their home was moved on the foundation by a good inch, like it was racked. Luckily they were in Florida at the time so no one was hurt or stressed.

It's nice to meet you all! I hope to make the swap in May depending on how I feel :)

Angelia
Wife to Kerry
Mom to Martin

Hi,

I am Deena. I am new to TN from Fl and am excited to get my hands dirty this spring. It is my first planting season here in TN. I am interested mainly in lavender, and some kind of tall growing, dense (year around) privacy hedges for starters this year. Theres an eyesore thats off our property that drives me nuts. My hubby and I also have a teen age daughter and 3 dogs. We love the outdoors and came to TN to experience the beautiful country. So far, we really love it. Florida has just become too crowded, we needed elbow room. I have alot to learn about gardening here in TN though, any suggestions would be great!
Warm regards,
Deena

Newbie here, too. I am originally from FL by way of Kentucky. This is our third year in MT and we are still moving plants around, trying new things, etc. I'm very excited because we are FINALLY planting asparagus! Our compost pile is awesome and we are finally reaping the benefits of all those kitchen scraps!

My life revolves around food and dirt (archaeologist by day, domestic diva by night).

Deena -- I hear you about Florida! I was born and raised on the East Coast, and lived in or visited pretty much every where else. My husband and I couldn't wait to get away. I say that people are loving Florida to death, and if it weren't for A/C no one would live there! :)

One husband, one dog, one cat.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Tanya

Paula here. I moved from Texas to Tennessee, along with hubby Mike and our 5 children, in 1994, right before the big ice storm. We lived near Nashville, but bought a vintage home in Tullahoma last June. Our children are all in college or beyond and last December, my mother Helen moved in with us. Mike and I are both fulltime freelance writers. Momma and I love gardening and Mike helps with the heavy work. I have grown a variety of flowers - mostly roses- for years. Our new/old house has a big flower garden and a lovely spot for a veggie garden. I recently purchased a bunch of herb seeds and am interested in trying those. We're hoping to attend the plant swap in May and meet all of you lovely people.

Hello everyone! I'm Carolyn, my husband and I along with our 3yr and 1yr old daughters moved to Memphis this past summer from Las Vegas. We have loved living in the south! And all this "weather" has been very exciting! We are living in our first home which means our first yard which would mean our first garden! I've never gardened before, but I'm looking forward to this new hobby. We plan to build our raised vegetable garden next week. I almost don't know where to start with all my questions. I have found a wealth of information on the internet... almost overwhelming! So I hope 'ya'll' don't mind my beginner type questions... there might be a lot of them.

Hey Carolyn,

Beginner type questions are great because they give everyone else that's afraid to ask the question a chance to learn! No one on here is an expert on every subject, so we are all collectively learning.

Hi my name is debra, i am a newbie. i have had some seed exchange, but just found the tn roll call. i live outside of knoxville in union county, im single and in the middle of moveing to my first home (purchase) been a long hard struggle but at age 48 i finally will own my own home. the yard is a mess been empty since last july so you can imagine the dead grass and weeds. so ive got a long spring and summer of getting it into shape. got some clay/ slate issues in the back yard so i hope i will find advice on these forums for coverage and plants.nice to meet everyone.
DEBRA

Welcome Angela & Paula we look forward to seeing you at the MTPS!

Deena, Tanya, Carolyn & Debra an excellent way to learn about what we have here is by coming to the Middle Tennessee Plant Swap and meeting all your fellow TN Forum folks!

Hit our webpage at http://www.midtnplantswap.com/index.html and since Brandon dropped the ball :-) ....check out http://knoxplantswap.com/ also!

I haven't been here in many months. I live in Crieve Hall about 3 blocks from Jeff (bigorangevol) but we have never met. I had my first garden last year and I had to water it almost every day so I am just having a few flowers this year. I had tomatoes, squash, onions, carrots, lettuce, spinach and a few other things so I think I went overboard for a first garden.

I was just getting ready to pick up the ball when I noticed Jeff had stolen and ran with it.

Here is a link that might be useful: www.easttnplantswap.com

Another newbie to the forum!

I'm late to the roll-call, but I'm joining in since I intend to use this forum much more often now! I actually registered years ago, then moved and didn't have a place to garden for a long while. But now I'm back and settled into a very lovely old Midtown Memphis stone house with a great front and backyard - both have good potential but have been sadly neglected. I'm living with my man and we've combined households (both prior marriage with kids) so things are chaos right now!

This will be my first spring planting - I moved in in Feb. so I'm rushing it to get ready. I've decided to do bulbs and shrubs for ornamentals out front and am doing some container gardens on the sunny side of the house for vegetables and herbs - much research going on for that!

I very much appreciate the community here and would like to thank all those who so readily lend advice and tips.

-Jules
Midtown Memphis

Vivina it's your fault because I've told you to come by anytime! :-)

If you come over and I'll send you home with some new stuff.
If the white Honda is in the drive then I'm at home; if not then just go up in the back yard and poke around.
If you feel like mowing then feel free because my mower is broken and the riding mower is sitting in the barn with four flat tires.

I'm Candace and I've been in Memphis since Katrina. It's been an interesting transition and I've thrown myself into gardening as a form of therapy I guess. I don't know what that says about my mental health! LOL!
I live in Midtown with my DH and DD. Yesterday, my DH built raised beds around my lasagna piles, now they look official. And my sweet girl helped me transplant radish sprouts and then pulled them up, thinking that since they had been planted in the dirt they must be ready to eat! I am so lucky to have them helping me!
I've had to do some serious soil amending to make a garden out of an old dog run, but now I've got some beautiful beds to show for it. I'll be planting lots of vegetables soon. My next project is to expand the flower beds -lasagna all the way- and really put zing to the front of the house.
I've been reading posts on GW for years because of the great advice, so I finally joined. I only just found the Tennessee forum! Nice to meet ya'll!

Hey folks, just dropping in to say hi. Still holding on here in Madison. The new job I took last year, not to mention all the trauma from my sister's passing from cancer, kept me away from the forums, but I'm hoping this year will shape up to be better. We'll see about the plant swap -- too early to say just yet.

Marianne, still have a Homestead Purple verbena for you -- overwintered in the pot in a sheltered location all winter. I think it's about to bloom. :-)

--April

I live in Shelbyville and am a Master Gardener and am planning on attending my first swap. Have been in the forum for a few years but I haven't managed to get to a swap yet but hopefully this is the year. I have a BS in plant and soil science from MTSU and have my own small but full greenhouse. My passion is orchids and my office is filled with them. I love gardening and have already got plants ready for a wedding anniversary that I am hosting in June. My tomatoes are up as of this week and now I am starting to stress about getting my plants divided and ready for the swap. I am planning on bringing my sister-in law who needs plants for a front bed that is now empty. I can't think of any plants that I need but being a true gardener, I love all of them. My moto is low to no maintenance since my job keeps me busy and I only have weekends to tend beds and the greenhouse. See everyone at the swap and I look forward to meeting a lot of new folks. I am planning on bring some tropicals that need thinning and maybe some perennials. I am looking forward to hearing the lecture because I gave a lecture a few weeks ago about various topics that the group chose and one of them was drought tolerant perennials and I must say my list was limited (just the usual TN standards)so I am hoping to gather more info.
Cindy

hey guys & girls...

It's almost been a full year in my house and boy did I take it hard on the drought. My oak trees went through three different sets of leaves thanks to the hard-freeze followed by the drought and the majority of my lawn has been, consequentially, overrun by weeds.

I did however, manage to get two solid cubic yards worth of compost created over the last season from all of those leaves and various other bits of overgrown rhus aromatica and other forms of weeds out in the back of the property. Now that area is overgrown with clover - which is really exciting becuase clover is a "green manure" in that it thrives in poor soil and actually fixes nitrogen from the air to the soil instead of consuming it so hopefully by next year I can start converting that - once weed & trash infested area into a little secret garden/glen.

Other than that, I've totally given up on my front lawn and I am attempting to completely renovate it starting tomorrow. I'll be renting a tiller for the day and tilling up the clay for at least 6-7 hours while trying to work in several cubic yards of organic material.

Sunday, assuming I can lift my arms high enough, I'll post about the experience, lol...

Hi,
As with many here, we too are new to Tennessee being refugees from Florida... in our case, a lifetime in Miami. My wife & I now have 3ý acres on the south side of Johnson City, much of it densely wooded but with about a half-acre of full sun clay on the northeast side of the house. That's where the raised bed veggie gardens are and the fruit trees will end up.
Looking forward to querying all here for help understanding this new and most exotic domain. Fortunately, we don't need any help at all appreciating it. :-)
...Doug

The wifey is a Miami born & raised native who moved up here back in 2005. I kept trying to convince her that we should move back home but she's not having it. I moved down here from Detroit around the same time - you can say we "met in the middle", so to speak... and in the year I've been down here my blood has thinned out quick.

I went from hating temps over 75(F) to hating temps _UNDER_ 80(F). It's finally starting to warm up and I don't have to wear my normal four layers of clothing (undershirt, dress shirt, hoodie and coat) in the office anymore.

Totally unrelated, I know, but what made you leave Miami? Other than the insurance rates, lol...

---
Random tip: Gypsum typically does not help the type of clay soil that we have here in TN. Gypsum is for "sodic clay" and from what I've gathered, adding it to this stuff is a great way to make concrete. ;-o

Hi! Moved to Hendersonville (north of Nashville) from East Tennessee. It's great that y'all are checking in; we recently went to a marina in Castalian Springs and the damage around there still looks horrendous. God bless them!

I was just sick about having to leave all the lillies, tulips, and irises I planted at my house in the East, so here I try to limit my gardening to orange and white (go Vols!) flowers in the front yard and some herbs and a few tomatoes in a small garden out back.

My stepfather, who lives in Athens, Georgia and I have a competition every year with our tomatoes. He always wins, getting the first ones of the season, since he can start earlier, and getting the bigger ones, because they have a minature goat farm - their secret weapon is the "poo." But I never learn.

Hello. My name is Wayne and the other half is Mildred.
We live in Cross Plains which is just north of Nashville on a farm. We have one daughter who is a tax auditer for the state. The wife and i will be married 53 years in June. I have been retire for 12 years from Dupont. The wife has more flowers than i know how too count. I have a fish pond that i play with. We camp a lot and spend winters in Florida as snow birds. We have never been too a swap but would like too attend. I raise a small garden. Would raise more but it interfers with my camping.

Welcome Wayne & Mildred! Hope you can make the plant swap - plus there is a nice place to camp there also at the Middle Tennessee Plant Swap. I'm sure someone else can tell you more than I, but I've been there once and it is VERY beautiful!
- Katie

Hi I'm new to Tn gardening from minnesota. In the past when I ordered a truck load of topsoil, I received black dirt . Imagine my surprise when I received red dirt almost like clay. Now I am looking for compost to amend this soil as I am building several raised beds to do the square foot gardening concept. I live in Carter county- north east Tn. Thanks in advance for any help.

sudi47,

I feel your pain. Wait until you try to dig to any given depth. When I lived in Detroit I remember being able to dig about 6+ feet without even coming close - if there even was - any form of solid rock. Now that I've moved here I found my property consists of about 6-12 INCHES of compacted red clay on top of solid lithic bedrock. :cries:

Hi All,
My name is Jacquie, and I also am more of a lurker than a participant. I am also a Florida transplant, from the West Coast area.
Bumbling along after 2 years & still planting and keeping my fingers crossed that my trees and bushes will make it. I put Day Lillies and Peonies in last Fall, and lo and behold they came up !!!
I'll be spending lots of time here....when I'm not outside "messing".

I also hope to make the Knoxville swap...sounds like a blast !!!

I just spotted Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth floating in the Ark past our house. We've had 7.5 inches of rain in the past month and 1.5 since yesterday and it looks like we're supposed to get another 1.3 today. It's a good thing that the sun will be making an appearance tomorrow because the ground and surface water situation is pretty well saturated right now.

Emmy in Hendersonville,TN here. I love flowers and DH lets me do what I want as long as he can get a mower around it! I'm so looking forward to 5/17. I've gardened w/ flowers all my life & have a fresh canvas with our new house that needs some of everything. Shade, shady and more shade. I scored some goat poop last spring at the swap at the river and it was like gold! I've started a flat of seeding and plan to do one more and bring daylily divisions as well. I'm even taking off the week after the swap so I can play in the dirt and plant everything I swapped for! See you soon!

Hello Newbie here, both to this website and to gardening.
I am 28 years old with a 4 year old daughter. I live in the Memphis/Cordova Tn area and was told about this website by AtokaDawn.

I purchased my first house a couple years back and decided to try to spruce up the outside a little bit, and in doing so I discovered I totally enjoy gardeing! So far must of my luck has been with bulb flowers. My daughter and I love planting bulbs because its something she can help me with. So far we have planted 4 purple hyacinths last year that came back beautifully this year. The year before we planted two tulips that came again last year, this year the greenery have popped up but no bloom yet. This will be the 3rd year for our hardy lilies that are starting to grown out to. There are some tiny sprouts I saw happening this weekend and I belive those are my gladiolus. Those are such beatiful flowers but they are so heavy I have problems getting them to stand up? Any advice?

I tried to tinker in veggies last summer but to no avail. I remember as a child my grandfather always growing the most juciest tomatoes ever. My daughter eats grape tomatoes like candy. Since my back yard is small i tried starting them in a large flower pot but didn't have any luck.

Look forard to learning more about gardening and getitng to know you guys.

Kim

Kim it sounds like you two need to come to the MTPS!

Thanks for the welcome :o)

Hi! I'm new to the forum but have been lurking on some of the other gardening forums for the last year or so. Hubby and I live in Maryville with our little girl, who will be 6 this month, and our cat. We have about 0.8 acres, recently pasture land. I've been busy putting in daylilies, daffodils, a butterfly garden, small raised veggie beds and tending the roses which were overcrowded and abused by the builder. :- ) Want to put in some trees this year! Would love to hook up with anyone else in the area here, as I have alot to learn!

Newbie here! So excited to start doing seed exchanges and have a lot to trade!

Hey Paperfinch,

Welcome to the Tennessee Forum of Gardenweb. You're about three years late for this particular thread. Why don't you start a new thread and introduce yourself to everyone. Maybe you could tell us where you live (closest city, for instance) and what things you are most interested in.

Many of us also do lots of seed exchanging, but often specialize in certain things. For instance, some participants may grow mostly vegetables, some annual or perennial flowers, and others (like me) more trees and woody plants. Gardenweb has a Seed Exchange Forum that works well for trading for seeds, but we'd still like to get to know you here too.

As you may have seen, each third of Tennessee has their own Plant Swap. These are events that you should really really really try to attend if possible. I'm currently working to get the East Tennessee Plant Swap website at www.easttnplantswap.com up and going for people in east TN. The Middle Tennessee Plant Swap has a site at www.midtnplantswap.com. And, I think the West Tennessee people rely on this forum, currently, for announcements.

Hi, I am Katya and I have been in Johnson City for 10 years now. I actually read through all the postings searching for neighbors... I saw someone from Johnson City, surprise, and someone from Carter County. I wonder how much longer it is going to take for me to find anybody to talk to around here...

Hi Everyone I'm Reecy a garden forum newbie in Maryville TN
I'm a musician and my husband and I love to garden. Primarily veggies and fruit. I'm interested in learning. My newest interest is Figs. I would love to find some fig tree cuttings. I lost my raspberry crop last year, not sure why. I've ordered new plants from Starks today. I'll change locations for good measure. Its a rainly day and I'm reading all my garden mags again.
Happy Gardening to all--Reecy

Reecy,

Are you coming to the East Tennessee Plant Swap? I will likely have figs there (no promises yet though). I recently took cuttings from Brown Turkey, Celeste, and another promising but unregistered cultivar. I have them in pots, and, if things go as normal, should have plants by swap time.

Hi, I'm Tracy and a newbie gardener in Nashville, TN. I'm a medical librarian at Vanderbilt, and looking to get started at growing things and not having them die immediately. ;) Last year I planted my first bit of herbs - loved my lemon verbena! - and looking forward to getting more at the Herb Society of Nashville's plant sale next month. Would love to get advice and support from all the experience here.

I live in Nashville and have a passion for growing cold-hardy palms and subtropicals.

Hi from Ashland City :D I'm pretty new to gardenweb, only been a member for a little while. Very cool to see a Tennessee gardening forum!
I've been gardening for about 7 years now, starting with planters of tomatoes in a windowsill in a tiny apartment to now having a 8 1/2 acre property and enough room to have a real garden! I love houseplants, and fruits and veggies.

Hey,

I'm Matt, a 26 year old delivery guy from Knoxville, who just purchased a 7/10ths acre property in South Knoxville last summer. I've been gardening off and on since I was 6 years old- mostly vegetables -and this year I'm trying to branch out into fruit trees, nut trees, and berry bushes.

I've got a hard time getting over the idea that I should only plant things I can eat, but I do have a soft spot for Hedera helix because of its adaptability, classic feel, and ability to turn a crappy concrete wall into a living structure.

I try very hard to get my fiancee into this with me, but her parents made "garden duty" a chore when she was a child, and she currently derives no pleasure from it.

Hi, I'm Diana - recently moved to the Knoxville area and ready to learn how to garden in Tennessee.

I'll be busy reading your old threads....

Iwpoe,

Please reconsider growing English Ivy! It's an environmentally damaging invasive here in TN. If you must grow it, be sure to keep it cut back so that it doesn't become mature and produce seed. Also, plan on how you'll make sure it doesn't "go wild" when you aren't around to take care of it any longer.