Pawpaw Holler Home

Are you just getting started in gardening?

Here are some resources that might help you out:

Free Garden Plan: Beginner Garden in a Day –great for beginners, easy to follow instructions and diagrams

Beginner Gardening Advice & Free Gardening Ebook –beginning gardening questions answered

The Old Farmer’s Almanac: A Beginner’s Vegetable Garden –the basics

BH&G Beginner Perennial Flower Garden for Full Sun –register for free detailed planting guide which includes layout diagram, plant list plus alternatives and complete instructions.

Related posts:

• Gardening Freebies: Printable Garden Journals, Beginners Preserving Guide And 101 Garden Recipes

Happy gardening,

Denese

Tags: free e-books, garden plans, gardening

Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana)

Spiderwort is another dainty wildflower that can be found in dappled woods, meadows and thickets in most of Eastern North America, from Maine to Minnesota and southward.

Spiderwort grows to a height of 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 feet with blue, purple or white flowers in spring and summer. For it’s height, spiderwort’s flowers are very small –only 1 to 2 inches across. The leaves are long, pointy and folded lengthwise, forming a channel.

Spiderwort is a perennial but also self-seeds abundantly –here in the holler they come up everywhere and they’re very hard to kill (not that I try to!).

These spiderworts grow in almost full shade and the flowers are a darker blue than the ones I have in the sun. I’ve also noticed that the shaded plants don’t have as many stalks as the ones in the sun do.

White spiderwort is rare in the wild -the flowers on this plant are almost white.

Spiderwort may be seen in The Great Smoky Mountains on Ace Gap Trail (Cades Cove/Rich Mountain Rd. area).

Learn More About Spiderwort

USDA Plants Profile: Tradescantia virginiana L. Virginia spiderwort

Native Plant Database: Tradescantia virginiana L. Virginia spiderwort, Spider lily

Plants For A Future Database: Tradescantia virginiana – L. Spiderwort –propagation and cultivation info

Where To Buy Spiderwort

Enchanters Garden

Pase Seeds

Chiltern Seeds –United Kingdom

Blessings,

Denese

Tags: nature, photos, summer, wildflowers

Kentucky was formally admitted as the 15th state on June 1, 1792.

The name comes from “Ken-tah-ten”, an Iroquois Indian word that means “land of tomorrow”.

Known as the Bluegrass State, Kentucky is famous for it’s horse racing, thoroughbred horse farms, bluegrass, coal mines, tobacco farms, and bourbon whiskey.

Jim Bowie, Kit Carson, Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Loretta Lynn and Bill Monroe were all born in Kentucky.

Kentucky’s state flower is goldenrod and it’s state bird is the cardinal.

The capitol of Kentucky is Frankfort.

Learn More About Kentucky

Netstate.com: Kentucky –a ton of information and more links here

Young Kentucky History, 1790-1860  -includes teaching ideas

Kentucky Facts and Trivia –50 interesting tidbits about Kentucky

Biographies of Kentucky’s Governors

Kentucky General Assembly Student’s Pages 

Kentucky Coal and Energy Education Project –expand your knowledge of coal and the coal industry. Includes a teachers section with lesson plans and educational resources.

United States Mint: Kentucky Quarter –links to kid’s page and teacher lesson plans on right sidebar

Free Units And Printables

Easy Fun School: Kentucky -A State Unit Study

About.com Homeschooling: State Unit Study – Kentucky –lots of printables here

Kentucky outline map –scroll down

Kentucky Notebooking Pages

Kentucky & Louisiana Lapbook Components

Kentucky State Bird and Flower coloring page

State of Kentucky Coloring Pages

Free Kentucky Road Map

Happy learning,

Denese

Tags: American history, education freebies, lapbooking, notebooking, The United States, Unit Studies

I have sooo many wildflower photos to share that I’ve decided to post a different one each day –hope you all like them!

Four-leaved Milkweed (Asclepias  quadrifolia)

This dainty little milkweed is found in upland forests, usually on dry, rocky slopes. Their range is from Ontario to Vermont, south to Georgia and west to Oklahoma and Kansas.

It grows 1-2 feet high and rounded clusters of pale-pink blooms appear in late spring to early summer. The leaves are in pairs, except for the middle set, which is whorl of four. The white, downy seeds are contained in 2-3 inch thin, pointy seed pods which form after blooming.

These are beautiful here in the Pawpaw Holler when they bloom and my children enjoy picking the seed pods when they start to open –the seeds float away like little parachutes! I’ll post some pictures of the seed pods later in the year.

Four-leaved milkweed can be found in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Chestnut-tops Trail (across from the “Y” at the Townsend entrance to the park).

More Information

USDA Plants Profile: Asclepias quadrifolia

Connecticut Botanical Society: Four-leaved Milkweed (Asclepias quadrifolia) –more images

Biodiversity of Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Asclepias quadrifolia Jacq., Four-leaf Milkweed

Plants For A Future Database: Asclepias quadrifolia –cultivation and propagation information

Where To Buy Four-leaved Milkweed

Enchanters Garden

Hydroponics Online

Blessings,

Denese

Tags: nature, photos, summer, wildflowers