Our “Guest in the Garden” gets a promotion

WHAT!!!???

Yup, it’s true. Since I started working from home, our “guest in the garden” has gotten a new set of responsibilities, and a promotion. He is no longer a guest. He is now the full-time monitor of the garden, and, more importantly, the office manager.

About an hour into the day he comes in to the office to make sure everything is up to snuff, then returns to his garden monitoring activities (and occasionally a snooze). When I call in for meetings, he hears the speaker phone and comes running to circle around on his office blankie and listen in. And at the end of the day he reminds me not to over-work by prancing and sneezing to ask for his walk.

Sandy’s contributions have been invaluable and he has worked very hard for this promotion. Everyone please congratulate Sandy and welcome him to the team full-time. Please feel free to reach out to him if you have questions about the squirrels, ducks, birds, and bunnies.

Not yet

In true Midwest form, we had the first wave of a spring snow storm come through today. It’s melting a bit, but there’s cold air and more snow on the way. We started the day with a visit from our duck friend.

Now the ground looks very different.

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We’re not totally at gardening spring weather yet.

Time to wake up

Twelve days ago the tulips were the first to pop up out of the ground. They always are. It is an incredibly welcome sight.

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The next day I started to see tiny bits of green in the lawn. Tiny, but unmistakable. Then I saw the one clump of iris we still have was popping up.

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And the pink asian lilies were popping up.

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Then the robins came to take baths. And the first hen (duck) arrived. The next day she came with the drake. Then I noticed that by 5:30 am the cardinals were already singing. And the chickadees were starting to look for the hummingbird water. And the dark-eyed junkos were flocking up. (I suspect they will be leaving soon.) And the sedum were popping up …

Today I absolutely had to have my first serious garden day. Out I went with my gloves on, to trim the sedums I left for the birds this past winter. Then I picked up the large branches that had come off the linden (very normal). I left the smaller pieces for the birds to use for their nests. They do such a nice job of cleaning up! I was cleaning up the debris around the hostas, and then I saw it … the daylilies are starting to come up!!! 10 minutes later I got a text from our son’s girlfriend. Her daylilies are coming up! Now I’m jazzed – lol ☺ Out come the garden pretties (fun decorations) – the spinners, the toads and turtles and hiking and hunting bears. The bird bath. The whole shebang!!! Spring is here!!! The garden is waking up!!!

Just as I was bringing the last item – the bird bath warmer – into the garage, the predicted rain came. Big plops. Yes! I “coffeed” section two of the four areas of the garden today. Perfect timing.

Up in northern Minnesota, not so much, yet. But that’s for another day.

Coffee time begins

Today we hit 50° F. Woohoo! Hello spring!!!

The snow is melting pretty fast. Last week we lost well over a foot within a few days. The sewers and drainage ditches were overwhelmed and the farm fields had so much water in them that they looked like lakes. When the wind got howling it looked like they had mini whitecaps!

Today I can see quite a bit more grass. We still have giant piles of snow from plowing, but where the open spaces were mostly white yesterday morning, this afternoon they are at least 50% grass. The more modest snow piles now resemble a snowy version of the Badlands instead of the Himalayas. 10 days ago we looked like this:

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Soon we will see tulips and sedum starting to pop up. Today it is time for this to start going out on the gardens:

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It is coffee time!

I used to buy sprinkle/pour fertilizer granules and put that on my gardens in the fall. They were “time released” so in the spring I would see them in the soil. For the past few years I have put used coffee grounds down instead. I started because it deters slugs, and I found it also deterred bunnies and did a great job of fertilizing. My plants have gone bonkers since I started doing that. They are very happy!

I start out pretty sparingly – just light sprinkles. Then when the hostas start to come up, I also put grounds lightly around each plant. I rarely have slug issues when I get started on that process early.

If the forecast holds for Saturday, I will also have my first “patio time” of the season. Some people call it “lawn chair therapy”. Either way, it is bliss!

Wait! I also just heard the first motorcycle of the season! Oh yah!!! We Minnesotans are so ready for a new season!

A dog kennel?

We will be super busy this spring and summer building out a simple cabin on the land we bought up north. We need something that will be quick and easy for our year one northern test garden.

We have had a few dogs over the years. Some have been huge – 140 pounds. Sandy (our guest in the garden) is 9 pounds.

We know a bunch about dog kennels and crate structures. So when I was trying to figure out how in the world we were going to keep deer and bunnies and moose all OUT of our test gardens up north, dog kennels came to mind. I know it sounds crazy but I’ve run it by a few folks and they think it might just work. The kennel panels are 6′ high and we can easily line the bottom of the perimeter with chicken wire and even boards dug into the ground. If it works, we could easily add on to the structure in year two. If it doesn’t, we can do something else next year.

What are your thoughts?

Next up: How we plan to plant – Hugelkultur (with two dots over the u that I can’t seem to get to work 😉).

Upcycling, staying uncluttered, and seed starting

This week we received the heirloom seeds we ordered for the first test garden up north.

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Next up is upcycling toilet paper and paper towel rolls for the next month, to be used as biodegradable seedling starter plant pots.

Since the size of our townhome is modest, and I am super into a peaceful, uncluttered home, I am struggling a bit with the amount of stuff that is being staged in our townhome, waiting to go up north, at least two months out. If it has to collect, it needs to stay organized 😉 Hence, the pink craft box. Hopefully things can stay relatively contained until I begin to start the seedlings. Then, unfortunately, I suspect things will be pretty busy looking around here until all those seedlings are safely in the ground.

More to come on how the seedlings will stay safe from the deer, rabbits and moose.

Heirloom Seeds and the Shamrocks

Yesterday I bought heirloom seeds for our test garden up north – pickling plume lettuce, scarlet kale, asparagus, echinacea, zebrina hollyhock (one of my all time favorites), and some more milkweed. I’m getting excited to get started. It feels a bit like old times when I had seed starting trays by our west facing patio door. I suppose I will start the seeds indoors again, but will wait for a month or so. My guess is we won’t plant up there until the end of May or even early June.

Yesterday I also did some “indoor gardening” on the shamrocks and the amaryllis. The shamrocks are the healthiest they have ever looked in March.

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Usually by this time at the end of winter they are very scraggly and I can hardly wait to get get them back outside in April so the birds pluck away all the dried stems in between the live ones and use them for their nests. This year it may be a bit longer.

The amaryllis did not bloom for the second year in a row. I suspect I should follow best practices going forward and put it in a dry dark place for a few months. I am, however, tempted to send it to compost in the spring, along with a leggy succulent. We’ll see.

The Robins Return

Over the past couple days we’ve seen a few more robins in the trees. Today dozens at a time were flying in.

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Tonight we’re having what is supposed to be the last sub-zero night of this long winter (-6°F). I hope they were able to tuck into warm places.

Snow is on the way for the weekend, but the temperatures are slowly warming. Soon we will see kids out wearing shorts on 40°F days! It’s a sure sign we are all ready for the massive mounds of snow to start melting.

Asclepias

Last week I ordered our first 6 deer resistant plants for up north. Asclepias (milkweed) are the plant where monarch larvae mature to become butterflies. Some sources say the monarch population has decreased by 80% in the past 20 yrs, partially due to pesticide overspray that is killing asclepias. They are not to be a cut flower (poisonous) but are very beneficial for the monarch population. They also attract honey bees and hummingbirds use the seed pod floss to line their nests. We’re going to try them as a naturalized plant up north. More to come – bearded iris and coneflowers will be our next purchases.

Beautiful day; more snow on the way

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Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day following an almost aqua colored night due to the upcoming super snow moon. Last night’s sunset, however, told a “not yet” story as clouds rolled in for the 6-10″ of snow we are supposed to get today. It looks like we are headed into our typical March snow pattern, with big snowfalls followed by slowly increasing temperatures. It may not feel like it today, but spring is on the way.

Up north, it may take longer. We hear the snow is waist deep. But Minnesotans are hearty folk 😉 One gentleman told us he and his wife snowshoed out to grill shrimp on the fire. We are dreaming of that day! Maybe next year winter we can do that.