A Tale of Three Gardens

There is something about an early morning walk in the garden that stirs the soul, makes the mind relax, evokes thankfulness. Wait, define garden.

Sunday morning, after having been up to the land that is now designated “camping”, I thought, “Why do I enjoy an early morning walk there, but not through our extended neighborhood in town?” I used to. So off I went, sans dog who declined the opportunity.

Once I got going, I decided to take an old route. That route is a tad bittersweet. It is past an area that used to be a beautiful long garden on an edge of one of the park areas. The original homeowner who was adjacent to the park area had petitioned the city to plant a beautiful garden there and invested quite a bit of time and energy. It was a delight to many, and I was one. When the original owner of that beautiful garden moved, the new homeowner did not have the same love for gardening. It began to return to a wilder look. For a while I spent time on the weekends trying to maintain it. In the end, although my mind wanted to save it, my body could not. Working away from the home during the weekdays, and having other weekend responsibilities, it was just too big of a project. I took time to heal my body after pushing it way too hard, nature marched on, and eventually I altered my walking path to avoid that garden. I remembered its prior beauty and had a hard time watching it return to wild. That was quite a few years ago.

This morning I decided to walk by that area. It has returned to it’s natural state. It is a different look. Not bad, just different. Whatever thrives, dominates. And the weeds and lilac bushes won.

Enter garden one – on our “camping” land. It is many years past my experience with the park garden. My perception has changed because my personal gardening experiences have broadened. Evidenced by tens of thousands of ferns that thrive and dominate the “camping” land, there is not much chance of keeping a cultivated garden without daily care. Goodness knows I tried! But I have made peace with that. We cut the living area back in May – September so I don’t (hopefully) get a tick born illness (again) and we enjoy the natural state. We bought it in a natural state, I tried to tame a small portion to exercise my hobby, and I lost. That trial.

Enter garden two – Back to the townhouse neighborhood. “Goodness!”, I thought on my Sunday morning walk, “Our lawns, our trees are looking mature this year.” Two weeks ago many of the trees were still budding. The cherry trees were blooming and a delightful treat. Now they are wrapping up and the maples and lindens are starting to shine. I cannot claim working on those. They are the work of hired professionals on behalf of the association. But I enjoy them immensely. A different kind of enjoyment than the “camping” land.

The gardens at our townhouse are also thriving. The hostas, daylilies and sedum are my daily effort, and are continuously cultivated. The large amount of rain we had this week, along with warm temperatures for a few days in a row made the garden flourish. Literally things tripled in a matter of a week. Including the carpet of maple seedlings, which I will also “cultivate” – right into compost.

It’s all good.

I would like to move more of the townhouse garden to garden three but … we have deer … bedding in the back yard … at the tiny little house we plan to retire to … some time … to be determined. Maybe it’s good that they don’t seem to like a little area where I hid a Rainforest Sunrise hosta? It is 9′ x 7′ there. Is that nature’s way of reining in my gardening endeavors for the future? Out front of that little house I lovingly planted sedum this spring. Morning one after planting, I looked outside to see if the deer had feasted overnight. “Success!” I tentatively claimed. Morning two? Yah. Not “Success!” And the same with the five daylilies we planted there. They will all have to move to the 9′ x 7′ area.

So that is the tale of my three “gardens”. I’m learning with each new experience. One could say I’m actually down to two gardens now. Except for the iris and daffodils that are naturalizing at the “camping” land, the rest remains wild.

I wonder sometimes – when we move to the little house, will the daily maintained gardens at the townhouse remain in a tended state? I hope they will. Time will tell. Time a little ways out yet. We just welcomed our first grandbaby. Gotta hang around the townhouse neighborhood for a little while yet.

The little and the simple things

The little and the simple things are what is mattering most to me lately. Going “glamping” at the little house up north for 4 days over New Year’s weekend – with two lawn chairs, carpet remnants, a 50 year old polyurethaned card table, a cooler, and an air mattress. We had so much fun!!!

Seeing the deer tracks through the snow in our small yard for the first time. Taking our dog out before bedtime and walking out to see two deer right there. Driving through changing scenes of thick frost on the trees – in sepia, in green, in blue as the sun hid and then set.

Hearing stories about the well known deer in town. Hearing stories about the apple picking bear in town. Feels very familiar. Maybe there’s a message in there. I just don’t know what it is yet. Grow pine trees? Something will materialize.

It begins – take 2

Two years ago we bought some land in far northern Minnesota. It was on the bucket list and we were ready. We thought we’d do a slow build and then move up there for retirement.

Well … our grown children have increasingly become uncomfortable with that idea – too far away from them, too far out of the nearest town … Indeed – it is a location for the more hardy. Our trail cams consistently show bears, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, besides deer and rabbits. I recently put up a bird feeder and left seed in it upon our departure. Bad idea. The bears discovered it, took it, bent the shepherd’s hook way over, took the solar light on the other hook, and then kept visiting for a few days to see if more fun might reappear. No sir-ee! That’s a quick lesson in “Don’t do that!”

Here’s them seeing if maybe something closer in to the camper might have appeared. (The bird feeder was farther out.) Yah. No.

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The garden I tried to grow up there quickly got overrun by those famous northern ferns. Thousands and thousands of ferns on the property – literally, and they are tall and grow fast! Nix the garden. Some of it survived – asclepias, some iris, asparagus … but it is now naturalized, and will stay that way. Maybe in late fall we will try to remove the metal frames from the raised bed hugelkulture experiment we did. Maybe. Right now – no way. Too overgrown.

We are working on a plan B for retirement – still up north, but in a city. It is consistent with our continual downsizing plan – an older home with a very small footprint. Outside it has an old lawn (my favorite – low maintenance) and absolutely no landscaping or garden.

So the fun begins.

Simplicity – or is it?

The beauty and scope of the plants up north continue to amaze us, and sometimes surprise us. Wide swaths of woodland ferns, wildflowers, ground cover, wild strawberries, wild roses, you name it. But no hope for a structured garden – unless that is how we want to spend all our time up there, which we don’t.

Last year I set up two raised bed gardens as our year 1 test garden. I was so unprepared for the results. The asclepias and the asparagus seem to have survived. Beyond that, let’s just say I wish I had that money back. I cannot keep pace with all the things that continually take over that space. And I have learned that is not bad. It’s just different.

The wildflowers are happily blooming right now. Here’s a truly delightful clump of wild daisies – right next to the “delightful” crop of woodland plants that continually take up residence in the raised bed gardens.

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The daylily seedlings I planted in spring do not seem to have survived, but perhaps next year I will be surprised. The iris I planted did survive, so maybe. But I am not optimistic.

Two new wildflowers to us right now are orange hawkweed, and spreading dogbane. Here’s a picture of the spreading dogbane.

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It smells glorious, and the bees love it! We just need to keep our dog away from it.

Final consensus for this year – I’m done “planting” up north. We’ll continue to see what’s already there, and see what comes up next year.

Clematis blooming, settled on daylilies up north

The clematis are beginning to bloom at the townhouse. First the white ones bloomed, and now a new pink volunteer we haven’t seen blooms on before is starting.

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I had a few volunteers over the past few years that really took off this year, so I had to buy a couple extra trellises. Not easy in the current shopping environment, but it turned out ok.

Last weekend we went up north. I tell you! It’s amazing how fast things grow up there! You might say it’s wild – lol! The ferns that were fiddleheads last time were waist high!! We have thousands, and unfortunately some have to get cut back so we have a homesite/campsite that is reasonably free from ticks.

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The butterflies and bumblebees were enjoying the dandelions. It was a fabulous sight to see. We don’t prevent dandelions up north so they have a nice supply of food.

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A walk through the farther trails taught us we have an abundance of wild roses we didn’t know about, and even some scrubby maple trees. (I thought we were too far north for maples.)

By far, however, the big news is … the baby daylilies are doing well up north!! The deer are leaving them alone so far, and they are holding their own with just the natural rain. I am hopeful! The asparagus also survived the winter, and it looks like one asclepias. I cleaned up the raised beds, and put more black dirt in one. Man, I wish I had that $300 back! I don’t like the steel and boxy look nearly as much as I thought I would, and they heaved in the center so they look weird, but oh, well. Live and learn.

The fact that daylilies are doing well up there makes my harvesting decisions much easier going forward. It means I will probably harvest seeds from our townhome gardens again this year, and sow some in the ground up north as well as start seedlings in the winter again. Probably.

It’s also about this time of year, as the summer garden comes into full form, that I start to realise what fall divisions will be needed. The townhouse garden is getting pretty mature, and I will need to divide and split quite a bit this fall. This ‘Rainforest Sunrise’ hosta has definitely overgrown the space.

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I love the coloring, and the leaves are a bit more tender, so I will keep the divisions at the townhouse.

I’m tempted, however, to try some of the ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ hosta divisions up north, as the leaves are deer resistant.

So many ideas … but a bit of time to chew on them. For now, the daylily seedlings are all planted except two, which will go into the townhome garden in the next day or so. The lavender seeds are starting to sprout in pots – we’ll see how far they get – and the tulips are fading back and making way for the Asian lily blooms to come center stage next.

Happy Leap Year!

Wow! February 29! Spring is around the corner, right? I hope so.

We filled February with a lot of activities, and the month was fun, but I’m so ready for gardening season.

My daylily seeds are in the refrigerator getting prepped for planting in two weeks. The days are getting longer, but the snow piles remain. Still, my shamrocks are back in bloom, and, right on cue, my hibiscus bloomed for the first time this year on February 26th. How does it do that so consistently? Soon another bloom will brighten a couple days.

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Outside at our townhome, the sedum I left for the birds fed another as well. Can you tell who else liked it?

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Glad to see it go to good use!

Up north we have ample snow as well – ample as in higher than the bottom of the doors the last time we made a day trip. But soon the wonder of the thawing woods will arrive. We’ll see how our fall planted bulbs fare, and if the asclepias and coneflowers made it through the weedy hugelkultur garden and the long winter. Dare we plant daylily seedlings? Still undecided.

January

It’s January. I’m missing my gardens. I’m missing any gardens. Off to our local gardening center I went today. This is a thing I do – wander around, maybe buy a watch ’em grow garden, and maybe something additional. I suspect, no I know, I am not unique in doing this.

Today I got both. I could not resist.

The watch ’em grow garden

And a beautiful cyclamen

So fun!

I also bought a set of seed pods for when I start my daylily seeds. Now I’m committed to that because I have all the materials. I had started down the path of saving toilet paper and paper towel rolls to cut up as soil holders, like last year, but then I saw that the pods are ok for daylilies, so I’m going to try them. This will be my first year of growing only daylily seedlings. I had a bumper crop of ‘Just Plum Happy’ daylily seeds last fall, so I’m hoping to get something from those. Plus a few from our other daylilies. I’m also hoping this is the year I see flowers on the seedlings from the daylily seeds I planted out in the ground the past couple seasons.

And I’m playing again with the idea of trying to find a way to have daylilies up north. I know! How many times will I go back and forth on this? It’s just that I dream of naturalizing them. I know, however, they are deer yummies, and our trailcams have lots of deer on them. I have the two (failed hugelkulture) raised bed gardens up there from last year. I may try a seedling or two in there – from the ‘Just Plum Happy’ abundance. I could recycle some of my chicken wire from last year here to protect them. I know – ugly! We’ll see. Lots of time to decide.

Planting tulips in the snow

The townhouse garden is all cut back and tucked in for the winter. It was a late finish this year. Between adding extra activities to our lives (time up north, going on our townhome association board) and fully enjoying all of the garden’s fall color, I finally finished up the cutback Sunday and the bulb planting yesterday. I was planting tulips and crocus in the snow!

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The two 5′ hostas are now in other people’s gardens, and in each place are 9 yellow tulips and a dozen purple and white crocus bulbs. In the spring I will layer with daylily seedlings and see how they progress.

The fall color wrapped up about 3 weeks ago up north, and has now wrapped up at the townhouse. Our beautiful fall colors are no longer our natural decorations, but they were gorgeous and we enjoyed them tremendously! Soon we will have layers of the white fluffy stuff that stay for a few (5 at least!) months.

Starting our journey with the land up north this year really changed me. We have spent time up north for 20 years, and camping for many years before that, but something about managing and spend time on our own land changed me. It was partially the simplicity of hauling in our water, living in the small footprint of a 280 square foot camper, and having an outhouse, but it was more than that. We’ve done that, even primitive camped. It was deciding how to manage the slice of woods for which we are now responsible – how much wood to harvest, how much to clear, how much of the land to leave alone, how quickly things grew, how our little garden got overtaken, how the trailcams showed us deer and bear and wolves and coyotes that move through the land, how the area I thought I would develop into a wooded garden became a fern forest with an abundance of toads, and how wildflowers were everywhere. It made me stand in awe. Unlike in our townhouse garden, the horseflies bit hard and the wood ticks showed up in groups on the screen tent fly. But the vast beauty of uncultured, natural “gardens” got ahold of my “simpler” self. I gave up time in the townhouse garden in favor of time walking the land. Each now has its place, but they are very, very different.

Back at the townhouse I did not end up harvesting the hosta seeds this fall. Realistically, I know we have plenty of hostas. I am giving them away. Up north, the deer would just eat the seedlings. My seedling focus will be on daylilies next spring.

I did dig out the irises that never bloomed at the townhouse, and planted them up north to see how they do. Beyond that, up north we’ll see if the asclepias, the asparagus, the coneflowers, and the malva zebrina hollyhocks we planted make it through the winter. The hugelkulture gardens in raised bed forms turned into weed patches because we are not up north all the time, so we’ll see what survives. I will say I wish I had the money back from the raised bed frames and bags and bags of dirt. I would not do that again. That little garden area seems really out of place in its surroundings. Lesson learned.

Our old hibiscus ended up with dozens and dozens of buds in August, and is still blooming profusely indoors. It was over 5′ wide when we brought it inside, and it barely made it through the door. As the blooms on a stem fade, I am trimming it. It is lovely and just keeps on going.

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I also saved the gladiola bulbs that I had in a large pot this year. They required chicken wire protection, but were beautiful!

For next year, I’m thinking I will continue to simplify, enjoying the established townhouse garden, seeing if I can get new daylily seedlings to grow, and continuing to enjoy the up north natural beauty.

Now energy turns to indoors at the townhouse – getting garden decorations stored, cleaning up the shamrock plants for the winter indoors, and then on to dispersing all kinds of items that we are no longer using in the house, getting them on to new homes. Our townhome is also small. We constantly need to work at keeping things cleared and as simple as possible.

Maybe this weekend we will be at a state where I can pull out the candles and put them in the windows. They are our only “outdoor” “holiday” lights, and I’m looking forward to having them up again.

And over the winter there will be time walking in the snowy woods up north, where the outdoor lights are solar, and probably covered til spring.

Turning colors and time to start trimming

While we were up north we literally watched the leaves start to turn yellow. Each day there was more and more yellow.

Now back at the townhouse, the linden is turning more and more yellow. Soon we will have a carpet of leaves in both places.

While we were up north the last 2 daylily buds also bloomed. I have already harvested our first seeds – from the ‘South Seas’ daylily – just one pod. While we wait for the other seed pods to mature, it will be time to start trimming.

I take about six weekends to hand cut everything back. This weekend it will be all the asian lily stems. Our friend the bunny has put a hurt on a bunch of them, so literally some of them are just stems.

What a wonderful spring and summer garden we’ve had! Lots to remember! Now, while we enjoy fall, it’s also our time to prepare well for next year.

Hugelkultur results – year one test garden

Before we understood exactly how dense the plants and shrubs on our land up north are, I planned our northern Minnesota “year one” test garden. A very compelling idea was to use hugelkultur. Hugelkultur calls for raised garden beds. The bottom layer is tree trunks and large branches. Then smaller branches and twigs. Finally, atop it all is soil.

We gave it a try. I bought two steel raised garden forms. We had abundant tree material. Plenty of soil topped it off. In went both seeds and seedlings. The seeds sprouted but stunted. We realized we could not rely on just rain – we needed to be there to water, which we weren’t. Then the ferns poked through the open bottom and the hugelkultur. Now it looks like a fern garden. I couldn’t even bear to take pictures.

I think it’s an awesome idea, but our experience was that it still requires just as much weeding and watering as a normal, in the ground, garden.

We are hoping some of our work will survive. We put some winter hardy perennials in – malva zebrina hollyhocks, asclepias, coneflowers, and asparagus, and we’re hoping those make it through the tough winter. The carrots, cinnamon basil, and kale we already wrote off as critter food (deer, rabbits …).