Category: Spring in Minnesota

Couldn’t resist

After an intense work day yesterday I sat out on the patio with my husband. As we relaxed, and I looked out over the back garden, the tree seedlings got to me. And two in particular were really getting to my husband. They were getting to him because he is used to my gardening habit of keeping the tree seedlings out of the rock, they were getting quite tall, and I was saying not to pull them. Quite tall for tree seedlings in the rock is over 4″ – lol. The two tall seedlings were from the cherry trees around the neighborhood. I was deliberating trying to transplant them and see if they survived.

After sitting for a while, I couldn’t resist. The hundreds of tree seedlings fell prey to the start of my annual ” next steps” cadence. Despite my intentions to leave them until the roof/gutter/fascia work here is done, the gardener in me was sad. The garden looked sad. So, I went and got my weeding bucket and started the clean-up.

I have shared my experience that gardening is excellent exercise. I must have REALLY needed that yesterday.

Today unofficial summer starts here. It feels good. And more normal. There is no construction noise. The nature sounds are the backdrop to a beautiful morning. A little thunder in the distance. Ahhhhh.

Next week the roof project turns the corner to our area, and it will be increasingly noisy as we are kind of in the middle of the remainder. But that can be dealt with by filling up the gas tank and heading north. For this morning, when the rain finishes up, I think I will get out and fill another bucket with tree seedlings. That would be bucket 2 of the usual 7. Everything in moderation 🙂

The shamrocks and the birds

This past weekend I finally felt comfortable putting the shamrock plants out. The are kind of a fixture in the summer garden. The purple one especially draws the eye all the way to the end of the linden garden area.

Since we live in Minnesota, the shamrocks make their late fall to mid-spring home indoors. The night-time temperatures need to be around 40°F outdoors before they can go out in the spring. This year that was late. But they are out now, and the cycle for spring shamrock cleanup has begun. You see, every spring when I finally feel comfortable putting the shamrocks out, I am happy, and sad. Happy because the mat of dead stems that is hard to clear amongst the fragile live stems gets kind of “ugly” by May, and sad because the beautiful live shamrocks will get windblown, die back, and then take a few weeks to get their summer “coat”.

The wonderful part is what I saw first hand today as a robin flew back and forth between the purple shamrock and a nearby pine tree, plucking first big sections of the dead stem mat, and then finishing by plucking tangled remaining dead stems. It happens every year. And it makes my gardener/bird lover heart smile.

Can you see the robin? Another sat nearby and flew right behind over to the new nest location. I am assuming that is one of the pairs we saw “mating” in the past week.

Oh boy!

Here it comes – the best garden planting time of the year, some planned time off work, and ideas floating around in my mind.

The ideas mostly involve dividing hostas, but those are all really slow to show this year.

So far the daylilies and sedum have won the race over the hostas to begin to dot the garden with that fabulous color of spring green.

The bird bath goes out

Each spring we wait on the weather temperatures as “go” signals for next steps. One of those steps is putting out the bird bath. If we put it out too early, the water will freeze solid, at least at night. I had a bird bath heater for a while but uck! Too much messing around! And cords sticking out. That was not a “keep”.

This morning I looked and the night time temperatures forecast looks like it has finally consistently reached above freezing temperatures. At the beginning of May. It has been a very long winter.

Looks like it has already been “discovered”. And the daily water changing begins.

Decision Time and Priorities

Last year was a weird year for home improvement projects. Labor and materials were an issue. At the townhouse there was no exception. Planned, and even marked, projects got pushed off and pushed off and eventually pushed to this year.

Yesterday my husband asked me if I had seen the landscape company come and spray our grass and flag an area in the front rock. I hadn’t. I went and looked. Sure enough, the area is marked for what looks like last year’s project – getting the gutter runoff diverted underground. It seems odd to me – the new roofs aren’t even started, and certainly the gutters that need to be replaced and re-angled aren’t on. But who knows? So I have a few decisions – Do I move the ninebark and a few sedum and a daylily from that newly marked area in front?

Last fall

Well, the daylily and the sedum are probably a yes – I would spend energy on finding new homes for those. They do well at the little house up north and could go there. Even if they become deer food, that would be better than becoming landscape discards.

Digging out a shrub at the townhouse? Probably not. The landscape provider’s trimming is different from what I used to do – less rounded and more like a pillar. I might have replaced it myself in a few years with a perennial. That whole front area was actually on my list of potential projects this year.

More and more, however, I am convincing myself the time for significant landscape investing at the townhome is … not this year. Maintenance, absolutely. Puttering, for sure. But hard work and money investing – not this year. Whether this is a more permanent change in approach for the townhome gardens, or just this season, time will tell. But definitely all signs are pointing to a “sit tight” garden year right now.

Now, whatever will I do with my daylily seeds this year? Add to that “rookery” up north?

Spring Beauty

Beautiful spring. The crocuses blooming, the oak leaves saying goodbye, and a hint, just a hint, of bunny activity. Now I need to research – don’t rabbits like crocuses? I thought they did. Or is that the coffee grounds at work? Should I move that oak leaf covering the crocus or will that be the temptation tipping point for the bunny – who we often see, and its buddies. What is happening here? Ok with bunnies eating the garden??? It’s ok – those tulips don’t bloom – haha!

Well, for sure no more coffee grounds – that is in moderation only. Maybe leave it as it occured, and let the wind make the decision.

It did.

The tulips out back

Most of our “tulips” here are actually just tulip greens. For some reason, tulips around here don’t have a lot of staying power for blooms. Yet every year, consistently, the tulip bulbs I have planted over the years are one of, if not the first, greens to emerge from the thawing ground.

There is, however, one stand of tulips that does bloom every year, and has for over 15 years. They are starting to come up again now, and I am hoping they will have their usual cheery purple blooms again this year. Time, as always, will tell.

Our Spring Buddies arrive, our Winter Buddies leave

Every year the robins arrive as the first big wave of migrating birds. They are here for a few weeks, and then the dark-eyed juncos start to leave. The robins have been here for, oh I don’t know, four weeks? We noticed last week the dark-eyed juncos have begun to leave. We read about their migration a few years ago. They leave at night. One day there will be the normal abundance, and the next day we have to really search.

Thanks wonderful dark-eyed juncos, for another wonderful winter of your on-the-ground hopping around antics. Safe travels!

Speeding up

We have a Bluebells clematis out front. It never has bloomed very well, which has been a surprise, as I bought it from an online seller that has always sent me very well producing bulbs, tubers, and plants. It is supposed to bloom on both old and new growth. Maybe I have been limiting it. The vine and leaf growth is very proliferous so every fall it has gotten a pretty good trim. Last fall I was tempted to remove it, but instead we left half of the 2021 growth as a test. I am hoping it blooms more this year. It is a nice cover up for the shepherd’s hook where we hang one of the two hummingbird feeders.

A few days ago it had just leaf buds. Now it has “sprung”. Besides the very sparce blooms, it is a healthy plant and holds up well in the wind, so I am hoping this is the year we see it’s true bloom potential.