Category: Spring in Minnesota

What’s up?

It is a late spring this year. But sure as can be, the gardens are starting to emerge. Even without doing any digging I know the ground is thawing because when I come in from doing the early garden prep, my boots have mud on the soles. Ahhh! Dirt! And out of the thawing ground the tulip leaves are up quite a bit in the past few days. Those may or may not bud and bloom. Tulips do not have much year over year blooming power around here. But it is good to see green again!

Longer term

We seem to be in a holding pattern year. We personally won’t be making any improvements to the townhouse gardens due to the uncertainty on the schedule for the new roof project. First things first. So this year my focus is normal maintenance only. But longer term the landscaping outside the homes that weren’t refreshed two years ago is pending refresh. Rock replacement, trim re-levelling, things like that. I am torn. Should I plan for a more cookie cutter look at the townhouse going forward? Remove a lot of the unique look – bring it elsewhere? We are not in an optimal world right now. Labor was an issue last year, for sure. The garden refresh could be pushed off for even more than a year. So what to do in 2022? Hey, that rhymes 😉

Nothing, for now. Until more is known. Keep enjoying the “little things” – the hostas and daylilies and sedum that make it through the construction, and the planning of things we CAN do. Maybe more up north. Once that snow melts and the ground thaws we can assess those options.

For now, just getting past continual snow and massive winds would be a great start.

Here’s what the garden progression looks like right now. A few things poking up through the ice and snow from our last wave of winter hanging on.

We wait 😉

Garden decorations – 2022

Up next in the spring garden work is the swap out of seasonal items in the gardens. Since we are getting new roofs at the townhome this year, and the schedule is very much tbd, I will not be putting out many garden decorations there. Things that are sturdy, things I can pull back inside easily will be it. The frogs playing checkers have already found a home. The concrete welcome frog stays inside this year. So that only leaves the frog on the swing and a few little frogs. Good enough. For this year.

Winter
spring – swinging

It’s time to start saving coffee grounds

Every spring there comes a day when I say to my husband, “It’s time to start saving coffee grounds.” He knows why. They go on the plants in the garden as soon as the ground starts to thaw. The slugs don’t like them, the squirrels kind of don’t like them, and some people say they fertilize the plants. And they are free. And the plants have done better since I started doing that – many years ago.

Today was the first application day. I would say probably a couple more weeks and we’re done.

Winter visitors and frogs playing checkers

During the winter we have dark-eyed junkos come to visit.  They seem to live in our large pine tree during the winter, as they fly in and out of there quite a bit.  We love seeing them, and want to continue to encourage them to return late each fall.

We are considering adding back bird feeders at the townhouse.  They need to be in the rock, per the townhome covenants, but I think we have a space. 

Last fall I brought a ‘Patriot’ hosta, that was in a corner by the patio, up north.  The hosta was in too much sun, and it burned every year.  I am taking a chance, of course, that it will be deer food up north, but I would rather feed the deer up north than burn a hosta at the townhouse.

That corner is now open.  If we put a feeder there we would, again, have our acrobatic squirrel buddies antics, but our bird feeders are already squirrel worn, and they could “spread the love” to the dark-eyed junkos on the ground.

Not a “Do” yet. Thinking we’ll wait til late next fall.  Perhaps a seasonal thing.  Feeders in the winter, hanging sturdy solar lanterns in the summer?

In the meantime, what should go in that corner?  Not a sedum – too many bees in the fall.  Not a daylily – too close to the edge and will get blown by the landscape maintenance.  What is sturdy and blower proof?  Maybe just a garden figurine.  Now what do we have already that could be put there?  Frogs playing checkers?  That will do 🙂

Clean-up time

The air at the townhouse is warming and the ground is showing. The gardens need some love. They need the bigger twigs and small branches removed, and they need the rock to move back inside the lines – haha! Luck would have it – I have time! And a need, myself, to to hang out, exactly where they are.

Branches that can find other homes
Rocks that can move back into their home