Category: Spring in Minnesota

Bonus! Free nail filing!

Gardeners worldwide know that we don’t need a gym during the tending season.  But did you know that Amur Maples come complete with free spring nail filing?

Let me explain.  Our Amur Maple out front is delightful.  When it blooms it is heavenly.  No scent like it.  In the fall, the seed pods turn a lovely pink color, and the leaves form a multi-colored carpet.

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Then the seed pods fall and blow all over.  Helped by our squirrel friends, in the spring the seedlings can be found by the hundreds in the rock gardens and the lawn.  The pines have nothing on these guys.  Left to mature we could start a forest.

So every spring I get in garden shape, and also get a free nail filing, by going around and plucking out hundreds and hundreds of Amur Maple seedlings.  Bucketfuls.

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What the hey – may as well grab linden sticks and the occasional pine or cherry volunteer too.  But mostly Amur Maple seedlings.  Like these

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Is it a pain?  Yep.  If the Amur Maple had to be replaced, would I hope the replacement would be something less invasive?  Yep.  But I’m used to it.  I love the spring blooms, the fall color, watching the squirrels “harvest” the seeds, and the spring tradition of getting back in shape and getting a “plucking” nail filing!

Cherry trees and tulips

The cherry trees in the association stated blooming a couple weeks ago.  Who doesn’t love their blooms?

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They are stunningly beautiful for two-three weeks and then fade to the background to start building for next year’s show.

Similarly, the tulips take center stage at the ground level at about the same time.  Immediately following the crocus, they put on quite a show.

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I love it all!  Here’s my dilemma – Unlike the cherry trees, the tulips are more of a “one and done” most years.  Essentially they are fall planted annuals that bloom the next spring.  In the years after the initial bloom year they are awesome at growing … leaves, but no blooms.

This spring, last years tulips looked like this.

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As beautiful as the tulips are, I have another plan.  I am going to dig them out, reclaim that real estate, and plant some of the baby Purple d’ Oro daylily seedlings in that spot.  If they take off, in future years they would look absolutely lovely in front of the sedum.

Having repurposed that space, when the spring bulbs start showing up for order and purchase later this season, I have an alternate option.  I have, in past years forced tulip, hyacinth, and crocus bulbs in large plant pots.  Maybe I’ll do that this fall again.

 

 

Spring again!

It is finally feeling like garden season, and some hope after a tough few months for the whole world.  The pandemic has brought so much fear and sadness, and our hearts go out to all the families who have been affected and all who have lost loved ones.   It is sometimes hard to imagine it has only been a few months.  The heartbreak is incredible, and it seems like much longer.  I just couldn’t get motivated to share garden news amid all of the tough news.  But as sad as this sounds, at some point I decided reading and listening to so much aweful news and fearful projections was not good.  I started to trust it was ok to severely limit partaking in media coverage and updates.  It took a few weeks, but now some joy is starting to overcome the awfulness of this pandemic.  And as the gardening season is fully arriving, it is bringing some positivity, very much needed during this difficult time.

Through the winter I dreamed and planned gardens.  The association board work took form and the garden refreshes for this spring, now being done by an incredible local professional, are underway – 22 gardens at homes, and removing bricks, pavers, plastic trim, and various rock and mulch from around 42 trees and putting in only mulch.  We hear it is healthier for the trees.   A couple larger gardens integrated around trees will remain with rock, to be done in future years.  The garden outside our home is one of those, and our landscaper reports the tree is well established and very healthy.  Mulch may come in future years.

From my personal overwintered plants, the hibiscus is now back outside, as is the green shamrock.  The green shamrock has mostly gone through its spring die off.  I watched as the robins do what they do every year – pluck the dead stems by the beakful, and fly them up to their nest.  It is the annual cycle.  The robins get their materials, and the shamrock gets hardy and fills out again.

Of over 100 daylily  seeds I planted this winter in pods indoors, 13 daylily seedlings came up.  11 daylily seedlings survived.  In previous years I have direct sown our harvested seed in the ground at the townhouse.  A few lilies have grown from that and this year I am anticipating seeing what the pollinators produced three years ago.  For the extra work, this winter’s results were not awesome (I don’t think?) but it was an experiment.  We’ll see if I do a repeat.

The gardens here are popping back like crazy right now, and it looks like everything made it through the winter.  It’s pretty full, so of the daylily seedlings from this winter,  I’ve decided to keep the 2 ‘South Seas’ parentage seedlings here, and 4  of the ‘Purple d’Oro’ parentage seedlings.  5 ‘Purple d’Oro’ seedlings are going to be in the year 2 test garden up north, with chicken wire the first year, to give them a safe start.  I am hoping they eventually naturalize, and am optimistic, as I see entire fields of lilies up north that have made it.  We’ll see.

More to come.

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We’re running now – here and up north

As I enjoyed my “putz and pamper” time this past weekend, I had time to reflect on the gardens so far this year.

After a very long winter, and months of feeling like a horse at the gate, we are running quite fast now – both here and up north.

The cherry trees wrapped up their bloom here quite a while ago, but a pleasant surprise was that we got a  glorious “re-do” during one of our trips up north.  Such a treat to get multiple blooming schedules.

At the townhouse, sadly, my favorite long-lived bunch of purple tulips has faded.  They were an icon each spring.  I will try to find something just as iconic, but maybe a different species.  Not sure what yet, but it might be harvested daylily seeds.  Just thinking at this point.

The new tulips I planted here last fall were glorious this spring.

Now the blooming season of early clematis has also passed and the weigelia has hit it’s peak bloom.  Soon the asian lilies will start blooming.

What I did not expect was a hosta bloom so early – yet here it is, beginning to form.  And on the ground in that garden the forget-me-nots are beginning to pop up.

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To watch here this year – two plants from 2017 harvested daylily seeds – both from ‘South Seas’ – one of my favorites.  We’ll hopefully see a bloom or two on them this year, and discover what we got with the help of our pollinator friends. What I know for sure is that daylilies are deer munchies, so I have decided they will not be making the trip up north, as divisions or as seedlings.

In pots, the hibiscus and the gladiolas here are squirrel favorites.  I have put chicken wire around a number of the potted plants and bulbs – not a flattering look – but needed.

The Aureomarginata hostas here are gigantic again this year, the daylilies I added last year are looking good, and the Blue Mouse Ears are more full than ever.

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Which leads me to options.  Up north, the trail cams are showing us oodles of deer, a coyote, lots of bunnies, and a bear.  Makes sense – there’s lots to eat, including wild strawberries all over the property that just wrapped up their season.  I wanted to divide the Aureomarginata hostas and bring them up there but it’s probably not the smartest.  I will be fighting a munching battle that will only make me sad.

There’s also a sedum that has been crowded here for a couple years.  I wanted to bring it up north and put it in the sunny garden to let it shine.  But despite web lists that say sedum is on the list of “deer-resistant” plants, I am hearing reports that they too are tasty morsels up north.

What did work in the year one test garden up north is two types of seeds directly sown into the raised beds – malva zebrina hollyhock, and cinnamon mint.  Some free carrot seeds are also sprouting, and two asclepias plants have survived, so far. Coneflower seeds did not sprout, asclepias seeds did not sprout, and all of the kale and asparagus died back.  I think it needs more water than we can provide.  We are just depending on watering when we are up there, and rain.

And, after much deliberation, and my husband mentioning he doesn’t think he’d like the look, I have given up the idea of using a dog kennel as a critter-proof option.   Alas, I don’t like the look of chicken wire here.  I probably wouldn’t really like a dog kennel asthetic up north.

So the lesson so far is – some things will stay townhouse garden plants, and we will embrace what’s already on the land up north, plus seed sown additions that can survive with just rain, and that are not attractive to critters.

I heard lupines may be an option.  They do naturalize beautifully …

Our irises

When we bought the house we raised our kids in, my mother-in-law arrived one October day with a bucket of 40 iris tubers.  3 years later – I kid you not – 3 years later when I went to split them out there were over 400!  I did that again 3 years later!  And they bloomed like crazy!  One long full row of purple.

Here, not so much.  My sister gave me some of her irises.  No blooms – lots of greens but no blooms.

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I bought some from a local gardener – one year of blooms and no return the next year.  I bought some from a local, very reputable garden center – no blooms  the second year and no greens at all the third year.

So I have a plan, and a very good one I hope!  I am going to dig out the irises from my sister that don’t bloom here at the townhouse, and plant them at the land up north.  I think the soil up there is more like at our old house – rocky, gravelly.  Maybe they will bloom there.

First I have to solve my deer grazing dilemna up north, but then we should have a good test.

A mini forest

Every spring I pluck out literally hundreds and hundreds of tree seedlings from our rock.

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A lot of them are from the amur maple.  There are also dozens of clematis volunteers.

This process is super tedious, but I don’t use chemicals so hand plucking is the option.  Section by section I take my little weeding bucket and go at it.

Apologies little seedlings.

Whirlwind

Every night I think, “Tonight I’ll blog”, but it’s been a four week whirlwind of activities.  Tonight’s the night.  There is so much to share!

My 15 yr old purple tulip bunch that I have truly enjoyed each and every year faded this year to one small purple tulip.  (Plus one the bunnies might have enjoyed)

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I have wonderful pictures over the years and will always remember spring mornings relaxing on the patio, looking at their gorgeous blooms swaying in the breeze.

Besides these giant new tulip “bouquets” I planted last fall,

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Last fall’s planting also brought a new, delicate bouquet of pink tulips out back.  At our family gathering last week someone thought they were artificial!  I reportedly gave a funny look and said, “Go touch them!” – lol.  They were, admittedly, pretty “perfect”.

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Right next to them, the bunnies had a munch-fest, so having them spared was awesome!

The amur maple out front flowered last week.  It smelled glorious for two days, and then I got a cold.  But I trust it still continued to smell wonderful for a few more days at least!  Hopefully our family enjoyed it a bit!

Now the pink tulips are starting to fade, the asian lilies are starting to show buds, and the daylilies and hostas seem to have doubled in size this past week.

The days have been full.  The sunsets have been incredible.

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We have also spent time up north, where the sunrises were awe inspiring.

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And we saw the sunset reflect off one of our very old old pines.  We think this one is over 100 yrs.  Notice it’s size compared to the other 20ish yr growth!

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Quite a difference from “Charlie” who we moved to get the camper situated.

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Grow, Charlie!  Grow, Charlie!  He has a companion “Lucy” who we will also need to move.  They will both be in decent proximity to “Linus”.  You get the theme?

The seeds are half planted up north.  Lifting 440 pounds of dirt into a raised bed garden was enough for me for one weekend.

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And that was 2/3 full of branches (see hugelkultur post).

Unfortunately, there is a center support that it turns out bends pretty easily when you push down on branches.  Oh well!  Live and learn!

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I still have one more (identical) raised bed garden to do.  And I have milkweed plants to get in the ground, and stakes and chickenwire to put up once the seeds sprout, plus daylily seeds to try.  It’s all so much easier to have “scope creep” in the winter when planning!  But slow and steady wins the race.  I keep reminding myself my gardens at the townhome are years of putzing – changing this, moving that, adding “one more thing”.  This is the Year One Test Garden up north.