Snort!

Funny story …

A month ago we were up north on the land, eating lunch out on the trail. We were just chatting occasionally. All of a sudden we heard a loud snort! I couldn’t place it. A weird bird?

My husband asked if I heard that. Yup. Did I know what that was? Nope. Well, it was a deer very close to us, just up at the turn of the trail, who heard us/caught wind of us and was not pleased. It was warning its buddies “Danger, Danger” and probably trying to fend us off. An hour or so later we wandered up the path. Wide open, very fresh deer tracks could be seen just beyond the turn. The deer was running when it left.

I doubt I will ever get bored there. There is always a new experience!

The clematis are starting to bloom

The tulips are done for the year, and now we move on to the next wave of blooms. This lovely pink clematis is usually one of the first, and this year was right in order.

20190606_080041-1

A mini forest

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

20190606_080000-1 20190606_075836_HDR-1

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)

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,

20190516_155540-1

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”.

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.

20190529_204957-1 20190529_205650-1

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

20190526_064139

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!

20190525_204021

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

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.

20190526_163244

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!

20190526_163225

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.

Tulip update

The tulips I planted out front last fall came up beautifully.

20190516_155540-1

A single survivor out front from years past and another bunch out back were mysteriously cut off. The ones that were cut off out back totally disappeared. Bunnies? I did see a deer wander through the neighborhood very early one morning a few years ago.

There are a few more bunches still coming up. We’ll see how they fare.

Gorgeous days

We’ve had quite a few gorgeous days in a row, and the landscape is starting to sing.

The cherry trees are starting to flower, and they smell soooo good!

The lindens finally leafed out.

And the tulips are starting to bloom.

20190514_173626-1 20190514_173607-1 20190513_181331-1

Kale, kale, and more kale

Oh my goodness! I started the first of our up north test garden veggie seeds last Saturday (May 4). 5 days later this is what we have.

I suspect we will have plenty of kale and pickling plume lettuce this year. Still waiting on the asparagus. I might have messed those seeds up. I didn’t soak them ahead of time. We’ll see.

Out they go

Living in Minnesota, there are certain non-hardy plants that we bring in for the winter. We have two large shamrock plants and a very large, over 10 year old hibiscus.

About a month ago I got an inquiry – is it time to put out the shamrocks? The answer now is yes. When it is consistently above 40°F at night we put the hibiscus and both the shamrocks out. It will be sad this year because they are so full and nice indoors, and as you will see from the pictures below, the wind and sun beats them up almost immediately. We do keep them close to the house at first, but they have to make the transition. We have a small home, and everything has its season. And they do fine. As a bonus, the birds make good use of the dried stems and leaves for their nests. When they are done, the pots are very clean for the new growth. It is the circle of life, and nothing goes to waste.

With the large plants now outdoors I have space to start our seedlings for up north. Everything in its time.

That’s no lily

Last year I saw what I thought was a daylily volunteer from our ‘Marque Moon’ trio. I pulled it originaly thinking it was grass, but then second guessed. I planted it in our garden and this spring I have been rewarded with – grass. Out it goes. Maybe the bunnies willl enjoy it on their nightly hop-through.

20190503_171827_HDR-1

Trying out Hugelkultur

Along with the up-north plan comes my garden. Originally I envisioned at least a 20′ x 20′ garden year one, right in the ground, with no gate at first. Then I remembered we have abundant deer, bunny, and even some moose tracks on the land. They love to walk the established trail,

but they are all over the land, and new plants will be more yummy food for them to eat!

Next I thought about using a dog kennel to keep them out of the garden – and I still may do that.

Along the way we heard about Hugelkultur – using raised beds with layered organic material that slowly decomposes. Tree trunk pieces come first, then branches, then twigs, and finally soil. It sounds like a plan we can grow with!

For year one I bought two steel raised bed garden forms to try it out. We can put up chicken wire inside the forms to keep deer and hopefully bunnies out and still let pollinators in. I’m not sure about the moose. We will see.

Right now there is still snow in the forecast up north. It will be at least a month until we can get seedlings into the raised beds. But we’re ready – we have the materials and a decent plan for year one.

Just like individual plants in a garden sleep, then creep, then finally leap as they get established, so it is with this process – step by step, layer by layer.