A little bit of up north

A long weekend of up north therapy is our perfect remedy to the wear and tear of everyday modern life. Mowing trails, fixing solar lights after a long very snowy winter, cleaning up fallen trees, branches, and sticks and having our first campfire of the season felt great after long hours at a desk.

My husband had been up during the previous week, but it was my first look of the season – always fun and interesting. The daffodils and grape hyacinth must be deer and bunny repellant as I see the spent daffodils flowers are intact and the grape hyacinth are blooming.

That area is perfect for a spring naturalized garden, so I am hoping it continues. Come June, the ferns start to come in and take over, but for now it is still early enough to show low growing beauty.

It was a very long very snowy winter and the deer pics on the trail cams show skinny young bucks, but there is also a very pregnant doe. Hurray! A good sight! Now we hope she delivers well, and the wolves don’t get the fawn(s). The trail cams also show a turkey, another very nice sight.

Just being in the woods and camp was wonderful. While I was out in the “yard” I heard branches cracking and down the trail a deer ran across. I think there might have been two, but by the time I looked I only saw one. And while I was out in the yard relaxing another time, here comes a big hare, right behind the outhouse, nice long stride. Treats, experienced, not caught on camera, but very nurturing. Being in the moment. Although we do know the big hare very well. It has lots of appearances on one trail cam, lots of antics 🙂

I was able to catch a pic of a new (to us) bird species – the rose-breasted grosbeak.

Looks like a couple. Thinking they were hoping for seed. Alas, last time we did that, Mr. Bear showed up after we left! A bent shepherd’s hook, a missing bird feeder, a broken solar lamp, and a battered grill handle were it’s “hey, how ya doin’?” from that visit. Thinking a hanging feeder between two trees will be needed before we try seed again. All down the road.

My husband said stats are that the average vacation property owner sells around 5 years. You know, the dream wears off and what is left is a work camp. Trying to be mindful of that as we embark on our fifth season of the up north adventure. It is a lot of work, and the romance does wear off very quickly – think heavy wood ticks this year already – but it is an awesome off grid reset.

Ready or not, here it comes

We were up at the top of Minnesota for just a couple days. When we arrived, no color. Two days later …

And the ferns are in tandem with the birch and aspens.

It will be at least a few more weeks before we see fall color seriously arrive further south in Minnesota, but sure enough, fall is heading our way.

At the top of Minnesota

We spent a few days up north over the Labor Day weekend. The wildflowers are as beautiful as ever.

I did not plant this abundance

Up at the camping land there is a whole lot I did not plant and I do not need to keep cultured. Of particular wonder are thousands and thousands of wildflowers.

It wasn’t always that way. If fact, the first year we owned the land, we showed up one night to a shock – the trail in and the whole campsite was wall-to-wall ferns. It had grown to 4′ tall in a few weeks. It was 1:30 in the morning. We went to bed and dealt with it the next day.

I remember back then we hadn’t even brought a mower yet. The ferns have very strong stems so we used the brush saw. That, however, was arduous, so not too long afterward, a weekend’s rental of a brush mower to work on all the trails followed. It was a dramatic difference. We were concerned for a bit that we had gone too far. But 1/2 hour after cleaning the trails, the trailcams showed deer eating again. They loved it.

The trails now are not at all fern covered. If left unmowed they are wall-to-wall wildflowers. The deer can be seen going side to side, back and forth, eating dandelions early in the season, and then wildflowers.

The ferns are still in the woods – over 4′ tall and lush.

What goes – #1?

It’s the second week of August. The Marque Moon is still blooming, one other daylily, and the hostas. Things are slowing down.

Today I sat outside and looked. What goes to the new gardens up north? What is crowded here? What is overdue for division?

#1 is one of the Patriot hostas. Poor guy. It got too much sun, it was a drought year, and I suspect the lawncare provider oversprayed weed killer – hint the grass is also dead along the pavers.

He needs some love. He needs a change. Maybe somewhere where there’s no need for weed killer. Somewhere where the yards are old and full of mini strawberries and wild daisies – if we let them grow. He might just prefer mulch to rock. We’ll see.

Pack your soil Patriot hosta. You’re moving north.

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.

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.

Naturalized beauty

On the way home from our recent trip up north, my husband and I were talking about how different “gardens” are for us up north. He said something interesting – In the “city” we plant gardens to bring nature and beauty into our outdoor spaces. We long for it. Up north nature is already there, abundantly.

Every time we go up north new massive waves of flowers are blooming. We’ve seen some of those waves for years. The applicability of those experiences to what we are doing is now slowly dawning on me. Yes, the different waves were technically “planted” over time, but they are naturally all over – in fields, in the ditches, in the woods. I don’t need to create “garden” beauty up there. It’s already there for me to enjoy.

This last time the tiger lilies were blooming. I realized when we were on the way home I didn’t even take pictures. Wow! I was “in the moment”. I just enjoyed their beauty, for long walks, and for miles and miles of driving.

Perspective is coming forward. My tiny attempts to bring “garden” beauty to our land up north have quickly been overtaken by the massive natural beauty that is already there – a gigantic garden, planted over thousands of years, doing its thing naturally and with more beauty than I could ever put together. My part as a gardener in that environment is to realize it and just enjoy it.

Now, if we ever move up there, we may want to grow some food, and that will take more work. And at the homesite area we are slowly clearing we eventually want to have a clover “lawn”. But that is a topic for another day.

Back at our townhome, I confirmed what I suspected – I missed the first ‘South Seas’ daylily blooms of the season. But before we headed up north I caught our first ‘Purple D’ Oro’ daylily blooms, and when we came back we caught the first ‘Just Plum Happy’ daylily blooms

along with a couple ‘South Seas’ blooms.

Today I caught the first ‘Hush Little Baby’ bloom

and the first red daylily bloom (in the way back)

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along with over a dozen ‘Purple D’ Oro blooms.

And after work, after our dog got his daily walk, I spent an hour putzing in the gardens – trimmming here, weeding there. It’s all good.

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!