May 6, 2011

Plant sales and Living Green!

Can you feel it?  It’s like a buzzing, fluttering, whooshing sort of feeling.  It’s everywhere!  Spring is FINALLY here in Minnesota and the energy is amazing.  The sun is shining and we’re supposed to have a near 70 degree day.  This week I got 3 new issues of gardening magazines, 3 plants and seeds for my Children’s Garden arrived and plant sales are everywhere!  I love it, I love it, I love it!

Much as I’d like to keep it a secret, I have to put a shout out to the HTC Plant Sale located at the Hennepin Technical College Brooklyn Park Campus. Although there are many plant sales out there, this one is close to my heart. Not only because I went to school there, but also because the plants being sold are grown and cared for by the Landscape and Horticulture students.  Deb Kvamme, one of the instructors, is one of the most passionate plant people I’ve ever met, so she makes the sale very fun.  They always have the standard bedding plants, veggies and herbs, but if you get there early enough, you’re guaranteed to find something unique as well.  There are 3 greenhouses bursting with plants and the sale is run like a well oiled machine.  It’s worth the drive.  The sale runs May 5th, 6th and 7th from 9am – 7pm.  Go!  You won’t be disappointed!

Another plant sale “must do” this weekend is the Friends School Plant Sale held at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds Grandstand.  If you’ve never been there, it’s GI-NOR-MOUS.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  They even produce their own catalog with plants that are available at the sale.  View it online, it’s an impressive list to say the least!  The Friends School sale runs Friday, May 7, from 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., Saturday, May 8, from 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. and Sunday, May 9, from 12:00 noon – 4:00 pm. Sunday is discount day.

While you’re at the fair grounds visit the Living Green Expo.  There you can learn about how to live a more mindful, sustainable life.  There are seminars and vendors with everything from gardening and composting, to cooking, to solar, wind and water, to energy savings, to rain gardens and permaculture and even organic lawn care just to name a few.  The Living Green Expo runs Saturday, May 7th from 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Sunday May 8th from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Do you have a favorite sale I didn’t list?  Let everyone know!

Not in the Twin Cities?  Check your local paper or garden club for sales, grab a friend and go!

Enjoy all things green this weekend!

Kate

Posted in Cooking, Environment, Healthy Eating, Landscaping, Mindful Living, Organic Gardening | Leave a Comment »

May 5, 2011

Community Garden and such

I know, I’m sure after my last post you thought that I had a terrible run-in with the raccoons and that was the end of Walnuts and Pears.  You can relax, the raccoons have not gotten the best of me, yet.

A while back a friend and neighbor asked me to help her get a Community Garden started at her church and pre-school.  How could I refuse?!?!  So I took a little hiatus from blogging (perhaps you noticed) and dedicated my energy to drawing up a plan.  The plan actually consists of more than the veggie beds for the Community Garden.  Since this is for a church and pre-school, there are elements for the children and the young at heart.  The church was built in the 1950s and an addition was added years later.  Since then, there really hasn’t been much in the way of landscaping on the site and what once was there, is now gone.  So, other than the new fence and some existing retaining walls it was pretty much a blank slate.  There were also requests for flowers, minimizing maintenance around the fence and even addressing some water issues.  The goal is to make a hands-on learning space that is both bountiful and beautiful. The plan includes 4 raised planting beds, including one seating-height bed, a number of pots and planters and tee-pees for the children to grow gourds and ornamental vines on as well as play in.  There will also be a butterfly garden and edible landscaping incorporated throughout the rest of the site.

Even though our growing season in Minnesota is off to a bit of a slow start, they have a pretty aggressive schedule.  The goal was to have everything installed by April 30th so cool crops could get planted.  Unfortunately the weather didn’t exactly cooperate so the digging didn’t start until May 1st, but things are progressing nicely now.  They should be able to start planting by the end of the week and since the weather is still pretty cool, the crops should do just fine.  Check out the Bethany Gardens blog to see their progress and keep tabs on the gardens throughout the season: http://bethanygardens.wordpress.com/.

In the mean time, I’ve yet to get my cool crops in yet either, so hopefully this weekend I’ll be digging in too.

As a side note, the metal containers from my front steps have given themselves back to Mother Earth (rusted out) so I’m looking to buy or make some new planters/pots for my front steps.  If anyone has suggestions, please let me know!

Kate

Posted in Children's Garden, Edible Landscaping, Flower Gardening, Landscaping, Mindful Living, Organic Gardening, Veggie Garden | Leave a Comment »

April 26, 2011

Window peepers

As I sit working on a plan, my poor dog is stressing.  She keeps trying to go up and lay on my bed to sleep but every few minutes she hears something outside and comes back down to check it out.  She heads straight for the side window, paces around the table, looks out back, paces again, whines just slightly, then sighs.  After a few minutes of looking into the darkness with her head cocked, she gives up and heads back upstairs.  Minutes later the whole thing starts over.

A few days ago this went on for a couple of hours in the middle of the night/early morning.  It’s hard to get much rest with all of this going on.  Not to mention I get tired too!

My house is made of natural stone, not smooth river stones, but kasota and limestone.  The side of the house isn’t smooth.  Each stone steps in or out just enough to create a great climbing wall for raccoons.

Lately the raccoons have been spending a little too much time hanging out again, so I’m trying to figure out a deterrent for them.

Garden stuff I can handle, even when they climbed the Shepard’s hook that holds the bird feeders and bent it like it were a piece of wire I can handle it.  It’s when they’re peeping in my bedroom window that I get a little freaked out.

The problem is that they’re bold.  They’re afraid of nothing.  They’re not afraid of my dog or I’d let her out to chase them away.  Plus they’re almost as large as her, so I’m afraid they’d just hurt her. (Unfortunately I’ve seen what raccoons can do to pets.)  They’re also definitely not afraid of humans. I’ve been nose-to-nose with them on more than one occasion only separated by a pane of glass.

Having them transplanted would be pointless.  I live behind a nature center, so where there’s one, there are definitely more.  And as I’ve mentioned before, I typically don’t mess with the critters, and I don’t really want to mess these either.  I would just rather they reside in another portion of my yard.  Perhaps under the shed with the 60 lb. woodchuck.

So, I’m off to find some deterrent to sprinkle or spray to the perimeter of my house and roof.

I’ll keep you posted.

Kate

Posted in Critter Problems, Mindful Living | 1 Comment »

April 23, 2011

History, gardening and experiments

History was never my strong suit while in high school.  In fact, I remember many classes struggling to keep my eyelids propped open.  I never understood the point other than learning from it so we don’t make the same mistakes twice.  But really…why were we studying this?  How would it ever apply in life?

It wasn’t until I was in college and selected a major that I started to get intrigued by history.   I was a German major my first go around, so I was learning all about German history and was actually interested. Then I decided to study abroad, in Austria.  Naturally my next round of history classes were about Austria.  I found this equally interesting because I would be going there.  I could apply it to something.

Now, I don’t proclaim to have memorized all the details.  I’m more of a big picture person in pretty much every facet of my life.  I couldn’t repeat detail for detail what happened, but I can tell you the overall concept and the impact it made.

Fast forward about 15 years and I went back to school again focusing on Landscaping and Horticulture.  It seemed like a natural fit for me.  I’ve always enjoyed gardening.  I grew up helping in the veggie garden, planting flowers and even “propagating” Hens and Chicks when I was quite young.  I remember being 7 or 8 years old and realizing that if I gently removed the “chicks” from the “hens” and nestled them into open soil, they would begin to grow quite well there.  It wasn’t long before we had a nice crop of them just outside the back door!

I also vividly remember growing my green bean in a cup in elementary school and trying to grow avocados from the pit on numerous occasions.  The excitement I got from this was ridiculous.

Ever since I’ve had a place of my own, I’ve had far more “house plants” (plants I grow that happen to be in the house) than most normal people.  I’m constantly trying to grow something new, just to see if I can. In fact, when I moved out of my apartment (which I shared with a roommate) to our first home, there were 3 pick-up bed loads of plants to move.

So you see, I think I’ve been a plant geek pretty much all my life.

How does all of this tie into history?  Well, somewhere around the time that I was thinking about going back to school I went to visit my mom in Washington DC.  She took me to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, plantation and gardens. If you ever get the opportunity – go there! It’s by far one of my favorite places. I fell in love.  I think that’s when it hit me that my fascination with plants isn’t so odd, or, if it is, at least I’m in good company.  Learning about Jefferson’s gardens, micro-climates he created to grow olive trees and grapes that never should have survived in Virginia was so inspiring. Again, history had a place for me.

Thanks to Jefferson, I continue to try grow new things all the time.  I’ve now got my own grapes, pears, apples and hardy kiwi not to mention the veggie garden and perennials.  I’m never afraid to try growing something new, that’s how I learn.  Besides, what’s the worst thing that could happen?

My next experiments are going to be an olive tree and date palm (grown from seed) and I recently heard there’s a banana tree hardy to our area.  I just might have to try that too!

Happy experimenting!

Kate

Posted in Favorites, Organic Gardening, Seed Starting | 3 Comments »

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