Cole Burrell and the Native Plants Movement

C. Colston Burrell, a garden designer, photographer, naturalist, and all around guru of the native plants movement, will be speaking at Bachman’s Lyndale Avenue store Jan. 12. The event is co-sponsored by the Minnesota State Horticulture Society, the Rock Garden Society of Minnesota, the Saint Paul Garden Club, and Twin Cities Wild Ones. Burrell, author [...]

Read Full Post »

Lighting the Garden

The activity level in my neighborhood was high this past weekend as everyone put up their holiday decorations. We take a subtle approach–which in my youngest daughter’s opinion is just plain boring. My husband hung our lighted Christmas wreath and wrapped lights around a metal sculpture in our front bed, which looks like [...]

Read Full Post »

Crafty Gift Idea

My family does its holiday gift-giving on Thanksgiving, so I got a chance to sew up a garden apron idea that I saw in Gayla Trail’s You Grow Girl. I gave one to my sister, who not only hosted Thanksgiving for 28 but willingly modeled the apron (thanks, Elly!). I also gave one [...]

Read Full Post »

Chicago’s Railroad Garden

If you are traveling to the Chicago area during the holiday season, consider a stop at the Chicago Botanic Garden for its Wonderland Express exhibit. Gardeners will love the displays outside, but anyone with a sense of awe or the magical will enjoy the railroad garden inside the Regenstein Center, the garden’s horticulture school. When [...]

Read Full Post »

The November Garden

November is my least favorite month: dark, wet, and nothing but winter in sight for the next six months. But gardeners can find ways to brighten November–or at least work with its palette. Yesterday and today, I’m on a road trip to the Chicago area. En route to Chicago, I stopped at the [...]

Read Full Post »

Snow on the Garden

I woke up this morning to the first snow of the season–sort of. It’s already melting, but I took a few photos to mark the official transition from fall to winter. (I still have to bring in the hoses!)
We still have leaves on the oaks and one apple tree in our yard, so they provided [...]

Read Full Post »

The Smother Method

This past weekend, I took the first steps in installing my new flower bed. The actual planting won’t occur until next spring, but I’m using what’s called “The Smother Method,” and that requires a little advanced planning.
The idea behind the smother method is simple: why bother to break your back digging up grass and [...]

Read Full Post »

Garden Advice from a Pro

I will be doing most of the planting and installation on my new flower bed myself, but when it comes to garden design, I need help–preferably from a pro. So before I started digging the new bed (more on that in another post), I contacted Knecht’s Nurseries and Landscaping in Northfield for some design advice. [...]

Read Full Post »

Killer Frost and Container Gardens

The nighttime temperatures have gotten steadily colder the past week, and Thursday morning I stepped out on the porch to discover that the death-knell had been sounded. The containers I had planted with Lava Rose and Lava Green coleus, Fiesta Ole double impatiens, a fern, and petunias that looked so good all summer and into [...]

Read Full Post »

A Winning Story

Last night was the annual Minnesota Magazine and Publications Association awards, and Northern Gardener came away with a silver medal in the feature article category. The winning story, by Minneapolis freelancer Eric Johnson, was headlined “Rose Ardor,” and it ran in the May/June 2007 issue. The article profiled Elena Williams, who has an amazing [...]

Read Full Post »