State Fair Fun

Having grown up a mile or so north of the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, I am no romantic about the fair. It is noisy, dusty, crowded, and fattening. But it can be fun, too. I really enjoyed my evening at the fair Thursday. It helped that the weather was perfect, and I spent nearly all my [...]

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State Fair Gardens

If you go to the Minnesota State Fair this weekend, be sure to stop by the Horticulture Building to admire the gardens that have been planted there. The Minnesota State Horticultural Society is responsible for several gardens on the southwest corner of the building, and they are gorgeous, providing a place to rest from the [...]

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Gardens on a Stick

I won’t be showing a prize pig (as Will Rogers did in the 1933 version of State Fair) or competing in contests for flower growing, jam making, or artwork made of dried beans, but the Minnesota State Fair is always worth a visit.  Thursday evening, I’ll be hanging out at the state horticulture society booth, [...]

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Bloom Tuesday No. 16: August Hues

The color of August is yellow. Yellow corn. Ripening grasses waving yellow/tan tassels instead of green. The vivid, gaudy yellows of black-eyed Susans and tall rudbeckia. During these dry days of August, what looks best in my garden is yellow, especially these tall rudbeckia in the wildflower meadow and the pretty, butter yellow nasturiums [...]

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Minnesota Midget for Breakfast

This morning I harvested my first Minnesota Midget melon and ate half of it for breakfast. The University of Minnesota introduced this vintage melon in 1948. Bred specifically for our short growing season, it has fruits about 4 inches across and ripens in 70 days. Mine may have taken longer to get ripe because I [...]

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I Spotted a Monarch

I did not have my camera with me, but I spotted a monarch in my front garden yesterday afternoon. It’s perhaps the third one I’ve seen this year, compared to dozens in a normal year. The prevailing theory about the monarch shortage is that it is weather related–cold spring, dry summer.

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Bloom Tuesday No. 15: Rebloomers and Volunteers

As summer marches on, some perennials are reblooming. At left, a bumblebee goes crazy over the flowers of catmint (Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’). I blogged about this plant’s blooms back in Bloom Tuesday No. 10. After the first blooms faded, I cut it back to about 6 inches tall and it is blooming again.
I’m also seeing [...]

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Butterfly Numbers Down?

A surprise encounter with the fellow at left and a recent post on GreenGirls, the Star-Tribune’s entertaining garden blog, got me thinking about butterflies and caterpillars recently. The Green Girls note that butterfly numbers appear to be down in their gardens. While I’ve seen butterflies recently–mostly white ones, but a few monarchs as well–I have [...]

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Bloom Tuesday, No. 14

The plants that we connect more closely with fall are starting to gain size and get ready to bloom. I have two cultivars of sedum, ‘Autumn Joy’ (left) and ‘Maestro’ (right) that are forming the plump heads that will change color dramatically between now and November. Using trees, shrubs, and perennials to extend fall color [...]

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Currant Picking and Another Recipe

Back in February, my husband and I won a weekend at a cabin on Lake Pepin at the St. Dominic School Silent Auction. This past weekend, we spent a delightful couple of days on the bluffs above the lake, visiting Frontenac State Park, watching the sailboats come into the harbor at Lake City, and picking [...]

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