Tulip Identified and the Purple Ones Emerge

I’ve got to start reading my own stuff more carefully! The mysterious yellow tulips that I forced recently have been identified: They are called Daydream, and if you are looking for a tulip to brighten up your yard or house, this variety would be great. The identity of the tulip was listed in the blog [...]

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An Early Spring?

Last week’s warm weather seems to have jump started some plants. On Saturday, I noticed that the first of the Scilla siberica, a.k.a., squill in my front yard had emerged. This one not only has a few leaves, but  tiny buds. For reference, I posted on this same topic last spring — on April 4 [...]

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More About the Forced Tulips

Arghh! I am just kicking myself for not making a note of what kind of tulips these yellow/apricot ones are. I bought them out of the bins at the Farmers Seed and Nursery store in Faribault last fall. (Farmers Seed has a huge bank of bins of bulbs to choose from.) I bought a bag [...]

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It’s a Major Award

Yesterday I received word that one of my blog posts had earned a Silver Award in the Garden Writers Association’s annual media awards. The post is self-described as “A rambling discourse written over several days about dried beans, home gardens, and the creative impulse.”
The post was entered in a relatively new category for electronic [...]

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Thank You for Blooming

I’m feeling grateful toward this pot of forced tulip bulbs that has started to bloom despite being terribly mistreated this winter.
Forcing bulbs or branches is a fun way to bring spring color into your home while it’s still cold outside. I wasn’t planning to force bulbs this year, but while planting bulbs this fall, I [...]

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So Many Ideas, So Little Space

Here’s the problem with going to garden events, such as those I attended this weekend: You get so many ideas that you have to think about adding more space. Maybe I’ll expand my front gardens and add one of the hardy shrub roses Kathy Zuzek recommended, such as ‘Lillian Gibson’ or ‘Harrison Yellow‘. No, wait, [...]

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Tulips Peeking and Other Signs of Spring

The signs of spring are mounting. I’ve noticed several types of birds have returned to our yard — robins and a funny blue jay who was trying to pull seeds from a sunflower I left standing over the winter. The flower’s head is nodded over, and the jay perched on the top of it, bending [...]

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Extreme Small Space Gardening

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the bean plants that started growing in two very small pots on my kitchen counter. They flowered not long ago and today I noticed the bean to your left. There are about four of them on the plant, which is wandering all over the small space behind my [...]

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A Busy Weekend for Gardeners

As parts of Minnesota recover from a March blizzard and the rest of us wonder why the temperatures are more like January than March, it’s good to have something to look forward to — such as a weekend packed with garden activities. March is the month of classes and hort days in Minnesota.
Saturday I’ll be [...]

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Best Books for Beginning Vegetable Gardeners

Last week, a newbie vegetable gardener e-mailed me for some information about the Vegetable Gardening 101 class I took at Just Food Co-op a few weeks ago. She was looking for a similar class in the Twin Cities and also asked if I had a reading list for new vegetable gardeners. I don’t, but it [...]

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